Facebook is the Number One Internet social network.

If you want to stay ahead of your competitors, it is essential that you know how to use Facebook to increase your Internet presence and to create as much business for yourself as possible.

With Facebook, you can quickly attract huge amounts of potential customers, introducing them to your brand and directing them to your website.

Read on to discover some useful ways to make Facebook work for your business.

Set up a Fan Page

A Fan Page is essential for anyone who wants to maximize their internet presence with Facebook.

Make sure that your Fan Page encourages interaction among Facebook users. For example, you can ask Facebook users their opinions about a new technology or about something that is happening in the news.

The more responses you receive, the more posts that will appear on the Walls of Facebook users, where they can be seen by their Friends, who will then have the opportunity to become your Fans as well.

To encourage interaction on your Fan Page, it is essential that your posts have a friendly tone, and that you post frequently (aim for 2 to 6 posts every day) to keep your fans interested.

Make sure that all of our posts are interesting and relevant, though. Don’t post just for the sake of posting, or you will just annoy your fans and maybe lose some of them.

You can increase your fan base by asking your customers to become Facebook Fans.

Contact the customers on your customer database and ask them to join your Fan Page on Facebook.

You can send an email to customers about becoming Fans on a regular basis.

If you produce a regular newsletter, make sure that each issue includes a request for the reader to become a Facebook Fan.

You can even include links to join Facebook on standard email forms, such as order confirmations.

Once you’ve gained a good number of Facebook Fans, you can use the Marketing section of the Fan Page Admin area to send your Fans emails promoting your website, product or service.  You can easily let all of your fans know about a new development, such as new product or an improvement in customer service.

Install Facebook Social Plug-ins on your Website.

There are several ways that you can tie your website to Facebook and so help your site to go viral.

You can place a Like button next to a product page on your website. This will allow visitors to share that page with all of their Facebook Friends

A Comments plug-in allows users to comment on your site and share their comments on their Facebook Wall.

The Registration button enables users to sign up to your website using their Facebook account.

Set up a Contest

Allowing Facebook Users to enter a contest or sweepstakes in order to win a prize is a great way to enhance your Facebook presence.

You can use the Admin section of your Fan page to email fans with news about sweepstakes and contests.

Advertise Your Business Through Facebook

Facebook Advertising is a great way for you to create a targeted marketing campaign.

With Facebook Advertising, you can target by age, gender or location, as you would with most targeted marketing campaigns, but you can also target by Likes and Interests.

So if you run a local music shop, for example, you can target people in your area who Like specific types of musical instruments.

You can track your clicks with an electronic tracking system, or send users who click on your Facebook ads to a special promotional page.

Payment for Facebook advertising can be based on cost per click or on cost per thousand ad impressions (CPM).

Advertise Your Facebook Fan Page

In addition to advertising your website, you can advertise for Facebook Fans. Facebook Fan advertising can be targeted just like other Facebook advertising.

Facebook Fans are believed to spend 300% more than non-fans, so advertising for Facebook Fans is an intelligent choice.

Be Prepared for Change

Facebook is constantly changing, so it is important to keep an eye out for the latest Facebook developments that can help you with your marketing and social media strategy.

Keep on top of news about Facebook and other Social Media, and be prepared to change your strategy as social media changes.