How to Use Facebook as a Personal Branding & Marketing Tool

Image by http://i.telegraph.co.ukFacebook is the largest social networking site in the world.Facebookhas over a billion users worldwide. Almost everyone is on Facebook. From teenagers to baby boomers, people from all walks of life are using Facebook. In this post, I am going to discuss the basics of personal branding on Facebook.To sign up for an individual account you need to do the following:1 Provide your first and last name.2 Enter a valid email twice.3 Create a password4 Provide your date of birth to verify your age.To get started, you need to fill out the basic information section which includes the following information: your birthday, your sex, your relationship status and if you prefer men or women.The next step is to fill out your contact information. In this section, you can include links to your websites, blogs, and other social networks.Facebook also allows you to share your education and work experience. This is a great way to make your profile professional. To tell your story, make sure to fill out Facebooks about you section. This is a great place to tell your story. You can sell who you are and what you do.You can also create a timeline to tell your story. This is a new feature on Facebook. Make sure to upload a professional photo of yourself. Facebook also allows you to create photo albums. Make sure to upload photos that contain nothing embarrassing such as drinking or nudity. Remember you are trying to build your image here. Here is the link to my Facebook profile for you to see an example of what I have discussed so far.http://facebook.com/dgalantenycFacebook allows you to pick a custom URL to make it easier to find your profile.Now that your profile is set up, your next goal is to add friends to your Facebook account. You can do this as follows:1 Do a manual search for your friends.2 Upload your address book to see which of your contacts are on Facebook3 Send email invitations to people who are not on Facebook.When you find a contacts profile, click on the add friend button. When you click the add friend button. Facebook allows you to specify how you are connected with the person. I would also include a message with your friend request. Try to connect with people who you know well because if too many of your requests go unanswered, you will be blocked from adding friends. Also if people flag your request as spam, you will be blocked from sending messages. If you want to add more people, make sure that you share an interest with them. You can also subscribe to peoples updates even if you are not friends with them.Now that you have friends on Facebook, the next step is to post status updates. I would recommend posting interesting content you come across. This is also a great way to share your own content. Next, I would use your Facebook wall. The Facebook wall allows people to publically communicate on Facebook with one another. Also if you approve of a status update or comment, you can like them. Likes on Facebook serve as a social endorsement. You can look at my profile to see examples of my likes and people who have liked my content. http://www.facebook.com/dgalantenyc.Facebook pagesare also a great way for people and brands to promote their products and services.