Facebook is a powerful marketing tool for small business owners.
It's cost effective, reaches a large audience and provides opportunities for small businesses to engage with their clients and prospective customers.
But, we all already knew that.
:D However, most small business owners take a READY-FIRE-AIM approach when they start a Facebook marketing strategy.
It usually goes like this:

1. Small Business get's a Facebook page set-up
2. They spend time adding tabs, content and photos to complete the layout
3. Fueled by this accomplishment they get really excited to share the new Facebook page
4. They dig into their friend list and email contacts and start inviting people
5. The invited gets a "so-and-so suggests you like" notification in the email or on Facebook
6. Most invited people ignore the message because they get dozens a week
7. Small Business owner gets a little down because the Facebook page is getting no love
8. They try and stick with it, perseverance is key, right?
9. Weeks later the small business owner gives up
10. The Facebook page goes dark and looks cold - nobody interacts with it, ever.
    

What a bummer.
 You had the motivation, follow-thru and confidence that this was going to work.
 So much for social media, and just like that, you're now a non-believer.
I don't blame you either.
Decades of getting ripped off by the YellowPages, directories and small business advertising services have you a little skeptical.
Not to mention, this kind of marketing takes time to set-up, your time.
Time you could have spent actually working.
So what went wrong? Well, for starters, never mass email anyone, ever.
It's impersonal and looks desperate.
Sure, your close friends, family and support system will "like" your effort.
The rest of us, we get annoyed.
Nothing against you either.
It's just that we are already overwhelmed with requests like this, especially from Facebook.
So we ignore the request and go on about our day.
The other mistake is that you gave up way too early.
Even if you made the mistake of sending your Facebook page to the universe and got no response you're still better off than you were ZERO Facebook presence.
So here are a few tips to help you get things going organically.
It will take time, but this approach works over the long-haul.

1. Build your Facebook page and get it looking professional.
   
2. Find some content, either from your blog or from someone else's and share it on your small business page.
   
3. Login to your personal Facebook and share the link from your small business page on your wall - be sure to tag your business using the @ symbol.
   
4. Place the Facebook "like" button or "fan page" widget that Facebook provides on your blog/website to get people crossing over from there.
   
5. When you follow-up with customers/prospects/vendors for anything, include the Facebook link to your page in your email so they can get to it easily.
   

Try repeating these 5 simple-steps for about 30 days and see what happens.
 You should see a few more friends getting added each day.
Finally, don't get disappointed if you don't light the world on fire with hundreds of Fan's etc...
it's about quality not quantity.
You'd be better served having 100 Facebook friends that all love and serve as ambassadors for your small business than a few thousand who