How to Use Notes Function on a Facebook Page as Your Blog

Using the Notes function of a Facebook Page (formerly a fan page) can provide you with an alternative to getting a hosted blog at Blogger.com or WordPress.com (not the same as a self-hosted WordPress blog).

Although in all of these cases you don't have the benefit of owning your blog, you do have a large advantage in using a Facebook Page rather than another hosted blog site.

This is because the title of your Facebook Page is searchable inside and outside Facebook plus you are on a site that currently has over 500 million members.

Once you have set up an effective Facebook Page (where people now "like" your Page), here is how to add a Note, which can be a blog post.

When you are signed into your Facebook account and on your Facebook Page, click on the Notes tab. (If the Notes tab doesn't show, click on the >> and you'll get a dropdown and then click on Notes.)

Then click on "Write a Note."

Now if you are going to actually use this as a blog post, I recommend you first write the post in Word. Then review your post for spelling, grammar, etc.

Do NOT copy and paste directly into the Note field. First put your Word copy through a program such as Notepad that strips out the unseen Word coding. Then paste the copy from Notepad into the Note field.

When you do this, you'll have to put back the spaces between paragraphs as well as any boldfacing or other instructions you added to your Word doc.

Type your title in the title field – think keywords.

Now add tags (also think keywords) in the tags field of your Note.

Add a photo if you wish.

Preview the Note and, if correct, hit Publish.

You'll see that this new Note will automatically feed into the wall of your Facebook Page besides being on the Notes tab.

And each new Note you do is on top of the Notes stream in the same way that each new blog post is on top of a blog post stream.

To post this link on Twitter:

Click on the title of the Note the same way you would click on the title of a post to get the permalink of that post.

Then copy that long URL into a URL shortener such as bit.ly (do get an account so you can track your clicks) and you can tweet the shortened URL.

Plus if you have set up the selective Twitter option available on your LinkedIn profile, you can add #in at the end of your tweet and automatically update your LinkedIn profile.

Remember: The first step to using your Facebook Page as a blog is to carefully choose the title of your Facebook Page as this is in effect the title of your blog. (Once you have 100 people who "like" your Page you cannot change the title.)

If you would like help setting up an effective Facebook Page, Miller Mosaic can do this for you.

And you might also like to read the post "New Hyper Alerts Application Helps With Facebook Page Decision"

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...