Facebook for business, marketing, professional development

Facebook: it's all about you—yes you—and us too!
You probably write or manage content of some sort, like most Contented readers, and that's certainly a big part of what we do here at Contented. By now, we're all aware that content includes everything on social media sites and social intranets. So you are probably writing stuff for Twitter or an inhouse microblog, and you may be involved with a Facebook page for a company, organization or interest group. If not, you are starting to feel twitchy every time somebody says this:

'You should be on Facebook!'
The reasons are undeniable. A Facebook page quickly improves search results, bringing many more people to your web site. Facebook is the favourite playground for millions who use it for most online activities. And while Facebook numbers may be declining, they're still in the multimillions.

We need to be competent on Facebook
To function in a digital world, most professionals ought to be competent in the Facebook environment. They need to understand the culture and write appropriately, knowing the opportunities and also the dangers. People who need to understand Facebook include:

• business owners
• teachers, lecturers, professors
• bloggers, anyone in corporate communications
• online marketers
• technical writers
• HR staff and consultants
• all staff in organizations with a social intranet.

We blog, we tweet. But for various reasons, we have been wary of entering Facebook despite knowing we should for strategic business purposes. Last Sunday we finally took the plunge and launched a Facebook page for Contented. We now volunteer as guinea pigs on your behalf!

Discussions, Q & A, new products and special offers
We see our Facebook page as a useful and entertaining place for people who love to write, hate to write or have to write. We'll be on tap to answer questions about writing, join in discussions, and help solve problems. Polls and contests will inform and inspire us all, we hope. And you can keep up with new courses as they are released, and occasional special offers.

Learn alongside us about Facebook strategy
Facebook.com/writing.skills will be a safe place to learn about writing for Facebook and other social media. Just watch what we do and how others respond: you know we're new to Facebook so we are bound to make mistakes, bound to have some struggles.

If you are also new to Facebook, you can surely learn a great deal from writing on our wall and joining in the conversation.

If you're already at home in Facebook, we will certainly welcome your advice. Please teach us and help us!

The power of the Like button
You see it everywhere. Good idea to be wary, but on the Contented Facebook page, the button won't bite you.

To keep in touch, to post on the wall, to enter our first photo contest, you need to hit that Like thumb on our Facebook page.

Go on. You know you want to!