You, or someone in your home or office, Facebooks. Maybe you’ve taken the “What color is your personality test” or posted the highest Pathwords score among your friends. Don’t be ashamed to admit it – you and 200 million of your closest friends are feverishly clicking away approving friend requests, becoming fans of TV shows and joining the group determined to make Ultimate Frisbee an Olympic sport.

All of this sharing and viral networking can be put to good use for your business. The line between personal and professional blurs more with every social interaction. The point of Facebook IS connection and so it provides a handy way to see and be seen by your peers, your customers and even your competitors. Status updates generate comments, which prompt conversations, which builds or reinforces relationships. These interactions help establish and build your personal brand.

Put Pages to work for your business
Facebook offers Pages as a way for your company to have its own social network presence. By building a Page for your business, you join in the conversation. The open sharing among Facebook users paves the way for brands to engage with existing and future customers. Here’s a quick down and dirty example. Beeline Buses creates a Page promoting their business. Sue, a customer of Beeline Buses, becomes a fan of their Page. Sue’s 543 friends on Facebook see she’s a fan of Beeline Buses. Joe, one of Sue’s friends, becomes a fan of Beeline Buses too. Joe’s 678 friends see he’s a fan of Beeline Buses. You see how this chain continues in an almost infinite fashion?

Once folks have pledged their support by becoming a fan – the interaction fun begins. You can send out updates or create events and invite fans to attend. Fans can write on your wall, upload photos and videos to your Page, or participate in discussions with other fans. And anytime you update the status on your company’s Page, fans will be notified in their news feed.

And did we mention? Facebook is free?

We’ll stop here for now to prevent any sort of meltdown or overload. But you do have homework. Sign into your Facebook account and look around for some of your favorite brands. See how they’re engaging their fans. We’ll even give you a jumping off point: http://www.facebook.com/KJACommunicationsGroup. Take a look around, become a fan, write on our wall. Then let us know what you think about this whole Facebookin’ for business idea.

Be sure to join us back here next week, same time and channel. We’ll dive into some easy ways to use Facebook’s Pages for building and promoting your brand.