One quick tip for using Facebook for business

Day 18 of 30-day blog challenge. Read day 17: “Keyword research”

Today’s blog will be short, simple and sweet. Apparently more people than I would have otherwise realized do NOT know about the “other” inbox on Facebook. Most of the people who do freelance or some form of independent business–even if it is just supplementing a main source of income, use Facebook to network. Not everyone even bothers with an official Facebook Page for business (and honestly, depending on your business I don’t necessarily recommend a Page because of Facebook’s algorithm changes that make reach almost impossible).

Be aware of the ‘other’ inbox

My one simple piece of advice is for anyone doing any kind of business networking to know about the “other inbox.” Facebook created this inbox as a way to control unsolicited spam. That’s appreciated, certainly, but the other inbox is easy to forget about. Even as I know about it, I forget to check it. And it matters because it’s entirely possible to have a profile set to private, where you don’t want to network with everyone and their cousin, yet you still want to teach guitar lessons or have someone interested in your photography book a session.

As recently as today my husband told me he had messages in the “other inbox” on his Facebook profile. He generates most of his income from teaching guitar lessons as an independent contractor associated with local music stores, but he would not turn away an online student.

Again another friend of mine, who makes the bulk of her income as a freelance photographer, recently realized she’d lost possible jobs because she simply didn’t know about this “other inbox.”

Business Pages have an inbox too

If your business does have an official Facebook Page where you conduct your online networking and services or products, don’t forget about its inbox too. Just because you link to your main website or include a contact email on the Facebook Page, people can still email you directly through Facebook Pages. You may or may not get an email notification – and you can lose business by not responding in a timely manner.