In the movie Field of Dreams Kevin Costner kept hearing voices.
He was a simple corn farmer running into tough times and to make matters worse the corn field kept telling him to build a baseball field.
When he finally gives in to the voices and builds a baseball field in his corn field he appears even more insane as it sits empty! Thankfully after sometime and drama he is rewarded with baseball players from the past coming to play on his field.
Maybe you are hearing the voices right now.
Countless friends, co-workers, and even your competition might be telling you to "build your fan page and customers will come".
If you just jump right and hope you people will come you might be looking like Kevin Costner without the happy ending.
Launching a business fan page on Facebook without a plan is much the same as putting a baseball field in a corn field...
just crazy! To get the most from your fan page in the largest of social networks without the help of ghosts I invite you to consider the following:

1. Building a Brand or Generating Leads? - This is one of the first decisions that will give you a clear path on where to go.
   If you are a clothing company, brewer, or extreme sport company you can probably get away with just branding.
   If you are a small business owner you might want to focus on a lead generation strategy.
   Deciding what your focus will be will give you a direct path and plan on what to do when developing your fan page and how to market it when it is live.
   
2. How Are You Going To Bring A Rush of "Friends"? - Without consider how you will bring people to your fan page you will be like Kevin Costner sitting in an empty stadium.
   Most business owners think their only option is Facebook Advertising but this couldn't be farther from the truth.
   Consider putting into action email marketing, cross marketing your fan page from your blog or website, and even letting customers know as they come to your physical location how they can connect with you.
   Getting new "friends" to join you requires a balanced strategy.
   
3. Make It A Daily Habit - Generating sales and building a stronger brand won't happen in 5 minutes.
   Part of a successful fan page strategy is making it a daily habit of marketing.
   Just 15 minutes a day is enough to release new status updates, upload photos, and comment back to "friends" of your business.
   Blocking just a small amount of time will keep you far ahead of your competition.
   

Thankfully building a fan page isn't as expensive as putting a baseball diamond in a corn field.
You can get up and running quickly and affordably.
Most importantly though is to not just hope people will come to your fan page.
Putting simple strategies into action will keep new "friends" coming daily and get interactions from your existing prospects.