Customers who’ve recently got their websites up and running often know they want to promote their new site using social media (it’s free!), but they’re not sure where to begin. Where can they go where there’s a ready-made list of the people already rooting for their success? It’s a site of which many of them are already huge fans: Facebook.

Before you even begin the fairly simple task of building your company’s Facebook fan page, make sure your personal profile within Facebook is complete, including a fairly recent photo of you. Make it a headshot photo, nothing else. You might also post old photos of you that old friends would recognize but don’t use them as your profile photo.

Next, gather as many friends as you can. Use Facebook’s search function and seek out all the friends and family members you can think of who aren’t already in your Friends list. Facebook allows you to classify your friends into categories so you can message different categories of friends in different ways.

Now build the Facebook fan page for your business. Include product photos, photos of you, photos of your brick-and-mortar storefront if you have one, etc. Remember to include the link to your website and a good description of what you sell.

Once your Facebook fan page is complete, it’s time to make a few announcements to all your friends in this order: 1)Announce that you’ve started a great new business and tell them how excited you are about it. Tell them where your website is and provide a link. 2)The next day, announce the presence of the Facebook fan page for your business and invite your friends to become fans. 3)The next day, ask your friends to recommend your fan page to their friends. 4)Once a day, post an entry on your fan page. Don’t make it an ad, give your friends something useful like an interesting tidbit of info related to what you sell, or a link to a related article elsewhere on the Web. 5)Every few posts, try to post something that will get your fans to respond with a comment. Ask a question, or solicit opinions. Why? Because every time your friends comment on your fan page post, their friends see it. It’s a good way to build your fan base.

Remember to link your entries back to your website regularly. After all, you need to make money.

Once your Facebook presence is firmly established and you are maintaining it successfully, you can move on to other social media efforts.