When it comes to your business’ Facebook page, you will need to pull out all of the stops in order to really dazzle people. In this post, we’re going to look at five things you can do to make your brand shine on Facebook beyond just standard updates.

1) Make a branded Timeline cover photo

Just because Facebook has some rules on what you can or can’t use in the Timeline cover photo for your page doesn’t mean you don’t have the room for good branding. Your timeline cover photo is probably the first impression people will have of your page - make it a good one that can (if possible) explain your brand quickly and easily at a glance.

2) Introduce your business in the About information

You will have about 165 to 170 characters for your About description to make it fit on the front of your profile (the exception to this are local business pages where local information is shown instead of About details). This should be a succinct description of your business - think of it like a web page’s meta description tag! If you can fit your website link in that About blurb, definitely do so as it might bring you more clickthroughs to your website.

3) Create unique content in custom tabs

Everyone’s Facebook page is going to look a bit similar. The only area you can add customization to is within the custom content tabs. Facebook gives you 12 slots - two to three of them will be taken by your number of likes, photos, and videos. The other nine are yours to customize as you please. Some types of custom content you could use includes the following:

Welcome Tabs - This is simply custom content that you create to welcome new visitors to your Facebook page. If your target audience is not very social media savvy, you can always use this tab to introduce your business and let visitors know how they can interact with your page. By offering simple explanations of what you want your visitors to do, you will get more people who actually do what you want them to.

Like-Gates - (also known as Reveal Tabs), Like-Gates are custom content tabs that allow people to 'hide' content from visitors until they 'like' the page. These tabs are not as popular now that you can’t set them as the first part of the Facebook page that new visitors will see, but you can always name them in a clever way to encourage even non-fans to check them out. As you can see in the example above, North Social encourages fans to click on their apps by having a game, sweepstakes, and an exclusive right up top.

Discounts/Coupons - If you want to offer your fans special discounts and coupons, what better place to put them than on your custom content tabs? Especially if you have physical stores and fans would need to print them out!

Other Social Content - Want to cross-promote your Twitter or Pinterest updates with your Facebook fans? You can with custom content tabs running applications that will pull your other social network updates into your Facebook page.

Blog Posts - One of the best ways to promote your blog posts is by posting the links to new posts on your wall. The next best way would be to use an application that pulls in your latest blog posts based on your blog’s RSS feed.

Videos - While you can upload videos directly to Facebook, there’s a good chance you already have a video library on YouTube. Certain applications can allow you to display your YouTube videos on your Facebook page so fans can view them without leaving your page.

Sweepstakes - Facebook has a lot of rules about Promotions (see Section III Part E). You can run them by partnering with an approved application provider and build your fan base by giving away products or services on your page.

Shopping Carts - Why have fans leave your page to do their shopping when they can do it on your Facebook page? Sell anything from physical products to tickets to an event without losing your fans in between your page and your website.

So how can you add custom content to your Facebook page’s tabs? There are three ways you can go:

1. Create the content yourself through the use of HTML and iFrames. There are lots of great tutorials out there that can guide you through the process if you have some coding experience, like this post on How to Build a Facebook Landing Page with iFrames
2. Hire a Facebook consultant or developer to create custom content for you. Facebook has a Preferred Marketing Developer Directory available to help you find experienced developers for your needs.
3. Use a provider who offers applications for your custom content tabs. Some companies offer free apps, others have premium apps that go for a one-time fee or monthly subscription. Examples include North Social Involver Woobox, Pagemodo and Inline Vision

4. Showcase company highlights as milestones

On your personal profile, you can enter Life Events that relate to your work, education, family, relationships, health, travel, or home. For your business page, you can enter Milestones that will help your fans learn more about the history of your organization. Enter the date that your company was founded, opened its first franchise location, was bestowed an impressive award, or other major achievement.

5. Emphasize updates with highlighted and pinned posts

Tell your fans which updates are most important by using the options to pin or highlight them. Pinning will bump any status update on your timeline up to the top left and keep it there until you unpin it.

Highlighting your status updates, on the other hand, will stretch them out across both columns of your page’s wall. This is a great way to make status updates stand out when visitors are scrolling through your page.

By using the five above mentioned things on your Facebook page you will give your visitors and fans the ultimate Facebook experience as well as the best impression of your brand! And be sure to update your page regularly - the Timeline design is not forgiving when it comes to gaps in status updates!

In Wordtracker's "Blogging for Business" you will learn:

• Why your business needs a blog (yesterday!)
• The biggest pitfalls of blogging — and how to avoid them
• How to build a following of faithful blog subscribers
• Proven tips for converting your blog traffic into actual sales

About Kristi Hines

Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, professional blogger, and social media enthusiast who enjoys photography, tennis, and hiking. Her blog, Kikolani, covers blog marketing and blogging tips for personal, professional, and business bloggers. Join her on Google+