Facebook provides features that help you to customize your status updates. Learn how to mention another Facebook business page (or profile) and provide a link in your status update. You can also filter who sees each status update by geography and language. You can also create a Facebook ad to promote a single status update to help you gain new fans and potential customers.

• Before You Start: You have a Facebook business page.
• Learning Level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated: Sunday, December 4, 2011

Link To Another Person or Page

You can mention another person or business page in your Facebook status and provide a link to that person or business. Here’s how to do it.

Type your status as usual. When you want to mention the person or business, type @ followed by their name. As you type, Facebook goes through your friends and pages you like to find matches. When the person or page appears in the list, you can either keep typing the full name, or click on the name in the list. Either way, Facebook knows whom you want to tag in your status update.

Facebook displays the person or page name minus the @. Everyone who sees your status report (or reads it on your wall) can click to see that person’s page or profile.

Here’s a few ways to use this:

• Promote your business page from your personal profile.
• Share good news about another business with your community.
• Share a community page (topic or industry page) with your community.

In March 2011, Facebook expanded the tagging feature so you can tag others in comments. In addition, when you use Facebook as your page, you can tag other businesses in your status updates. This makes tagging a great tool for businesses.

Filter Who Sees Your Facebook Status

If you do business in more than one country, or you post updates in more than one language, Facebook can help you reach the right group of fans for each status update. You can customize who can see each update by country and by language.

Type your status update as usual. Before you click Share, select the privacy option next to Share (the default show up as Everyone). Choose Customize. Facebook displays the Choose Your Audience pop-up window. You can:

• Select one or more countries. Type the name of the country until it appears in the list, and click the country name in the list. You can narrow down the audience to a specific region or city within each country.
• Select one or more languages. Type the name of the language until it appears in the list, and click the language name.

Here’s a few ways to use this:

• You have a promotion that is only available to customers in a specific state or city.
• You provide status updates in multiple languages and want to only send status updates in the appropriate language for your fans.
• You do business in several countries and have news that only relates to one or more countries.

Create An Ad To Promote Your Status Update

After you click Share and your status update appears on your wall, you can choose to promote this status update through the Facebook ad system.

Locate the status update you want to advertise. Click Promote. Facebook displays the Promote Your Post pop-up window. Click Create Ad and Facebook takes you to a page where you can define your ad. Facebook ads are a great way to reach potential customers on Facebook, and they allow you to target specific customers using many filters. Follow the instructions to define you ad, set the budget for your campaign, and start running your ad.

Here’s a few ways to use this:

• You write a status update that links to your blog or website about a promotion you are running.
• You write a status update about a new service or product you are releasing.
• You feel that a status update would bring you customers if you had a way to share it with a larger audience.

Your turn: Have you used these or other Facebook status update features to customize your message for your online community? Share you experience and insights here.

Related Articles:

• Understanding Facebook Accounts
• Manage Your Facebook Event
• Get A Custom Facebook Web Address (Username)
• Facebook Places and Your Business
• Use Facebook As Your Page