does it help your business?

Yes. I've booked several party cakes through my connections on there.

We just started a facebook page today. Hopefully it will help with ours, but we are a restaurant and bar that offers full service catering and now custom cakes. For us it will be a way to let our "fans" keep up with entertainment, specials, etc. and gives them another way to initiate contact if they are interested in catering or have other questions. It's only been up for a few hours and we have 27 fans, so it looks like the word is getting out. We'll see about whether or not it helps on bringing in business in time.

I have a facebook page and don't know what i would do without it! I would prob say that at least half of my business comes from facebook! And the best part is that it's FREE ADVERTISING!!

I have a FB fan page and I LOVE it! It helps me so much in getting free advertising. It also allows me to notify of scheduling issues.

Best bit of advertising I have EVER done, and it didn't cost me a dime!

Wow! That's good to know!

It has helped me a lot too, although I have gotten a few emails from people who want to order a cake and have it shipped! haha!

I've had a facebook fan page for a while and get a LOT of business from it. Great free advertising!

Yes I do..... just got it up last week!

I've gotten alot of people interested in my cakes through Facebook. People that didn't know I did them can find out through my status updates or to look through the gallery. You can also create a fan page where you can post things exclusive to your business like specials you have that week or times you might be gone on vacation etc.

I have one too! It's great for referrals too. You have one fan who makes comments about how awesome their cake was then their friends fan you and before you know it you have a ton of business!

I did a page and wasn't getting much because of it until I posted that for the first 25, 50, and 75 fans I would do a drawing and give them 10% off an order or a free dozen cookies! And now I am up to 72 fans!! It is great because I've noticed there are a lot of people that I don't know but other people I do know has suggested my site to them!! Great idea and it is FREE!!!!

I'm in the process of setting mine up now. I'm opening a cupcake truck business (like Cupcake Stop, Buttercream Philadelphia, etc) here in my city, and I'm hoping Facebook will be a big thing for me since I'm in a big college town. I also plan on using Twitter too to update my stops and let people know where they can find me in town.

My FB page has almost 700 fans, and honesty, it accounts for probably 75% of my business. You should definitely have one!

I agree, Facebook has helped me alot! Free advertising is always the best.

I use facebook as well. It is a great way to inform your fans of different techniques that you are using...trends in cakes, etc. I really enjoy keeping in touch with everyone in this forum. Also, your friends can forward your page to their friends, and them onto theirs. Try it!

Facebook changed the face of my business!!!I've got lots of biz thru facebook and its brought a lot of awareness to people who never knew what I did. I've made cakes for people I've not seen in over 10-20yrs and its simply incredible the reach you can get thru facebook .Advertising is free and truly its a must have for most businesses today.

My daughter put some of my cakes up on facebook and it went from there. I have 99% of my business from facebook and they'll all referrals now. Here's what else we did. Say we had jenny as a friend. we would go and invite her friends. The circle just gets bigger and bigger. it's amazing. I have over 1,000 friends.

I have a facebook page, but haven't done much with it yet. Everyone's responses are telling me to get off my butt and start making it work!

cookiemeister everything you make is so great, you should get out there. people will really go crazy over yours

Oh, thanks Pattycakes! That's so sweet.

I came across this today http://apps.facebook.com/wedding_planner/?_fb_fromhash=0b092f2517d29781d813703dff7b29c0

My friend has her photography on there and she said that its like a bridal gold mind! Just got my profile on it. Hope it works!

Do any of you know what they mean on facebook promote with ad?

You pay per click. You can set a max amount of $$ you want to spend on it, and once it reaches that amount the ad is done for the day. So for example you set a daily max of $5 with $.50 a click. They only charge you if someone clicks on your ad, and once your ad has been clicked 10 times it will be inactive for the rest of the day. The more you pay the more frequent your ad will be shown.

I just tried to check a few of you out on facebook...is anyone else having trouble signing in, or is it just meÉ
Oh! And look! I seem to have lost my question marks, and my `quote`marks.

I`m thinking perhaps a computer gremlin...

Thanks, Tubbs! I did the old standby...I turned it off, and then back on. Magic! However, it still didn't fix my facebook issues. What is the fun in staying home sick if I can't play on facebook?!!

maybe this might help others. I create albums of cake pics and people can go through the albums and get ideas, inspiration, etc. Of course no charge from Facebook for that.

You can create an event too. To do that, it's on the right hand side also. You can say whatever directing them to your photo albums or website, etc. What's good about an event is that you can send it to all your friends' wall page.