Facebook is an impressive social media website and, most importantly, a website which we can use to find new prospects for our businesses, virtually for free.

Ranked as the world's second most popular website (behind Google) by Alexa.com, Facebook boasts more than 350 million active users with the fastest growing demographic being (apparently) 35 years and older.

Facebook Marketing is a great way to attract new customers for your business, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do it.

When marketing on any social media website, the No. 1 rule is Be yourself.

Be as transparent and as honest as you can be. Social media networking is no different from any social activity and no different to any other way you might go about meeting new people and new potential clients.

Facebook is a great place to associate and it opens different ways in which you can promote yourself, your character and your business, but don't shove your products and services in peoples' faces - no-one likes a bore!

Here's some good places to begin:

1. Your profile page
Your profile page is where you begin to brand yourself. Upload a good photo of yourself and put some details regarding you and only you. Your focus should not be on your business. This is about people and it's about people building relationships with you. So don't spend a lot of time talking about your business on your profile. Write about your friends, your family, what makes you unique, how you spend your time, what your hobbies are. In short, tell people about what you're passionate about.

2. Photos and Videos
Show people the kind of life you lead by adding photos from your own collection. The more people see the real you, the more transparent, honest and open you will appear. If you have the time and the resources, create a short video too welcoming people to your profile.

3. Birthdays
Look, this isn't some cheesy "send everyone a birthday card" type tactic for making people like you. I hate that stuff and I hate it when people do it to me. Bottom line is, if this isn't you - if it isn't the sort of thing that you do - then don't do it. But, do you know what? It's a nice thing to do, so have a think about it. People like it when you remember them and they like it when you bother to pay attention to them, but as with all things it needs to be transparent and it needs to be honest so if it's not in your character or personality to remember birthdays, don't force it. It will appear false because, well, it will be false!

If you do decide to do this, turn on the Facebook notification for birthdays and you'll be sent an email notifying you of upcoming birthdays for the following week.

4. The Wall
The wall is a hugely popular item in Facebook and is there for you to leave messages, links, videos for others and so on. It's a great way to connect to your friends (and prospects). Use this as regularly as you can and, if you're doing a lot of Social Media Marketing, then make sure you use Facebook Connect and automatically publish web content you post elsewhere to your Facebook profile as much as you can.

If you really want to make the most of Facebook, subscribe to our monthly newsletter where we'll regularly be featuring tips and ideas on how to make the most from the world's premier social networking platform.