First off, yes, it’s important that you have a Facebook fan page. It’s best not to use your personal page as your primary branding spot on Facebook. After all, your customers don’t want to see your baby photos or drunken moments, right? And your family and friends should be able to opt in to your personal life while opting out of your business feed. What’s more, fan pages are searchable on Google and other major engines, so are immensely better for SEO and general visibility purposes. So build a fan page, and use your brand name as your username and vanity URL. Doing this will make it easier both for searchers to find your page and increase your page’s ranking in Google. Be very careful when creating these two crucial elements, as they’re pretty much impossible to change.

Fill out your info page and don’t forget the About box. Many people visit info tabs on fan pages, so make your text there to the point and engaging. It’s a great opportunity to tell people what you’re all about. Be sure to include important keywords as well as your brand name wherever possible. Also, the small About box on your wall page is a great place to stash a link to your homepage or blog. Type in a full URL, http and all, and Facebook will convert it to a clickable link.

Create a custom landing page. This is an awesome option for developers. It’s not really an SEO concern, but I’m throwing it in here because it can do a lot for branding on Facebook. Using the Static FBML application (which you can find in the Applications section of your page edit options, or by searching for it), you can make a mini website for your brand within Facebook. There are some great tutorials out there on how to do this.

Link to your Facebook page. All of your social media profiles, official websites and other brand spots on the web should be as interconnected as possible. Link your Facebook page to your blog, your homepage, your email signature–everywhere you can think of. This will strengthen your brand presence and help you to fill out the SERP for your brand with your own presence.