Hopefully by now you are getting more comfortable with the new Facebook timeline. If not, you will soon be left in the dust as everyone learns the ropes and you stay in your “bitter for change” state of mind.

If you don’t want to get left behind then I suggest you listen up.

I often visit Facebook fan pages to see what is working and what is not. There have been 3 common mistakes that I see when it comes to using your Facebook fan page to market your blog or business.

Here are 3 mistakes that hurt your Facebook fan page and how you can fix them:

1. I can’t find the link to your website?

I know this one sounds absurd, but it is true. Have you ever been surfing around Facebook, stumble upon a page that may interest you, and then try to click over to their blog/website but you can’t find the link?

It happens more often than you think. Facebook allows you to list your website under the “contact info” section. But guess what? I would have to actually click on the “about” tab to get to the contact info.

Don’t you want to make it as EASY as possible for people to find your website?

After all, isn’t that one of the main reasons for using a fan page to market your blog. The best advice I have is to list your website on the main page right underneath the thumbnail image.

If you are listing it on your personal page than you can put the link to your blog’s fan page.

Here is an example of how I have listed a link on my personal Facebook page directing people to my House of Rose Facebook fan page.

You will need to list your blog URL as your employer if you are wanting it to show up as the first line in your “about” section. I titled mine “Author at House of Rose”.

The secondary employers or blogs (such as Dollars and Roses) will not show up on your main page so it is important that you make the primary employer the link to your blog fan page that you are wanting to direct readers to.

Once they pop over to my House of Rose Facebook fan page it is important that you put the actual URL to your website under the thumbnail image.

Do not assume that people will “know” your blog’s URL. We don’t. Just make it easy for us by listing it so that we can easily click right on over.

Note: Make sure you put the full URL: http://www.yourblogname.com. If you leave out the “http://” it will not be a clickable link.

2. Your cover photo needs to be 851 x 315 pixels

You need to make sure that you are resizing your photo so that it fits these dimensions. No one likes to see a stretched photo that doesn’t fit correctly.

Facebook IS allowing you to put up a HUGE cover photo and it is a great way to showcase products you sell, books you write, kids you own. 😉 But, they do have some restrictions.

Here are a few things that Facebook says “no-no” to when it comes to your cover photo:

3. You’re not engaging yet you expect people to engage with you

This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Over and over I get emails from bloggers asking me how they can grow their blog using social media. One common misconception is that people will just comment on your Facebook page or “like” your Facebook page “just because”.

Wrong. You have to be engaging with readers. Commenting on other people’s Facebook fan pages. Liking their status updates or links to great articles. You have to engage to get engaged. Make sense?

It takes effort. And time. It also doesn’t happen overnight. You need to be consistent and genuine.

Stop believing that you are going to go to bed with 10 Facebook fan page likes and wake up with 10,000. That doesn’t happen…unless your just that cool. But, typically, even the big bloggers will admit that they did not get 10,000+ Facebook likes overnight.

Start engaging.