If you're like about 5 million so other people, you have a Facebook account. And while you probably enjoy using it to see your old friends and gossip about your new ones, that social media giant is proving to be a great asset for many businesses as well.

Because, let's face it, while five million customers have registered to use Facebook, doesn't it stand to reason that at least a few of them could be potential customers?

Social media isn't just to be sociable on, after all; part of society is business.

So here's a few ways to use Facebook to help your business succeed:

1. Build a fan page. This differs from a personal page in that it allows a lot more functionality than your personal page does. If you're an artist, you can showcase your work. If you're a musician, you can include a music player. In other words, you can add the functions to your page that will attract your potential customers. A fan page will also allow people to “like” what you've put up without you having to approve each of them. When your fans start numbering in the thousands, you'll appreciate the time you've saved!

2. Make sure to include, in your profile, some catchy tags that will help people find your business. Let's say someone wants a plumber in Syracuse, New York. If you build a complete profile that includes those tags, your potential customers will find you.

3. Keep your pages up to date. This means adding status updates on a daily basis that let potential customers know what you're doing, and allowing your page's visitors to comment on your status updates. This does NOT mean to constantly update your status so much that people start hitting the ignore button, or even worse, so that they report you for spamming.

4. Stay current. If you don't have time to do this yourself, hire someone to do it for you. It's important to keep that page interesting, or people won't hit the “like” button for it.

5. Keep an eye on your page. You need to do this so spammers don't start putting comments that you don't want anyone to see. After all, if you have a day care, do you want to have someone posting links to their own adult website there? Remember, people can be ignorant. Don't let them.

6. Make some offers now and then. Recently, Clairol offered coupons every day for a week for a limited number of coupons for a free box of their newest hair color. Thousands of hopeful people logged in hoping to get one of those coupons. That's great traffic.

7. Let people know you're on Facebook. This means including that news on your blog, or giving a Facebook link through a website widget so people can easily find your page. Don't forget to put a “like us on Facebook” announcement, along with a web link, on your paid print or television advertising.

8. And last but not least, consider buying some advertising on Facebook. That's those little ads off to the sides of the pages. Even if you don't have a fan page, those ads will lead clickers to your website or business, and they pop up on the sides of pages when certain key words are mentioned. For example, if some friends are talking about the new shoes they've bought, ads will come up selling shoes. Those ads do get clicked on; some get incredible traffic.

Let's face it, Facebook is a giant and it's just getting bigger. If you're not a part of it yet, you're passing up an incredible source of revenue.