Looking for tips on how to set up your Facebook business page?
Our super quick guide to the structure, the process and the management of a good business presence Facebook.
If your business is not on Facebook, you’re missing out. The most popular social media network in the world now boasts 1.49 billion users active users, 890 million of whom log in at least once a day. Its advertising solutions allow businesses to target relevant audiences based on both interests and behaviors, for as little as $5 per day. Facebook isn’t new media or alternative media; it’s today’s mass media, and if you’re not on it, you’re not in the conversation.
But that’s okay. One of the great benefits of social media is that it’s easy, and usually free, to set up your business with a professional presence with just a few quick steps. To help you along with the big daddy of them all, here are a few tips for how to set up and optimize your Facebook business page.
1) The Structure
Facebook was designed to be a personal social media first, with business pages growing out from the original individual structure. That means you need a personal page on Facebook first, and then you can create a business page that is associated with your personal account. It seems a little tedious if you only want to use Facebook as a marketing tool, but this structure offers a couple of benefits: One, you can manage your page anytime you’re logged in to your personal account, and two, after creating the page you can assign multiple administrators, who can all make changes to the page.
2) The Process
After logging into your personal account, navigate to Facebook’s Create a Page. Here, you should select the type of organization and specific category you’re looking to represent. After entering your business name and address, you’ll be prompted to enter information in the “about” section. This should include a succinct, two-to-three sentence description of your business, along with a link to your website.
One step that is often overlooked, but absolutely crucial: The custom URL for your page. Be careful, because you can only change this once. Try to keep it as relevant to your business and as short as you can, because this is the link you and others will use to refer to your Facebook page (i.e. www.facebook.com/yourbusiness). It pays to claim the unique URL as early as you can.
When setting up your page, make it as visual as possible. Add a profile and cover picture to your page, ensuring that it represents your business while also making it as attractive as possible. Your logo may work as a profile pic. Your cover image is a larger photo that should represent your business – maybe a shot of your store front or a presentation of your products or even a scenic image that speaks to your business mission.
3) The Management
After your Facebook page is set up, you’re far from finished. Now, it’s time to start populating the page with content and attracting an audience.
Facebook employs an algorithm called “EdgeRank” to determine where your posts will be shown in the news feed of people who like you, taking into account metrics like engagement rate and link clicks. We’re not going into the details of the algorithm here, but suffice to say that you need to create content that creates as much engagement as possible. The more people like, share and comment on your posts, the more they will be shown to a wider audience. Generally, visually based posts (images and video) are the most successful on social media, so try to include an image or video with your posts. Facebook will automatically pull preview images from web links, but other posts may require you to upload a photo that helps to illustrate your post. You’ll also want to experiment different types of posts to see which are most engaging to your audience. Asking open-ended questions can be a useful technique, as well as posting conversation starters that elicit comments and responses from your audience. Remember: Be social. Social media is a conversation, not a lecture!
Regularity is also key. If you don’t post at least a couple of times per week, EdgeRank will categorize your page as less relevant and begin to stop showing your posts to your audience. Coming up with a content calendar is a great way to ensure you always have enough content to post, helping you stay on track even during slow weeks.
Need more help? Contact us for more information, or request a consultation to learn more about how we can help! You can also learn more about the fundamentals of Internet marketing in our new, free e-book: The Internet Marketing Foundation.