Since the launch of Facebook business pages in 2007, companies and brands have been working hard to use the site as a way to build closer relationships with their fans and customers. If your company isn’t on Facebook yet, it’s not too late to get started. The social networking site is at the height of its popularity with over 1 billion monthly users, and it’s a great time to get on board the Facebook train. Creating a page is simple, and the benefit can be quite significant.
Creating Your Page
Step 1: Log into your Facebook account. In the left sidebar, click on the Pages section. Click the Create a Page button.
Step 2: Choose one of the six classifications for your page. Choose a category, input your business name, and fill in the contact information. Hit Continue.
Step 3: Begin typing out the category your business best fits into, and select one from the drop down list. Choose as many categories as apply to your business so that people can easily find you.
Step 4: Write a description that describes your business. This is a good place to use some keywords that will help you rank in search engine results. For instance, if you run Lotsa Dough Bakery in Juno, Alaska, you might want to include the keywords “Juno, Alaska bakery.” e.g., Lotsa Dough Bakery is a Juno, Alaska bakery specializing in artisan breads and pastries.
Step 5: Add any relevant links, including your website or Yelp Profile. Create a unique URL for your page that people will remember (Such as www.facebook.com/lotasadough). Hit Continue.
Step 6: Upload your profile picture and cover photo. These photos should usually include some combination of your company logo, pictures of your product, and other branding components. You can either upload the picture from your computer, or add a link from another website. Click Save Photo.
Step 7: Add the page to your Favorites menu if you’d like to easily access it later.
Attracting an Audience
The first thing you should do to attract an audience is to share your new page with all of your friends and colleagues who are already connected to you on Facebook. You can invite people from your admin panel, either directly or via the email contacts option. You should also add a “Find us on Facebook” button on the home page of your website. Include your Facebook URL in all of your advertising materials, including business cards, flyers, and guest blog posts.
Once you’ve done all of that, you might want to delve into paid methods for advertising your page. Promoted posts appear higher in the News Feeds of your audience, thus increasing the likelihood of them seeing it. You can also use ads to advertise the page itself to everyone, fans and non-fans alike. Facebook allows you to set a budget for your advertising campaigns, and they’re pretty inexpensive compared to other forms of advertising.
How To Use Your Admin Panel
Your admin panel is the control center for your page. You’ll find important information here about customer interaction, including notifications, insights, messages, and page promoting options.
When someone likes your page, comments, or otherwise interacts with your page, it will show up in the Notifications section.
You can promote your page so that it shows up in the Facebook streams and timelines of people who don’t follow you, but might be interested in your page.
The insights section is filled with helpful information about who is viewing your page, what they like, and what they don’t like. You need at least 30 page likes before Facebook will start displaying this information. Some numbers you might want to keep your eye on include
Page Likes: Total likes, net likes, and what sections of your page people are liking from.
Post Reach: This is the number of people who see each of your posts. You can also see the total number of times people liked, commented on, and shared your content. Similarly you can view how many times users hide your posts, report them as spam, or when someone unlikes your page.
Posts: Shows you the performance of each of your posts, including reach and engagement (how many people clicked, liked, commented, or shared). You can also come here to see when your fans are coming online, and which types of posts perform the best with them.
People: Breaks your fan base down by gender, geographic location, and language.
This is where you get messages from fans of your page. Only you and page administrators can see these. They’re separate from the messages that you get on your personal Facebook page.
If you didn’t when you initially set up your page, you can add a cover to your here, which is a large picture displayed at the top of your page. This might be a picture of your store, a current promo flyer, or anything else you see fit.
For more information on how to set up and manage your Facebook page, go here.
Comments