Setting up a professional business page on Facebook is critical in launching a Facebook promotional strategy for small businesses
It is relatively easy to set up a business page on Facebook – any small business can do it in a matter of minutes.
But getting a professional well-organized business page presence takes a little more thought and some strategic planning for it to be successful as a marketing promotional tool.
Here are some steps to consider during the process of establishing a new business page presence on Facebook (including some tips for setting up the Facebook Timeline format for a business page).
Set up a Business Page on Facebook – Not a Personal Page
Some businesses may be confused about whether it is more advantageous to set up a business page or a regular personal Facebook account. Setting up a regular Facebook page can be a turn-off to customers because people do not want to “friend” a business… allowing the business to see all of their friend connections and personal info posted on Facebook. As entertaining as it may be for you to see photos of your customer’s kids, it really is more professional and appropriate to establish a page. Even though they call it “social” media, your business should still be about business.
Choose a Theme or Purpose for the Facebook Business Page
A business page just for the sake of having a business page may not attract too many “likes” or may lose steam shortly after launching. Consider what your purpose will be with the Facebook business page and communicate it well when you initially set up it up.
If your business is a retail store or website, plan to use the page to communicate special offers and deals. Promoting the Facebook business page as a way to get “Facebook only discounts” or other special offers is a good marketing strategy.
Coming up with a complementary theme for your business is another interesting idea. For example, my client SureShade is a company that designs and manufacturers retractable shade tops for the boating industry, but wanted a Facebook page that wasn’t purely promotional. Their brand tagline “Hassle-free Shade On-Demand” became the inspiration for their new Facebook business page – Hassle-Free Boating. By offering other ideas for making boating more enjoyable (and less of a hassle) they are able to keep visitors interested in the page beyond their own retractable boat shade products. They also present themselves as the company that introduces boaters to hassle-free and innovative products for boaters.
Business pages on Facebook also have additional capabilities such as tracking & usage data stats (like how many weekly visitors or posts) along with the ability to add in additional promotional widgets.
Set-up Process for Business Facebook Pages (Updated to include new Facebook Timeline Page format)
Now that you have established your Facebook theme and strategy, it is time to actually set it up.
Here are the simple steps involved in setting up the Facebook business page:
- You must first have a Facebook account to establish a page. The person who initiates the new business page will be the “administrator” or owner, but you can also designate a second person as a page administrator (this is always good to have as a back-up)
- Go to create a page on Facebook
- Select page type – Local Business, Brand or Product or Artist/Band/Public figure. In most cases small businesses will select “local business” and then will be prompted to select a category for the local business (such as Home Service, Real Estate or Restaurant).
- Select a Page Name – this will be the identity for your page.
- Customize the business Facebook page by uploading a logo or appropriate image (this will be your profile image with posts and appear in your sidebar).
- Add a cover photograph or image that represents your brand. The size of the image for the Facebook Timeline cover photo size is 851 x 351 pixels if you want to create a custom image – otherwise Facebook will crop the image to fit and allow you to drag the image crop to select the portion of the photo or image to use.
- Edit the page by filling out all company information – be sure to highlight website under “information” as well as basic company overview information.
- Under the “Info” tab, include a thorough summary of company overview, mission and products (with hyperlinks as needed).
- The “About” box will be the information that is shown directly under your profile and cover image, so this should be your most important company overview information.
- Populate some content on the page before you begin to promote it – post photos, videos and links so that the page has content in the sidebar and on the main page. When people land on your page they will get a taste for the type of content you provide on the business page and will be more likely to “like” it.
- Enter Company Milestones into your Facebook Timeline to have more history on your Facebook business page.
- Pin or star content to have it appear at the top of your Facebook Business Page Timeline for greater visibility. By selecting a star button on a post, the width of the post will increase to draw higher visibility to it in your timeline. If the pencil icon is selected, the post will be pinned to the top as the main post.
Let the Like Promotions Begin
After your business Facebook page is set up, make sure you put together a solid Facebook Promotion Strategy to ramp up your number of “likes” and begin to tap into the power of the social network for your small business.
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