You may think that Facebook is just for 20 and 30 somethings, rock bands and causes that pull your heart strings… but really, Facebook is for YOU, too. You can learn to utilize the free social media marketing aspects of Facebook to promote your business. You may be surprise at what you learn about your customers and even more surprised at how easy it can be to get people excited and taking about what you do.
Pages are for organizations, businesses, brands and public figures to broadcast great information in an official, public manner to people who choose to connect with them. Similar to profiles, Pages can be enhanced with applications that help the organization communicate and engage with their audiences, and capture new audiences through friend recommendations, News Feed stories, Facebook events, and beyond.
Facebook has two types of pages: Facebook Pages and Groups.
Facebook Pages allow public figures, businesses, or brands a space to share information, interact with their fans and create an interactive forum on Facebook. Groups focus less on a person, brand or business and more on a shared interest. Facebook Pages tend to work better for businesses while Groups do well for non-profits, interests and causes. You want to be sure you are setting up the correct page before you get started. Most likely, if you are a business, you will want a Facebook Page.
You can create and manage a Facebook Page for your organization from your personal account. Click here to begin. Please note that only the official representative of an organization, business, celebrity, or brand is permitted to create a Page. You do have to have a personal account first, in order to do this. If you don’t yet have a personal account, go ahead and make one, using your own name and personal info, not your business’.
How are Pages different from personal profiles?
Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook.
In addition, Pages are managed by admins who have personal Facebook profiles. Once you have set up a Page within your profile, you may add other admins to help you manage this Page. People who choose to connect to your Page won’t be able to see that you are the Page admin or have any access to your personal account.
So, let’s get started…
Here’s an important decision… You will see a few category options here for the type of page you want to create. If you’re a strictly local business or organization, choose your type of business from the Local drop down menu. If you are a national business or organization or brand, then choose the category that best suits you from the Brand, Product or Organization category. There is also a category for Artist, Band or Public Figure. Be sure to choose wisely, because you cannot change this later.
Once your page is created, then you get to move on to the fun stuff!
Adding Content to your Facebook Page
- Upload pictures so you have a profile photo on your page. Choose either ‘upload from your computer’ or ‘take a photo with your webcam’. Most likely, you will choose the first option.
- After you have uploaded the photo into your photos section, you will select a profile picture. Just hover your mouse over the giant question mark image that you see at the top left of your page and click the box that pops up that says “change image”. The image can be your logo, a photo of your location or a product image. Your logo might be a good choice if branding is your main focus.
- Fill in your business summary in the box under your profile picture.
- Fill in your basic information by clicking on the ‘edit page’ button under ‘basic information’. You will see a place to add your business location, phone number, and business hours, if applicable. then click on the title underneath, ‘Detailed info’ to add your website (if you don’t have one, you know who to call:)) parking and transit information. Again, if that doesn’t pertain to you, just leave it blank.
- Click on the ‘Post Update’ button to go to your wall to post an update for your page. This is where you will do most of your work, adding information, links, comments, etc… for your fans to see and hopefully, pass along to others.
- “Like” your own page… People will see that on your personal profile page.
- Share your page with your friends. You can add a message to your shared page. This will also appear on your profile page. This is a good place to introduce your business, service or product and kindly ask people to support you by becoming a fan. If you think you will be offering certain types of benefits through your posts, you can mention that as well.
- Finally, click on the ‘Suggest to Friends” button and select friends who will recieve an ‘invitation’ to be a fan.
Here’s a visual, in case you’re that type of person…
Voila! You’re done… Well, almost!
Now you just have to USE your page. Interact with your fans. Offer them something interesting, engage them in conversations. More on this in my next post!
Good stuff! Thanks for sharing!