What is a Facebook Business Page?
How to Set Up
It is possible to set up a business page without linking it to your personal page. There are pros and cons to each approach. You have to make the decision that feels right to you.
Set up your account. Go to www.facebook.com. If you are logged into Facebook, log out to get to Facebook’s home page. Click on “To create a page for a celebrity, band or business, click here.” Determine the appropriate category for your business and enter the name of the business. Sign your authorization and click on Create Page. At the next screen, if you click on “I do not have an account” and enter an email address that is used in your business but is not already linked to a Facebook account, you will be setting up an entirely separate Facebook account. {This will minimize confusion with your personal Facebook page but Facebook technically frowns on it.}
Step 2
Add your main image and tag line. Hover your mouse over the big question mark, then click on Change Picture. Upload your logo or a photo of your business or product here. {This will be your business’ Facebook image.} Under this image, click on “Write something about . . .” This is where you would put your tag line or a brief description of your business.
Step 3
Edit your information. Click on the Info tab and then Edit Information. The amount and type of information that you are able to input here depends on the category you selected for your business. Complete this information.
Step 4
Upload photos. Click on the Photos tab and upload photos of your business and/or your products. If you’d like, you can create multiple albums to group images together by category.
Step 5
Import your blog. If you have a blog, one of the best features of Facebook is that you can upload your blog posts to your Facebook profile automatically. On the Wall page, just under your main image, click on Edit Page. Under Applications, click on the pencil to the right of Notes and click Edit. To the right, click on Import a Blog under Notes Settings. Enter the URL of your blog or (if you know it) of your blog’s RSS feed. Confirm that you have the authority to import this blog and click on Start Importing. If the Notes tab does not appear, click on the “+” tab to add the Notes tab.
There are dozens of Apps available that will add all sorts of functionality to your Facebook business page. Some of those options include:
- Discussion Boards: Enable your fans to get their ideas out into the open. Discussion boards let you know exactly what your fans and customers think and want.
- Events: Organize gatherings or let people know about your upcoming business events.
- Information: Manage settings for the Information application.
- Notes: Share your business news, or engage your fans through written entries.
- Photos: Upload photos to your page and allow your fans to share photos on your page also.
- Reviews: Fans and customers can leave honest opinions about your business.
- Video: A high-quality video platform for pages on Facebook.
- Wall: The Wall is an open forum for your fans or friends to leave comments, thoughts, and ideas about you on your Page or Profile.
Step 6
Edit Wall Settings. On the Wall page, click on Settings in the upper right, and decide where you would like your fans and non-fans to land when they go to your Facebook profile. Decide also what you would like them to see and what you will allow them to post to your profile.
Step 7
Publish your new Public Profile. When you are satisfied with the appearance of your new page, click “Publish this page” at the top of your Wall. Your page will now be publicly available for all to see on Facebook.
Step 8
Become a fan. You should become your first fan so that you can experiment with different posts and get a feel for the functionality of your new page. Before becoming a fan, however, you should log out of Facebook and log back in with your personal login. Then, search for your business name using the search box. You should find your newly published page within an hour, click on it, and click on “Like.”
Step 9
Tell your customers or clients about your new Facebook page and encourage them to become a fan. The more fans that you have, and the more that your fans interact with your page, the more you will be able to take advantage of the viral nature of Facebook and its power for unlimited free advertising. {Every time a fan comments on your Wall, or links to your Facebook page, that appears in the News Feeds of all of their Facebook friends. They tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on. . . .}
Tracking Your Results
Within 48 hours of publishing your page, you will be able to access ‘Insights,’ which is Facebook collected data about how your business page is being used.
Here you can track page views, number of fans, removed fans, wall posts, discussion topics, reviews, photo views and more.
After you have successfully created a Business Page, you can link to it from your own Web site, e-mail campaigns, or encourage your own personal Facebook friends to become a fan of your page.
Remember, when a personal friend becomes a new fan, that message is displayed as a notification to all of your friend’s friends. Similar to word-of-mouth marketing, this is a great way to bring Facebook users to your new Business page.
Another option to leverage Facebook traffic is targeted Facebook Ads, which you can use to send Facebook users to your own Web site or to your newly created Facebook Business Page.
Facebook Ads Campaigns
Facebook Ads provide two ways to advertise on pages of Facebook. You can create an ad campaign that links to a landing page within your Web site, or you can advertise something on Facebook, such as your new Business Page or an application you have developed. You can also employ a Social ad. This shows your image and text alongside the social action you take on Facebook pages. Facebook Ads are targeted, meaning you choose the location, gender, interests, relationship status and other demographics of your target audience.
In creating a Facebook Ad campaign you will need to decide which type of ad you want to run and provide the link the ad will lead visitors to. The Ad title is restricted to 25 characters while the Ad text (body) must fit in 135 characters. If you choose to include a photo, it needs to be 110 by 80 pixels.
Facebook Ads can be run on a Pay for Clicks (CPC) or Pay for Views (CPM) model. During the ad creation process, you set your daily ad budget and the maximum bid, which is the most you are willing to pay per click. CPC ads are displayed in Face book’s Ad Space, Home Page (or both), while CPM ads are shown only in the Ad Space. Facebook selects the best ad to run based on the cost per click or impression and ad performance.
After creating the ads you want to run, Facebook will approve your ad for use and suggest a max bid if you have bid too low. Through your Ad Management Page, Facebook provides ad data so you can track your progress, change the audience, or adjust other metrics as the campaign progresses.
Tips for Small Businesses
Paid ads on the internet is an easy way to spend a lot of money. If you are hesitant to burn up your ad budget on Facebook just yet, try creating and promoting your free business page first. You can “boost” a post from your page for a relatively small investment. You might also want to try Googling for “free Facebook Ad credits.” These appear every so often to entice advertisers to try Facebook Ads. You can take advantage of them to try it out before investing your own advertising budget. Plus, check with your website or blog hosting company. They will often have Facebook ad credits available.