Basic Best Practices for Building Out Your Facebook Business Page
Let’s put it this way, if your company isn’t on Facebook, it’s harder for your products and services to be found. Face it – as much as you may want to resist Facebook as a social media channel, you will find that no matter what, some of your customers use it as their primary resource in learning about new companies, checking out their products, the company’s personality and more.
Below we will cover absolute musts for building out your company business page for Facebook. These best practices will put you in a position to build your company’s brand awareness and generate new customer leads.
Page Setup: Important Points on Facebook Business Page Creation
You do not need a separate account to create your Facebook business page (in fact, this is against Facebook’s policy) – you can do it right off of your own personal Facebook profile.
The top three things you need to know/have when setting up your Facebook company page are:
- What type of business page are you creating? Are you a local business like a restaurant in which you’ll need to post hours? Are you a company?
- What profile picture are you going to use? This should match with the timeline banner you plan on creating. Since profile pictures are the first things people will see when you post updates, make sure they are noticeable – you really just need a solid logo or symbol that represents your company/brand.
- What is your username going to be? One of the most important things you need to have is a Facebook username for your page. Previously, it was required to have a following before doing this. Now, you can make one when you create your page. Make sure the username is simple enough where people can type it into an address bar quickly. For instance, you wouldn’t want to create something like facebook.com/CoolWebsiteThatYouReallyNeedToSeeRightNow – it has to represent your company name to make it easy for someone to find you. Plus, if you tend to print brochures a lot, it might be easier to show a small Facebook URL if you promote your page.
Seeing as having a search optimized site is critical in today’s marketing world, you are crazy not to fill out your company page completely. Make sure your about section is entirely filled out and includes the location, website, mission statement and more.
Create an Explosive Facebook Timeline Banner
Timeline banners were meant for branding the heck out of your company page. Here’s where you make good use of that logo, perhaps with various keywords placed on what your company strengths and services are. Definitely stick to facebook’s timeline banner guidelines before you start designing.
Now, I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but no, you can NOT put your contact information, calls to action such as “% off” or “Like us to get this” or any type of code (like a QR code) on your timeline banner. Why? Facebook has reserved your about section for contact info and it is up to you to keep your profile active with posts that can share a recent white paper download, company case study, company discount, etc.
Generate a Content Plan That is NOT Self-Promotional
The number one mistake companies face when building out their facebook business page would have to me the “me, me, me!” issue. Most users will hide your news stories if you continously post annoying updates such as “try this product” or “buy this product” or “call for a free consultation.” BORING.
If you want to build a quality following, you need to provide quality content. Come up with a schedule and plan on posting twice per week. Consider sharing recent blogs on a major issue in your industry, or perhaps a blog that you wrote on your company’s blog. You want to show that you know what you are talking about so that others can see you as a thought leader in your market. Only then, from time to time, can you post more promotional items such as a recent company case study, a white paper, or even info on your latest product.
Your Blog Must Be on Your Facebook Business Page Tabs!
The RSS Reader is a quick application that installs your blog onto your Facebook business page. Be sure to have your blog set up with Google Feedburner before using this application, so that it can pull in all of your blogs every time you post something new. Having this tab allows users to learn more about you and the industry information you can provide them aside from photos, videos and events, which are other popular tab applications you should be using.
Looking for Customer Interaction? Try the Live Chat for Pages
Some businesses like to stay connected with their customers 24/7. The Live Chat for Facebook Business Pages allows you to do just that – your followers can speak with you in real time and can send you a message through this application when you’re away. This application does require a subscription for as little as $36 a month.
Additional Reading:
Please share this post with others who are building out new or existing Facebook business pages.
