Facebook, COLIBRI knows, is an important part of many people’s lives, both personally and professionally. If you are reading this, COLIBRI would be surprised if you didn’t have a Facebook profile with at least 100 connections. If you are running a business and want to get more out of Facebook professionally, this article is for you. Read on to learn more about Facebook Pages.
Facebook Profile vs. Page
To create new Facebook Pages, you have to have a Profile. This means that someone in your company with a Facebook profile (or you!) will be responsible for setting up the page.
Administration
The person who sets up the Page is the admin. The admin will either be in charge of the entire Facebook Page or will assign tasks to others.
You can give different people different levels of admin access, allowing you to delegate certain tasks while also deciding how much control you want to keep. This can be done from the admin panel > edit page > admin roles.
Tip: You can leave your Page unpublished while you work on it, adding posts as you perfect your banner or find the photos to illustrate your milestones. This way, when you publish, you will already have interesting content.
About (Profile)
You will want to include these basics:
- Date founded
- Address (if you are a brick and mortar business)
- About (found beneath your cover photo. COLIBRI added a URL here. Be creative with the small amount of space you have.)
- Company description
- Company mission
- Awards
- Products and services
- Contact information
The more thought you put into how these texts look and read, the more professional and inviting your site will be.
Tip: Have someone you trust read over your work and give you feedback.
Cover Images
Here are the specs for the Facebook Pages header:
- Banner: 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall
- inset: 160 x 160 pixels, with a minimum image upload size of 180 x 180 pixels
Make sure your cover image and photo are GREAT. They should be professional and reflect your business specifically. Use a graphic designer if necessary to make this pop.
Milestones
Use the milestones feature to tell your story. This is the place to get creative and share what’s important to you and what motivates your business.
- When was your business conceived?
- When did you launch?
- What was your first project/client?
- When did you receive an award?
- Publish an article?
- Start your Facebook page?
Remember: The Facebook timeline format means you must find images that look good short and wide.
Tabs
The first tab defaults to photos, but you can use your other 3 featured tabs to provide directions, create contests, make special offers, and more.
COLIBRI used Shortstack to make her own apps. The platform is easy to use and even easier if you know HTML. Plus, it’s empowering to create your own apps.
Status Updates
This is where you keep things fresh and engage your customers.
Decide how many updates per week are reasonable for you. Even if you are a busy solopreneur, set the goal of updating your Page once per week, preferably with a photo or a video. You can always update posts or remove them later if you need to.
You can also schedule posts, which comes in handy if you (like COLIBRI right now!) don’t have internet access, you are taking time off, you want to promote a specific event, or you are just plain busy.
Use programs like Buffer to “automagically” update with links to articles, videos, and other online content.
Important: Don’t let your Page become a ghost town!
Promote
Invite friends from your Facebook profile, LinkedIn connections, Google+ circles, and any other social sites you use to Like your Page.
Link your site to Twitter, so when you post updates you are tweeting about them automatically.
Add your Facebook Page URL to your business card, other printed materials, your website, and any other web assets or social channel profiles you use.
Edgerank
Kind of like Google, Facebook has its own internal search engine. This “search engine” uses what is called an algorithm to decide which content is most important. Facebook’s internal algorithm (formula), Edgerank, weighs different kinds of content differently and then places the “heaviest” content higher on news feeds. For example, the more you interact with certain of your friends or fans, the more likely it is that your updates will be at the top of their specific news feeds.
Tip: Photos and videos rank highest in Edgerank, so be sure to include them in as many status updates as possible.
Analyze
You need a minimum of 30 likes to take advantage of Facebook Insights (the Facebook analytics tool).
Once you have enough Likes to take advantage of Facebook Insights, start looking at the data. You can find out, for instance, how many of your Likes are male and female, how they got to your Page from both inside and outside Facebook, and how many people are Unliking your Page. In fact, these examples are just a small fraction of the information Facebook Insights provides, so get ready to get busy!
Use the data to determine if you are on the right track and then make adjustments. If you find, for example, that too many people are Unliking your Page, you can refocus on creating content that engages and adds value to your specific target audience.
Alright, kids! Now that you know how to create Facebook Pages, COLIBRI’s next post will explore marketing with Facebook. Take a minute to let us know in the comments how it goes if you are inspired to create a Page of your own.
Citations
COLIBRI extends a special thank you to the authors of these great posts:
Copyblogger: How to Create a Cover Photo for Your Facebook Timeline (Updated)
Kissmetrics: A Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Insights and Ascending Facebook News Feeds
Loomer, Jon: 8 Steps to Facebook Marketing With Limited Time
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