With more than 2 billion users, Facebook is the world’s most popular social network. It’s great for catching up with old college friends, sharing funny videos and chatting with your loved ones through Messenger, but it can also be a valuable tool for promoting your small business. Below, we’ve put together an introduction to Facebook Pages for your small business.
Create your page
Before we begin, it’s important that you create a Facebook Page for your business. So often, we see small business owners creating Facebook accounts for their businesses, but there’s actually a difference and creating the wrong one will cause you to appear invisible online.
A Facebook Page is a profile that people can view, like and engage with. A Profile or account is a private account, where only friends can access your posts and engage with you. Therefore, a Page is the best way to promote your business.
There’s a big difference between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Page.
You can create a page for your business on Facebook by clicking here. It should only take a couple of minutes, and Facebook should give you the option to create a username, which will also serve as your URL. Make sure you use your business name for your username and keep it as short as possible.
Add a profile picture and a cover image
Social networking is all about visual content, so start by uploading your company logo as a profile picture and creating a cover image using Photoshop or an online tool like Canva. The ideal dimensions for a cover image are 820 pixels wide by 312 pixels, so adopt this file size to make sure your image shows correctly on desktops and mobile phones.
Canva is a great tool for making social media header images.
Your cover image could be a photo of your team, your office, or a graphic that includes your logo and a call to action. Make sure your cover image and profile picture are consistent and reflect your brand – they’re the first things people will see when they view your business page.
Add a call to action to your page
Facebook now allows businesses to add a call to action to their Facebook pages, which will be shown close to your cover image. There are a few different options that you can consider, including:
- Book Now
- Start Order
- Call Now
- Get in touch
- Learn more
- Shop Now
- See Offers
- Use App
If you don’t know which call to action to choose, we recommend the ‘Learn more’ button that links to your website – this way, you’ll drive social media traffic to your website. Or, if you’d prefer to get potential customers to contact you, the Call Now or Get in touch buttons could be preferable.
How the Facebook call to action looks on desktop
Add a business description
Your description will show up in the sidebar of your Facebook Page on the desktop, and on the ‘About’ tab on mobile. Therefore, you should create an engaging description as soon as possible.
You’ll have an option to create a short description of around 155 characters, and a longer description where you can go into more detail. Treat the short description like your Twitter biography – create a short and sweet message that describes your business and encourages people to ‘like’ your page, and keep the long description to go into depth about what you do.
Add your contact information
There’s no point in growing your Facebook Page if visitors can’t find you, so make sure you add contact information to your account. Facebook allows you to add your address, website URL and telephone number, so be sure to add all three.
Oh, and if you can, verify your telephone number and you’ll get a grey verified tick next to your username, which will increase trust and encourage people to contact you.
It makes sense to verify your Facebook Page
Connect to Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are a great way to network with like-minded businesses and professionals and increase your chances of finding new customers. If you run your own Facebook Group, you can link this to your Facebook Page to increase your brand authority and encourage new likes.
If you don’t run a Group, you can still post in a Group and ask your contacts to like your Page.
Ask your friends to like your Page
Now that you’ve got your Facebook Page up and running, it’s time to start recommending it to friends and family members. You can invite your friends to like your page by clicking on the three dots on your Page and clicking ‘Invite Friends’, and you can bulk invite your friends by using a Google Chrome plugin.
Will you like my page, friend?
You can also ask your friends, family and other contacts to like your page by posting on your personal Facebook profile, linking to your page from your website and sending out an email.
Start posting content
Every time you post new content on your Facebook Page, you’re increasing the chances of your posts showing up on users’ news feeds. Make sure you create a social media schedule for Facebook, and aim to post new content at least once or twice a day. There are hundreds of things that you can post about on Facebook, but here are a few ideas if you’re struggling…
- News and content from your industry
- Your own blog posts and content
- Links to your products, services and special offers (make sure your website has Open Graph Markup so that images and metadata show up when sharing links and content)
- GIFs and videos – either created by you or found on GIPHY and YouTube
- Updates from your office – pictures and videos of your staff working on projects
- Instagram posts (learn how to connect your Instagram and Facebook Page here)
- Occasion and celebration posts, like ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy New Year’
If you don’t have the time to post content every day, then be sure to consider social media scheduling tools like Buffer, which allow you to schedule content in advance. Or, you could even ask a social media management company to handle your Page for you to save you time.
Engage with people who post on your Page
Make sure you let other people comment on your Facebook Page. This feature should be turned on when you sign up for a new Facebook Page. Doing so provides the opportunity to engage in two-way communication with potential customers, allowing you to offer customer service and build relationships.
You can also set up automatic responses on Messenger, which means that visitors will always get an immediate response when they message your page. Don’t let this feature take over your customer service, though – you should still actively monitor your page and respond.
Post more than your products
The chances are that you have created your Facebook Page to increase engagement with your followers and grow your brand, but you should avoid being overly promotional.
Nobody wants to follow an account that only posts adverts and offers, so give Facebook users a reason to like your page. You can share entertaining and informative content to build a relationship with your customers (check out these social media post ideas if you’re struggling) and you’ll be on your way to success.
Wrapping up
Creating a Facebook Page will help you reach another audience and grow your business online, but it’s important to be consistent and patient.
Don’t expect to find new customers overnight – you need to work hard to create engaging content that stands out and makes an impression, and you need to deliver exceptional customer service in the comments and on Facebook Messenger.
If you don’t have the time or the patience to do this, then you should consider social media scheduling tools, or outsource your social media management to ensure your brand is always working at its best online. Good luck!