Ease of a Facebook Business Page
Last year I wrote a post called Ease of a Facebook Fan Page. Much has changed on Facebook since then – for one, they are no longer called Fan Pages! There are business pages and community pages. This post will share how and why to create a business page.
Why a Business Page?
- Facebook business pages are free. No fees and easy to set up.
- Your competition probably has an FB business page. You can set one up and make better use of it.
- Read Larry Brauner on ONE Facebook Business Page, No More, No Fewer
How does one create a business page?
Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.
You have six choices – as a small business owner, I am going to assume you should pick either the first one, which is for a local business, or the second, which is for a company, organization or institution. Of course, if any of the other four are a better fit, pick one of those.
Local businesses will need an address and a phone number.
Once you have the page set up, add any information that will be useful to customers or potential customers, such as a website link and a description of the business or organization.
How does one create a profile image?
Update in 2013: Here is a good post on How to Size your Facebook Profile Picture – you may want to start with a 200px by 200px image that can be sized down (and allow for a narrow white border).
Once you have added information to the page, work on creating a profile image. The image should be 180 pixels wide – it can be up to 540 pixels pixels tall. I recommend taking your logo or an image to represent your business and making it 180 pixels wide making it 200px by 200px in a photo editor before uploading it to the FB page. You can now set the size of the avatar (the little image that appears when you update your business page) after you upload the profile image. To set the avatar size, scroll over your profile image on your Facebook business page and pick Change Picture. Then select Edit Thumbnail.
Learn more on this post: How To Build the Perfect Facebook Page, 2011 Edition.
What else should I put on the page?
Updated: the row of images is no longer there. One now has space for a 851px wide by 315px timeline photo.
There is room for a row of images at the top of your page. How should you handle that row (also known as a photostrip)? Here’s an example of how contractor Alan’s Enterprises shows some of his recent work on the top of his business page:
You can find more examples of how to handle the row of images on this post:
How to Optimize Your Facebook Page for Visual Branding
How often should I update the page? What should I say?
A few ideas on how to connect with current or potential customers with your page:
- Talk about some recent work.
- Put up a post on a related topic that is of general interest to your audience and link to it on Facebook.
- Ask a simple question.
- Upload a photo related to your topic.
- Put up a knowledgeable post written by someone else in your industry.
- Respond to anyone who writes about your business or topic on the page (assuming it is relevant). At least say “thank you.”
How often? Use common sense. Try to get something up at least once a week. If you can generate discussion on topics, then by all means, post more often!
Getting a Username for a Facebook Page
How does one get those numbers out of the Facebook url? When you first set up your page, Facebook gives you a url with lots of numbers. To get a short url, your business page needs 25 fans (you can now do this right away – you no longer need the twenty five fans). You can get them by asking friends, clients, Twitter followers or by writing blog posts about topics that interest people and include a link to your business page. Once you have the 25 fans, go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ and select a username. Do this very carefully – it cannot be edited (update: it can be edited).
Use Keywords on Your Facebook Page
When you create your page, if you are a local business serving a geographical area, be sure to put keywords describing the area in your description if it is not already in your name. So, for example, if you are in New Jersey, and you expect people will use the search term “New Jersey” to look for a business like yours, be sure to use New Jersey. Put keywords into Google and see where (or if) your page shows up with those keywords. This is also true of non-local businesses – make sure you use a variety of keywords on your Facebook page so search engines will find your page in searches. For example, if your topic is cooking, use a variety of kitchen and food keywords on your page.
Some FB Business Page Examples
Jeanette’s Catering & Downtown Sandwich Shoppe is working hard to update their current and potential customers! Note the lovely photos at the top of the page:
Here’s another busy Facebook page, by a group called Tourism Currents. One of the page owners is Becky McCray, who writes the blog Small Biz Survival:
Feel free to share your own Facebook business page in the comments.
For a post on setting up Twitter: Setting Up a Twitter Profile
Thanks for including Tourism Currents as an example! Sheila Scarborough does the bulk of the work on our page, and it really shines because of her.
Thanks for letting us know about Sheila’s hard work, Becky.
Very useful. Thank you!
Thanks for reading, Jill. Let me know if there’s anything I could cover in a future post on Facebook business pages that might be helpful.
Leora – I stumbled upon this article, and at the right time. I created my FB fan page for DailyMorningCoffee. I just have 15 fans on the page. I did read about the 25 fans to create a unique name for your page, but I am not sure of this as a fact. Many of my fellow bloggers have included ‘Like me on FB’ button on their websites with just 1 or 2 fans until now. How does that work? Any idea?
So now you have 16 fans. :-)
It used to be 100 fans. Sometimes Facebook changes its (his? her? their?)mind.
There are tools on FB for creating those nice little Like buttons. Let me poke around to see if I can find links.
Found a great link to the tools: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/web/
Thanks for becoming a fan and for the link. I have gone through those guides, still always good to revisit and see if anything has been modified.
Hi, Firstly i would like to say thank you for your advice. I was looking at this post the other day and having not yet set up facebook business page i was scepticle. I have found alot of contradicting evidence on the web. However after reading some of your stuff i set up my page (which wasnt as difficult as i thought it would be) and now the page has plenty of likes. Lets hope it brings in some business soon. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Glad I could be of help. Now you just need to put a Facebook icon on your website, and link it to your FB page.
Best wishes staying in touch with your customers.
Nice and comprehensive guide. A lot of people do make mistakes while creating their own business page. bookmarked ;)
Glad you find the guide useful.
I did more to be honest, I’ve printed this post and gave it to some costumers. I love to do web marketing but if they already have a page created it’s easier and takes less time for me to do my job. :)
BS”D: This was soooo helpful. I wish I’d seen it before, because I did create a page for our yeshivah, then I created another, ooops. Some are following one, some the other, and now I have to untangle this mess. Self-taught means doing it the hard way. Thanks for the tips.
I’ve heard of others mistakenly having two pages – no fun. I suppose one should try to focus on one of them, and then individually ask those on the others to switch, please. Good luck with it and thanks for the comment.
Hi leora.
Although I have written a similar post on my own blog, I still learned a little something from reading your post. I was unaware that you can get the short url. It’s a bit late now as I have links to my FB page everywhere.
I wanted to add that many small businesses are using personal profiles to promote their business on FB. This is actually a breech of FaceBook’s terms of service and could see a lot of hard work undone.
By the way, love this clean, simple design.
Steve Hippel´s last [type] ..Using A Presonal Profile For Your Business On FaceBook Will Get You Kicked Off
Thanks for reading my version of Facebook Business pages.
I see some using their profiles for their businesses every day – I’m not sure they would stop, even if someone warned them. Now if Facebook decided to block them from using FB all together …
It’s interesting that you say that Leora. I have read several articles saying that they intend to crack down on it in 2012. They threatened one of my clients and asked him to migrate to a page. This kind of backs up what I’ve been reading. Businesses that do this are clearly not aware that they also miss out on valuable social signals from like’s.