I’ve decided to start a Facebook account. Now what?
To start, we need to determine if we are looking to do a business account or a personal account.
Which type of Facebook account is right for you? For the purpose of this blog post, let’s focus on a business account.
If you are going to have a business account, you must start with a personal account. Facebook business pages are similar to personal timelines. A big difference are the analysis tools Facebook includes for business pages that offer in-depth knowledge to help you see how well you are connecting with your community.
Let’s walk together through setting up a page for your business. Please note that the Facebook landscape changes on a regular basis, so remember you can always visit Facebook’s Help Center for updated instructions.
Step #1. Set up your personal Facebook account
First, you are going to need a personal Facebook account to set up a page for your business. Log into your personal Facebook age.
The reason for this is driven by Facebook limiting your availability to access its business account process without an initial personal account.
If there is a silver lining to this, the business page will not interact with your personal page and your personal information is not public on the business page.
Facebook will allow you to switch back and forth from your personal account to your business account so you can interact as the business on the business page and then simply switch back to your personal account.
In addition, the business page is capable of being managed by multiple administrators if needed. Once additional administrators are set up for the page, each administrator can simply log in to their personal Facebook account to access the business page’s control panel.
Step#2. Select “Create a Page”
You can find this in the “More” section at the bottom of your personal account homepage. Click on one of the boxes to select that main category for your business and browse through the categories in the drop-down menus to see which one fits best. If your a realtor or in car sales and work for another company
#3: Choose Your Category from the Drop-down Menu and Name Your Page
The categories are not always perfect, but for the most part, they aren’t critical. Categories may be more important for local businesses as they are more visible in Facebook’s Graph Search, which is rolling out. But the categories aren’t as important for other Pages currently.
Choose your category from the drop-down menu. You can change this later if needed.
The name of your Page will be whatever you put into the box just under the Category menu. Spend some time thinking about your Page name carefully. If you have a clear brand name, then the choice is easy. If you are just starting out, you may not have that nailed down yet. Having keywords in your Page title can be a good idea because the keywords help your Page to come up in Facebook search. You have a limit of 70 characters for your Page name.
Facebook also insists on capitalizing the first word of the Page name and you cannot create the Page with unusual capitalizations such as “WidgetPro.” You can petition to have your name changed if this is the official name of your business, but you will have to create the Page initially without the unconventional capitalization.
You will be able to change your Page name up until the point you have 200 fans (or likes), so if you aren’t sure about the name at the start, you can tweak it for a little while.
Select the box next to “I agree to Facebook Pages Terms” and click Get Started. You are taken through some steps that will help you add your photo, enter your About information and more. The first step is to add your profile picture.
#4: Add Your Profile Picture
The profile picture is the image that appears next to every post that goes into the news feed from your Page. The ideal size for a profile photo is 180 pixels by 180 pixels, but it can be larger with different dimensions. You will be able to adjust the viewable portion of the profile picture by mousing over the photo and clicking Edit Profile Picture and then Edit Thumbnail.
Once you have your profile photo added, click Next and you are taken to a place to add your About information.
#5: Add Your Basic About Information
The About Page has several large sections to wax poetic about your wonderful business. The beautiful thing is that the About Page is indexed in Google, so you will want to make sure it is very descriptive and keyword-rich.
The basic About information that they ask you to enter initially is the field that will appear directly on your timeline just under your cover photo. You only have 155 characters that will show in this field (you can actually write more but only 155 characters show up in the field, so limit your blurb to that size).
I suggest you make sure to link to your website is in this field, so people can easily find your website since this field is so prominent. You want to add your website address into the website field as shown in the image. You can also add other websites that you want to direct people to such as Twitter or other social sites by clicking on the Add Another Site link.
#7: Do Not Invite Your Email Contacts Yet
Facebook then takes you to the place where you can invite your email contacts. Do not do this until your Page is updated a bit more. And I personally don’t like using Facebook’s feature to accomplish this. Create your own email message instead and send it directly from whatever email service you use.
#8: Share Something
Facebook prompts you to share your first status update. Again, you can decide to do this now or skip it. It is a good idea to have many status updates on your timeline before you start inviting people to like your Page so they can see the types of things you are going to be sharing.
#9: Add a Cover Photo
No page is complete without a good cover photo. Your cover photo has to be a minimum of 399 pixels wide (most standard photos are fine) and works best if it is sized to 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels high. If you do use a standard photo, you will be able to position it to fit in the space, but some area of the photo at the top or bottom will be hidden.
Your profile photo serves one main purpose: every time your page posts an update, your profile photo will appear alongside the post on your fans’ timelines.
The profile photo is a small square, so you will want to minimize the amount of text used in this box to maximize the real estate.
A lot of brands safely use a logo in this space for identity, but there is no right or wrong choice here. As I mentioned earlier, your boundaries are the limits of your creativity.
I recommend taking some time to find the right profile image that captures the heart of your business.
Once you have a cover photo that meets these guidelines, click the Add a Cover button and then select Upload Photo. Choose the photo from your computer, position it on your Page the way you want it to show and click Save Changes.
#10: Add to Your About Page
Even though you added the small blurb about your company, you also should include more on your About Page, since it is a chance for you to talk about what your company can do for others. Click the Edit Page and Update info menu selections from your admin panel at the top of your Page.
Update your About Page by going to the Update Info selection.
You have a lot of potential real estate on your About Page and it’s a good idea to highlight all of the good things about your company and list the websites where people can find you. If you work for another company use there website address.
The About Page varies depending on what category you chose and you can switch categories from this area as well (select a different category from the drop-down menu at the top). If you categorized yourself as a local business, you will have a map on your About Page with the address of your business.
#11: Start Posting to your New Page
One advantage of a business page verses a personal page is scheduling post. What do I mean. You can make a post on your page and schedule it for anyy day you want it to appear with specific time. Select the dropdown box and you will see a calendar.
Select the date and time you want the post to show.
Have fun and post often. Our philosophy is 3 posts a week is good, 5 a week is better, and everyday is best. Three times a day is too much. Make 20% of your content about your business and make the other 80% with helpful resources pertaining to the industry to help your customers. This will increase your engagements online.
