Setting Up a Facebook Business Page

Facebook has been around for more than a decade. The social media platform has more than one billion members worldwide who rely on Facebook to help them better connect with their family and friends, with their community and with the world.  

If you have a website for your business you may be wondering why you need a Facebook Business page.  Regardless of whether you’re promoting your homemade, gluten-free muffins or big money games at Vegas casinos you probably figure that one locale on the web is enough. And do not forget about crm for moving company.

However there are big reasons for expanding into social media, especially on Facebook, to promote your business. Some of these reasons include

1. You’ll increase your exposure to potential clients. Facebook has 1.9 billion users worldwide. The site is designed to facilitate the flow of information, so instead of waiting for someone to find your website, your Business Page will pop up right on their feed while they’re scrolling through funny cat pictures and messages from their friends.
2. You have the chance to gather more leads through your existing contacts. Facebook works through “likes” and “shares.” That means that, when one person sees your Business Page and likes it, they can “like” or “share” it. The Business page them shows up on their wall and their friends and other contacts see it, increasing the likelihood that your message will expand.  
3. You’ll lower your marketing expenses. It costs nothing to start a facebook page (aside from the work that you put into it) and there’s a lot that you can do with that page for free. Facebook does (obviously) promote its paid advertising options but you don’t have to do that, or you can invest less for a better return in your  FB advertising than you would through other marketing venues.
4. You’ll reach a targeted audience. Bigger isn’t always better. It’s true that there are many forms of advertising that allow you to reach a wider audience but you may not want that. If you’re selling your muffins, you will probably be targeting people who live within your delivery range, as well as those who are looking for healthy food alternatives and those who are searching for gluten-free options. Facebook allows you to set your business page’s ads (when you pay) to target specific locales, people in specific age ranges, people with specific interests, etc. That means that your advertising budget will be spent on the people who are most likely to convert their clicks into buys.
5. You’ll have access to Facebook’s insights. These analytical tools tell you when someone “likes” or “shares” a post, what the page engagement is, the performances of your posts, etc. These insights are invaluable for you as you refine and narrow your advertising activities to reach the people who are most likely to buy your service or product.
6. You’ll be able to easily notify people of sales, events, offers and other pertinent information through “posts.” The posts go out to the people who have “liked” your business page and, by default, to many of their facebook friends. So if you have baked blueberry muffins as a special treat, you can easily make that information known and bring in more blueberry-loving customers by posting on your page.
7. You’ll build your brand. Your goal is to get people thinking about your muffins whenever they want some yummy baked goods or are looking for good gluten free products. If your business page stays in front of their faces every time that they open their FB, and they learn to recognize your product, you’ll have a better chance of attracting their purchases.
8. You’ll increase your web traffic. Once you link your website to your facebook page, you’ll drive traffic to your website as well, which shows the search engines that your content is valuable to people which then pushes you up in the search engine ratings.  It’s important to stay active on your Facebook page. Post new posts on a regular basis to draw people’s interest. Only one in eight posts should be of a promotional nature…..the rest should be photos, human interest stories or general information. 

How to Set Up your Facebook Business Page

Facebook has made it easy to set up a Business Page. All you need is a personal profile to set up your page and you’re ready to go.

1. Go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php through your personal profile. Your personal profile indicates who the individual is who will be administering the Facebook Business Page. You can add additional administrators to help you administer your Facebook Business Page later one.
2. Choose your classification. Options include:
   • Local Place or Business
   • Company, Institution or Organization
   • Product or Brand
   • Public Figure, Artist or Band
   • Entertainment
   • Cause or Community
3. Within each classification, define it further. For instance, for a Local Business or Place you can add information about the business, hours that the business is open, contact information (address, website, price range, parking), etc. Each classification has its own set of sub-classifications.
    
4.  Add a banner across the top of your page and a photo on the upper left side of your page.
5.  Activate the different sections that appear along the left-hand column. These include:  
   • Videos (add as many as possible because videos draw people)
   • Services (what services/products do you offer)
   • Shop options 
   • Offers
   • Reviews (Good reviews from previous clients are VERY important for attracting new customers)
   • Add a “Story” that summarizes what you’re offering. The Story appears on the upper right-hand side of your page

Maximizing Your Facebook Page

Facebook will ask you to maximize the reach of your Facebook Business Page by buying an ad. This increases the number of “impressions” that displays the page of people’s feeds. You can start an ad campaign immediately or you can wait a little while. 

Just remember that Facebook’s ultimate goal is to bring in a profit so they will do everything that they can to encourage you to take out an ad. You can refine your ad to reach the specific target population that you wish to attract through many different settings. 

You can also take out an ad at a budget that fits your marketing needs and abilities. The more money that you put into a Facebook ad campaign, the more impressions the ad will create and the more times it will show up on other people’s pages. This means that your reach isn’t dependent on “likes” and “shares” but can show up randomly on the profiles of people who meet your ad’s parameters.