The Basics of Setting Up an Effective Facebook Business Page
February 23, 2023 4 min read
A Facebook business page can be an integral way to keep in touch with your existing customers—and can help you plug into a massive audience of new prospects. The social media giant had 1.13 billion daily active users as of June 2016.
You may already have a personal Facebook page, but if you haven’t already created a business page, doing so may seem daunting. The good news is that’s easy to create one. As of 2015, more than 40 million small businesses had active Facebook business pages. There’s a reason that so many small business owners are spending the time and effort on Facebook: it’s free and holds a lot of potential to reach your target audience when executed correctly.
Here’s a crib sheet to get you started quickly:
Nail the basics. Facebook offers an excellent tutorial on how to set up your business page. Once you’ve logged in to your personal account, click the drop arrow in the top right corner and choose “Create Page.”
From there it’s a matter of choosing a business category, such as “local business or place” or “company, organization or institution,” choosing an industry-specific category such as “American restaurant,” or “Antiques and vintage,” and filling out your profile as extensively as possible. It’s important to accurately classify your business so that your company will appear in related searches on Facebook.
Fill out your profile. Facebook allows you to include a lot of information about your business that can pull customers to you, so take the time to fill out your page accurately. Add your page to your favorites on your personal Facebook account, so it will be easy to find on the left sidebar when you log in.
A key part of your business page is adding a company description and a web address (if you have one). Think carefully about your company description so the words you use will pull you into keyword searches on the site for services like your own.
Make it pop. The profile picture on your business page is the first impression for page visitors so make sure it immediately showcases your business. You can use anything from your logo, to a storefront image to a shot of one of your products. Whatever you choose, make sure that it will be easily recognizable by potential customers.
Many companies like to add a cover photo, as well. This is the large photo you see on top of some profile pages. Some businesses upload a photo they already have, while others hire a professional to create a cover image for them that reflects their brand.
Meal delivery company, Blue Apron, does a stellar job of drawing visitors in right off the bat with their enticing cover photo. For more creative examples to inspire you, check out the blog Design School’s post on creative covers. If you need a professional to create the type of Facebook cover you want, you can find one on freelance sites such as Upwork, Fiverr, 99Designs, Freelancer and PeoplePerHour.
Connect. A Facebook business page will only be helpful to you if customers and prospects actually visit it. Many businesses run campaigns to start building up Facebook fans, so they can attract relevant traffic and engagement on their page. Companies can use their page to feature anything from a sale or giveaway to photos of their company culture.
Another option is to send out a link to your Facebook business page to your existing customer base and ask them to “Like” your page in exchange for some sort of incentive, service or sample.
Target your page. The ideal Facebook business page will pull in customers who will want to buy from you. Facebook Audience Insights is a data-capturing tool that will give you valuable information on your visitors’ demographics and engagement levels, so you can tell if your current content is attracting them.
Inspire customers to buy. As you’ve probably discovered in running your business, a call to action can motivate customers to decide to buy. The same is true on Facebook, which offers call to action buttons like “Book Now,” “Shop Now,” “Watch Video” and “Sign Up.”
To boost customer acquisition, try adding one or more of these buttons to the top of your page. Dollar Shave Club, which sells razor blades, is a good example of company that has used a call-to-action creatively. Its Facebook page has a button that says “Sign Up,” where you can go to the company’s site and sign up for the club.
Adding call to action buttons is important. Ultimately, there’s no better return on the effort you invest in building a robust Facebook business page than the sales you make as a result (and it’s FREE to create).