Rule #1 in business is to get in front of your market. As the largest social media site for small businesses, Facebook is still king. If you’ve been fighting the trend, you are missing out on a great opportunity. Three reasons you should have a Facebook business page is to connect with customers, it is a free way to market your business, and it brings traffic to your website and store. Now you know why you need it…
Here’s how to set up and optimize your Facebook business page for success.
- Create your Facebook Business Page connected to your personal Facebook account.
- Choose which category you fit into out of the following:
- Local Business or Place
- Company, Organization, or Institution
- Brand or Product
- Artist, Band or Public Figure
- Entertainment
- Cause or Community
- Complete your business profile description in 150 characters or less so visitors know exactly who you are and what you do . Add categories that your business applies too like what type of food your restaurant serves or what services you offer, then finalize the profile with your business website link.
- Upload your profile picture. Your goal with your images is to draw viewers in and show off your brand. Be sure it’s a high resolution shot.
- Claim any duplicate pages. Facebook may have a user generated page about your business and during set-up they will prompt you to claim this page(s).
- Choose your audience. For example, if you’re a hair stylist in Wilton, CT your audience could be women ages 13-65 that are located in Wilton. You can also target based on people’s interests, but be careful narrowing your audience or your views will be limited.
- Setup a Cover Photo. This picture is different from your profile picture but is equally important as it’s the first big image of your brand viewers will see. Your cover photo should be 851 pixels by 315 pixels and visually show your services.
- Create a Call to Action. Choose a button to include on your page that prompts viewers to engage with you. I.e. Book Now, Contact Us, Shop Now.
- Create a posting strategy with compelling content. Start off slow and steady with a daily post. If you have a blog, pull snippets from your website and add images to your posts. Visuals and video get the most views.
- Invite your Friends to like your page. It’s important to wait until you have a stream of content before going for likes. Once you have a few posts and images, go for the low hanging fruit first. Like your own page and then ask friends and family to also like your page.
- Advertise on Facebook. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars a month, but consider starting with a small budget to grow your audience. When you are first starting out, it can be hard to gain an audience but once you’ve established 1-3K likes, you’ll start gaining more organically.
- Measure your Growth. Facebook has a built-in analytics tool to help you measure your growth and you can add a tracking code to your website to track how visitors are interacting with your website.
Creating a Facebook Business page is free and simple to do and with all of the benefits, it’s a no-brainer. Having a Facebook page also helps you with Google’s new local SEO ranking algorithm. One of the most important steps is to make sure your presence on Facebook is consistent and aligns with your brand. If you share a funny video that gains new likes, but it doesn’t pertain to your brand, you’ve earned a like, but not a customer.
