By now you’ve heard the buzz about social media. It’s no longer limited to social interactions; businesses and marketers are getting in on the action too! You’ve even held back and tried to avoid joining the Facebook cult, at least until now.
This first segment will introduce you to the basics of Facebook pages and in the next installment we will delve a little deeper into Facebook ads.
Goal 1: Get your page ranking in Google and Facebook for your business’s name.
Select a URL that makes sense and works for SEO.
Facebook allows you to create a custom URL for your page after you have reached 25 likes. If available, set your business name for the URL to allow customers to easily find you.
Put your business in the appropriate category.
This is especially important for businesses with walk-in local traffic to encourage Facebook “check-ins”.
Don’t choose a spammy page title.
While it can be tempting to cram in as many keywords as possible, you can count on this only hurting your page in the long run. When visitors are deciding if they want to “like” your page, they don’t want to see any spam indicators.
Instead of ‘Tom’s Vegetarian, Gluten-Free, Natural Hamburgers & Fries: Serving Portland, Scarborough & South Portland, Maine’ go with ‘Tom’s Burgers & Fries’ and set your location.
Take advantage of the ‘About’ text box and ‘Info’ tab.
These are where you can include important links and keywords vital to ranking.
Add your services.
Many businesses skip over this part completely. By adding services to the ‘Services’ tab, you make it clear what your business has to offer. Adding prices will leave you with qualified leads or you can instead use the pricing field as a CTA (call-to-action) by including your phone number.
Goal 2: Give a good representation of your business and encourage page “likes”.
Set high-quality images as your cover photo and profile picture.
Remember that for some, this will be their first introduction to your business and it is important to complement your logo and overall brand design. Ensure all images are the correct size to avoid a fuzzy/pixelated effect. Below are the latest Facebook image requirements.
| Width | Height | |
| Cover Photo | 851px | 315px |
| Profile Picture in Header | 168px | 168px |
| Profile Picture on Timeline | 32px | 32px |
Take advantage of pinning.
When you pin a post this means that it will be relocated to the top of your page wall. Keep in mind that most people will only view your page wall once and at this point they will either “like” your page or move along. Put your best foot forward! Pick your most interesting post to pin at the top and encourage them to “like” your page.
Utilize Facebook Plugins and buttons on your website.
While one of the motives of being active on Facebook is to attract people to your website, the reverse (attracting website visitors to your Facebook) is beneficial as well. The more likes your Facebook page has, the more credible it looks and audiences it has the potential to reach.
Consider contributing to Facebook groups.
By participating in other people’s related groups or creating your own, you have the ability to get your business’s name out there and show your expertise. Create a group where the public can ask advice and general questions. It could lead to a sale or at least page “likes”!
What’s your strategy going to be?
Start by determining what your audience wants to see in their newsfeed. If you’ve already fully defined your buyer personas, you’ll know what their goals and concerns are and will be able to create content that aligns with them.
Maintaining a blog will give you consistent content to share on Facebook that links back to your website. Besides attracting website visitors, educational blog content will increase conversion rates. After all, quality content pieces are the building blocks of inbound marketing!
Tune in for the next segment of this beginner guide in which we will explore:
- How often you should post.
- What times and days of the week you should post.
- An introduction to Facebook ads.
