How to Create a Facebook Business Page: Digital Marketing 101
Are you getting started as an entrepreneur and wondering how to create a Facebook business page? This post will cover the basics of why and how to get started marketing your business on Facebook. Already have a Facebook page? It may be time to consider expanding your online presence by getting a website, or increasing and optimizing your use of social media.
Why Create a Facebook Business Page
Since kicking my digital marketing business off by offering free consultations to potential clients in the Belleville area, I’ve heard a lot of the same questions repeated by different people. The question that nearly every single new business owner asked at some point was: How do I start marketing my business online for free?
While there are a number of ways to do this, few are as easy and effective as creating a Facebook business page. By doing so you can immediately let your friends (and potentially their friends, and their friends) know that you’ve gone into business, and start sharing information about your products or services.
I recommend watching the following video and then reading the rest of the post; while I tried to cover the important points in both mediums, they may each contain a small detail or two that the other lacks.
Thinking About Starting a Small Business?
Creating a Facebook page can be a great way to test the waters on a new idea. In fact, because Canada allows citizens to conduct business without a license (and because Facebook does not require a license either), it’s quite possible to use a Facebook business page to discover whether there is a market for your idea and begin making sales without spending a dime.
Is this a realistic scenario? No. As a business owner you should be aware that investment is generally required in order to generate profit (i.e. “it takes money to make money”). However, if you don’t initially have much of a marketing budget, or if you’re just getting a sense of whether you want to go into business at all, starting with a Facebook business page makes a lot of sense.
How to Create a Facebook Business Page
There is actually more than one way to do this, but I’m going to go over what I consider the easiest method, which assumes you already have a personal facebook account. First make sure you are signed in to your Facebook account. Mouse over the blue menu at the top of the page and click on “Create”.
A dropdown menu will appear with several options. Click on “Page”.
This is where I stop providing images, for two reasons. Firstly, Facebook is constantly changing what the “Create a Page” process looks like and the options available. Secondly, the rest of the process is just making simple decisions and filling out basic information. It’s really no more difficult than creating or using a personal Facebook account, so you should be comfortable enough completing it on your own.
Once you have your Facebook business page created, there are a few steps you should take to optimize it so that it can be found by people in the community, and so that those visiting your page will understand what it’s about and be able to easily contact if they so choose.
How to Optimize a Facebook Business Page
The first and probably most important step is to set up a username for your Facebook page, because doing so will create a custom URL which you can easily share. For example, the URL of my Facebook page connected to this website is facebook.com/alextuckerdigital. That’s easy enough to remember that I can type it, write it down, or even share it via word of mouth in conversation. Others can also tag my page using @alextuckerdigital in their posts or comments.
In order to create or modify your Facebook business’ page’s username, click on About in the left menu. You will be shown the above screen; notice the Edit buttons next to Category, Name, and Username. Sometimes Facebook can be crabby and won’t allow you to set a username – in this case, the best workaround appears to be to add someone else as an admin and let them set the page’s username.
In either case, the next step in optimizing your page is to click on the Settings tab to the top right of the page, just above your page’s banner. This will take you to the back end of your Facebook page. You can do a number of useful things here including adding admins or contributors, defining messaging and notification options, connecting to instagram, and more. One of the most important steps to take initially though is to click on the Templates and Tabs button in order to arrange the aesthetic layout of the page.
If you don’t adjust your page’s layout, you may end up with uninteresting or confusing content sitting at the top of your page. Personally I recommend using either your services or your posts feed as the top level tab, but depending on your business a different arrangement may make more sense.
From the Templates and tabs screen you’ll be able to easily select a template, and drag and drop the tabs to adjust the order in which they appear. Once you’ve done that, click on the three grey dots beneath your banner image.
Select View Page as Visitor from the dropdown menu that appears in order to see your page the way everyone else does and double check your design! You can always go back into settings and make adjustments if you see something you don’t like.
To further optimize your Facebook business page, follow the steps outlined in this tutorial I made by popular demand:
Now you know how to create an optimize a Facebook business page! If you need further assistance feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at your leisure.
