A Facebook page for businesses allows a business to share information and interact with visitors without having them connected to a personal account. Business pages increase awareness of your business (for free) and if you desire you can advertise on your page as well. A Facebook page for business includes business information, posting, messaging, and varied tools such as events and appointments and jobs. It also includes insights, which can help you find customers. Information on how to represent your business on Facebook can be found at https://www.facebook.com/business/help/2148431558717386?id=939256796236247
Facebook Business page strategies will change over time as new apps, and options change, but here are some of the basics:
- First, choose the option that best fits you, the business page link is: https://www.facebook.com/business/pages
- Edit your page info, which includes a general description, categories, contact information, location, service area, hours, price range, and products.
- Utilize the templates and tabs section, select a current template, and add content for the tabs that you can effectively provide for. Some of the tabs are default, so can’t be removed.
The next thing I would suggest is customizing your site to allow for a unique content area. The best option I’ve used is IFrame Apps : https://www.facebook.com/iframe.apps. With iframe apps you can embed a page, sell products, and provide promotions. You can learn more on their business page at https://iframe-apps.com/
Page sections:
There are varied sections you can add to a Facebook page, but keep in mind that not every section will work well for every business. Following are some sections you might want to consider including.
Home: This section is where your posts and updates are published to. This is also the first content a visitor will see when they visit your page.
About: The About section is an important parts of your Facebook page since visitors will likely go there to find specific information about a business. It should be filled out with your address, business details, contact information, hours and website URL.
Community: The Community page is where posts, photos and videos from visitors are shown.
Events: You can create event pages and promote them in this section. Once you create an event you can invite people and share information about it.
Photos: The photos tab features your photos and albums you’ve posted on your timeline.
Posts: This is a timeline section that shows all of your posts, including photos and updates. Keep in mind that Facebook will automatically add a post for updates so it’s best just to delete them from the page in most cases.
Reviews: The Reviews tab lets customers write a review and indicate if they would recommend your business. Ratings show up at the top of your page, if enabled. Reviews are often important to verify that a business is reputable.
Services: Use this to showcase your services. You can add a photo of your specialty, its name, pricing, description and duration.
Jobs: This is where you would add a list of job openings for your business.
Groups: The list of groups you’ve linked to on this page.
Offers: Lists current offers for your business.
Live: Shows live videos about your page.
If you sell online there are additional options to help you promote your online store.
Best Practices:
Once you have your business Facebook page in place you’ll want to regularly post content and ensure that your visitors are engaged. It’s important to know your target audience since this will define what you should post, as well as target demographics. This is especially important if you’re utilizing FB Ads.
Respond to messages
Facebook messenger will allow you to reply to customers. The message inbox can be found at the top of your page once you’re signed in as an administrator. Keep in mind that Facebook tracks the response rates and times of brand pages, for which you’ll get a response rating. You can learn more about FB messenger at https://www.facebook.com/business/marketing/messenger
Use insights if you have campaigns in place
Facebook insights is an analytics tool, similar to what Google provides. It includes data on page views, the number of visitors you’ve interacted with, and post engagements.
Use publishing tools
It can be helpful to schedule posts, especially if you’re a busy professional that doesn’t want to login daily to do updates. There are a lot of post options, which include text and image posts, videos, event promotion, and job postings. It’s generally recommended that a business post regularly — twice weekly is a good option. Keep in mind that there are 3rd party social media tools that you can use to assist you (such as Hootsuite), yet unless you’re a large business I wouldn’t use them since they cost to use.
Be engaging
Most social media visitors will appreciate when you talk to them directly. So, be personable. The goal here is to build a relationship of trust, which happens naturally when you ask questions and show interest. Where possible have conversations with your audience. Respond to comments, questions, and concerns.
Offer promotions and contests
Social media works best when you utilize it to drive traffic to your primary website. To help things along a promotion or contest can help with brand loyalty and general interest. Everyone loves getting free things. Many businesses will provide a contest with the stipulation that one needs to like and share their page.
Share useful resource information
Providing helpful information is always a good idea on social media as well as business websites. When a business provides helpful resources they will be viewed more favorably. Websites that provide useful resource content frequently rank higher in the searches than those that don’t.
Share information about your business
It can be challenging to know what to post, but I have found that there’s always things you can include. You can talk about your company history, celebrate anniversaries and company milestones, you can introduce new staff members, talk about the changes in your industry, about new products, or anything else that you feel helps your visitors know you and your business better.
Include videos
Studies have shown that most people are more likely to watch a video than read text on the page, and when they do read the text they generally just scan it. For some businesses Facebook Live is a great option since it will allow you to broadcast to your audience for free. You can learn how to use Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/solutions/facebook-live
Use Facebook ads
A Facebook campaign is a great way to promote your brand. While this option is not free to use, it’s very effective since Facebook utilizes comprehensive demographics when choosing who to show it to. Like Google AdWords Facebook lets you choose a daily or overall budget, select the time that the ad runs, and you can adjust your audience parameters as wanted.
As I noted above, more options are likely to come about in time, but this is enough to provide a good step in the right direction.
