A Facebook page is an account for companies or organizations. It is similar to a Facebook profile, but it has special tools to monitor the interaction and participation of followers.
Facebook is the most popular social network in the world and more than being a tool to connect people, today it is a means for companies to interact with their audience.
But it is not enough to create a page on Facebook and hope that with the fact of being on the network, all the work will be done. It is necessary to study the correct actions to use to position your brand correctly in the network and to create an efficient relationship with your clients and prospects.
To do this, we select some tips to create a page from scratch - if you don't have one yet - and also tips on basic strategies - if you already have a page, but you are starting your actions on Facebook.
What is a fanpage or a Facebook page?
A fanpage (or Facebook page) is a page created especially to be a channel of communication with fans within the social network (fanpage = page for fans, in literal translation).
Unlike profiles, fanpages are spaces that bring together people interested in a common topic, company, cause or personality, without the need for the approval of a friend. It is the fan who chooses whether or not to follow updates on a given page.
Fanpages are very valuable communication channels for companies. Imagine that in the past you needed to invest in a television channel, a newspaper or a radio station to communicate with your potential customers.
The Fanpage plays a similar role. It is as if you had a space on television, newspaper or radio, but with a free option and a very interesting offer.
Starting to create a page on Facebook
The first thing you need to know before you start using Facebook for your business is that you should create a page for your business, not a personal profile.
With this in mind, you can now create a fanpage on Facebook . Doing it is not difficult. Just access the
link http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php . Now, choose the type of page you want to create. Some examples of options:
- Local businesses or locations;
- Company, organization or institution;
- Brand or product;
- Artist, band or public figure;
- Entertainment;
- Cause or community.
These categories, in turn, have very specific subcategories, in order to make it clear what the objective of your business is. Select the segment to which your page belongs, set the name and your page will be created.
Now, define all the settings of your page. If you've just created it, just below the cover photo is a step-by-step to start customizing: add a profile photo, place a cover photo, enter a short description of the business, and a username.
1. Profile and cover photo
Your profile photo is the main image of your business on Facebook, as it will appear every time you share new content in the news feed. Therefore, we suggest that you use an image that properly presents your business.
Regarding size, the default profile image is square, with a minimum resolution of 180 x 180px. So, before placing the image, make sure that it is in this format and with that minimum resolution, so that there are no distortions.
You can also use the cover photo to put your company image – the cover photo is the largest image that appears when someone accesses your page. For this image, what has been said about the profile image is also valid: you must place an image that has the exact size of the resolution (minimum 851 x 315px) so that no element of the image is cut off.
Take advantage of this image in a creative way: use it to place an offer, the vision of the company, support for a cause, the motto of your business, a photo (internal or external) of the company or of your product or any other product or other image that represents your brand in some way.
To find out more dimensions of Facebook and other networks as well, check out this infographic with image sizes for social networks .
2. About the company
In the "Information" section, which is located on the left sidebar of the page, it is possible to enter various information about your company, such as contact information, address, telephone, email, website and other important information, such as description and related topics.
In this section, you can also define a username, to customize the URL and create a Facebook page with a more professional image, as in the example of the RD Station page, whose URL was as follows: https://www .
In general, it is necessary to have a minimum number of visits so that you can customize the URL. Invite your close friends and family to “like” the page for the option to be released.
Just be careful with the choice of the URL, since changing that name is a difficult task. You do not need to consider this information now; If you want you can leave it for later.
3. Other settings
These aren't the only customizations you can make when creating a Facebook Page. There is a tab, called “settings”, where you can define information such as your target audience (this helps you gain relevance in searches), add page administrators, etc.
4. Other elements of the page
There are three columns that you will see after creating a page on Facebook:
- The column on the left is fixed, so when scrolling the page, the user continues to see the logo, name, shortcut for the "information" page and for the videos, among other points;
- In the middle column are the cover photo, the weekly comments and the timeline posts;
- In the right column are the "information" box, videos of the page, events, etc. Unlike previous versions of Facebook Pages, no more ads from other companies appear in that column, so they don't compete for user attention with your company.
5. Custom tabs
Facebook also allows custom tabs or categories to be created. These tabs are located below the profile photo, in a list format, and it is possible to choose between almost 30 options.
Customization can be done with iFrames, which are basically HTML documents within another HTML document. This means that anything a site can do in HTML can be turned into an app, which is how content on a web page moves within Facebook.
So, take advantage of this functionality for your business: see how you can use it to help people find information about your products and services. For example, when people search for restaurants on Facebook, an establishment that offers a menu tab on its page may be ahead of the curve when it comes to getting customers.
An example is this page below from Red Bull, which shows on the map where there are vacancies available to work in the company. Thus, you can use these examples to think about information that your company can offer that will help your customers and prospects make the purchase.
6. Call-to-Action Buttons
Facebook offers Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons that appear below the cover image. Their goal is to encourage people to take important actions on your Page.
There are several button options that you can use, including “book now”, “connect now”, “buy now”, “watch the video”, “send email” etc.
RD, for example, often uses a CTA button that redirects the visitor to the RD Station site page . However, during event times, we also direct the user to the RD Summit website .
Follow the step by step to add a CTA button to your page.
- Below your cover photo, click the “Add a button” option;
- Next, choose the call you want and fill in the information related to it ("buy now", "subscribe here", "get in touch", etc.)
- Click “create”. Facebook offers several actions, each with a different purpose:
- Book: Useful for businesses dealing with deals involving dates and travel, such as transportation companies, hotels, events, etc.
- Call: ideal for companies that use telephone service. You can make the call at the moment if the visitor is visiting the page from a mobile phone;
- Contact us: it is a good option for businesses that operate with SAC 2.0. You can either reply directly on Facebook or direct the user to your website, to a contact page. If you do not respond 24 hours a day, make it clear what your opening hours are.
- Send message: this option is used for the visitor to send messages that will be received by the Facebook chat.
- App Usage: This CTA is ideal for businesses that have some type of app. As currently 30% of people access the social network exclusively by cell phone and 86% of all users (1.19 billion) use mobile Facebook at least once a month, this is a great opportunity for new conversions.
- Play – Using this feature, you are going to direct your user to a game page. This is an excellent opportunity for your company, since, according to the Game Brasil 2015 survey , approximately 74.5% of those surveyed download games on their mobile phones, and 80% play while traveling in traffic. Whether you're creating a game or an app, remember that it's important to adapt to mobile platforms.
- Buy: If you want to send your user directly to the purchase, use this button. Stimulating the purchase is very important to get more conversions on your site. Do not forget to make it clear if there are any restrictions on your offer (validity, etc.).
- Register: This CTA is ideal for obtaining data and generating qualified Leads. The offer can be a newsletter, a list of promotions, etc.
- Watch video: Videos are one of the ways that drive the most engagement and views on Facebook. Therefore, use more videos to increase your audience. Just be careful not to be too emphatic on your cover, as this is frowned upon by social network policy and may cause your page to be penalized.
- Send email: In this option, the visitor of your page will have the opportunity to send an email to an address that you prefer.
- More information: This CTA can be used when there is nothing more specific to offer.
Why use a fanpage and not a profile?
Now that we've talked about what a fan page is and how to create one for your company, let's answer this very common question.
We will highlight 10 reasons why your company should have a page and not a profile:
1. Legal barriers
Facebook makes it clear in its terms of service that everyone can have a unique profile and that it must be personal. This means that any business profile violates the terms of service and can therefore be removed at any time.
It certainly wouldn't be good for your company to work to gain a friend base and then lose it.
2. Limit of connections
Profiles have a maximum limit of 5000 friends. We know that 5,000 is not a low number, but it is not impossible to reach either. Commercial fanpages have no restrictions on the number of fans.
One of the complaints of those who choose the profile over the page is that with the profile it is possible to request a friend, while with the page you can do nothing more than wait for the user to click "like". In fact, this happens, but given all the other benefits of a fan page, it is not worth maintaining the profile.
3. Fanpages for companies can have custom tabs
Only a fanpage allows you to edit tabs with any content you want. You can post photos, videos, discussion forums, information about specific products, events, and user reviews.
4. Appointments and records
Your fans and other fanpages can publicly mention your page. On a personal profile, this can only be done by your friends.
Tagging can be done on virtually every Facebook update (photos, videos, links, status, etc.), which means it's definitely beneficial for any page that wants to grow its fan base. Getting mentioned is always a way to increase engagement and interaction not only among your fans but also among other Pages.
If your Page has a physical location, people can sign up and mention that they are there, like a restaurant, bar, or hotel. In personal profiles this is impossible.
5. Calls to action
Another advantage that a profile page has is the ability to create a call-to-action button to insert into the fanpage.
These buttons encourage the user to click and take an action, as explained earlier in the post.
6. Data analysis
A fan page offers the option of generating reports, presenting important data about fans (such as location, age, language and gender) and the impact of the page (how many people visited, which posts were most commented on, how many photos and videos were viewed, etc.).
All of this information is inaccessible to anyone with a single profile.
7. Multiple access
One of the advantages of having a fanpage is that it can be managed by several people at the same time. Also, you can stay connected to your personal profile at the same time.
There are hierarchy levels where each role has a higher power limit over the others. These are: administrator, editor, moderator, advertiser and analyst. To find out what functions each level can perform, visit this Facebook help page.
8. Ads
By running a fan page, your business has the ability to create a wide range of ads to reach a broader audience or to promote specific offers.
You can also choose a specific type of campaign objective and optimize it to achieve those results:
- Boost your posts.
- Promote your page
- Send people to your website.
- Increase conversions on your website.
- Get installs for your app.
- Increase engagement with your app.
- Reach people close to your company.
- Increase participation in your event.
- Make people receive your offer.
- Get video views.
To learn more about how to accelerate audience growth and results with Facebook ads, download our Complete Guide to Facebook Ads.
9. Facebook Businesses
Facebook Business or Business Manager is a tool used to manage access to advertising accounts and fanpages.
The Business Manager is intended for companies that need to grant multiple and different permissions to a large number of users.
Briefly, the Business Manager allows:
- Manage access to listings and account pages: Clearly understand who has access to your listings and account pages, and remove or change permissions.
- Keep your business activities separate: To gain access to your ad pages and accounts without having to add your co-workers as Facebook friends.
10. Connect with Instagram and WhatsApp
In case you didn't know, Instagram and WhatsApp are owned by Facebook. That way, you can connect your professional accounts to each of them. By the way, to have a business account in them you must have a Facebook page.
The exchange of messages between the three platforms, by the way, is already being tested by Facebook, starting with the integration with Instagram. As you saw above, visitors can also send messages directly to a registered WhatsApp.
conclusion
These were just some of the first steps to learn how to create a Facebook page and get it ready for your Digital Marketing actions .
Equally important, it is to be permanently aware of Facebook trends and always be connected to establish a strong relationship with your target audience. Use your creativity and maintain consistency in the use of the network to engage your audience and generate the expected results.
To learn everything you need to create efficient digital marketing strategies on Facebook, download the eBook Introduction to Marketing on Facebook for free!
