With over 2.23 billion monthly active users, Facebook is certainly a platform that businesses should seriously consider adding to their marketing mix. And with the tools and options available, it’s now even easier to create a great business page and reach more of your intended targets.
We have spent many years creating, managing and evolving Facebook pages, and we have lost count of the amount of campaigns and posts we have delivered over the years. We have experimented and tested, had some failures and learned, had great success and learned some more, then Facebook did another update and we had to learn some more. It’s been fun and frustrating at the same time, and we don’t want others to go through this.
We have created this guide to creating a professional Facebook page, getting the ball rolling and gaining your first 100 followers. But before we get into creating your page, there is one topic that we want to cover with you as it’s vitally important. And that topic is…
Is Facebook the right platform for my business?
Facebook is social. Social is not just business, so it needs to be fun, interesting and engaging, not just sales promotions and business updates. If you want to just talk business, then Facebook is not the platform for you. If you’re reading this then you are probably aware of that, but the big question is if your business understands that? If the business is not happy to engage in the right way, then it will impact on the success of the page and all your effort could be wasted.
Think about what you want to achieve, the demographics of the targets you want to reach and what would interest them. If you can put out the content that they will engage with then great, let’s get you going. But if you can’t, then we would seriously consider if it is worth the investment.
We don’t want to put you off, Facebook is a great platform to help reach your targets, but it must be done in the right way, and so we would highly recommend doing your research and planning before jumping in.
If you have done that and Facebook is the right platform, then let’s continue with getting your page up and running.
How to create a killer Facebook page that will get you noticed
Lots goes into creating an amazing Facebook page and it’s not something that can be done in one hit and forgotten about. It needs to be sculptured and evolved over time. Here we will cover the basics to get you started:
- Fill out your business information – page name, categories, address and phone number
- Add a profile photo (170px x 170px) and cover photo (820px x 462px)
- Fill out page information – description, categories, contact information, location, hours, etc
- Create a username and customer URL to make it easier to find
- Add a call to action button
- Customise your page to make it unique and put the best content first
- Add any collaborators who will also be working on the page
- Publish your first post.
Once you have done all these and your page is in a good place, it’s time to really get things going and we have a few tips to get you started.
How to kick things off with a bang and get the ball rolling
You now have a page set up and so it’s time to start posting and building up your network. We have compiled the below tips to help you get things going and give your page a good start.
- Start posting as soon as possible. Share website content, run a competition or post some thought-provoking posts. Just start getting your messages out there. If your page is new, then there won’t be much there for people to stick around or come back for, so you need to improve this before you start to get lots of visitors.
- Explain to the business what you are planning to do and ask them to get involved by interacting with posts, liking and sharing the page, inviting friends to like it and to become a Facebook ambassador for your company. You could even ask them if they have anything that you can use. For example, if any of them are doing anything for charity or helping a good cause that is worth shouting about. Getting employees involved is a great way to get a good boost to your network.
- Start talking to your suppliers, customers and wider network about collaborations, sharing and supporting each other. Not only will this help widen your reach and build your own network, but it also means that you can share some of the workloads and do more with your own resources.
- Pay to boost some posts to widen your reach quickly. Gone are the days of being able to reach a wide audience without paying on Facebook and if you are late to the party, it can be a struggle to build up your network. You may want to consider setting aside a budget to boost some posts and give things a good initial boost.
There are lots of ways to build your network and get your posts seen - the above are just a handful of ideas - we highly recommend rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck in.
How to get your page’s first 100 followers
Anyone who has a social media account will know that great feeling when you reach a milestone. It might have been your first 100 friends, or your post that got over 100 likes, whatever is was it certainly felt good. And once you hit that first milestone, it is so much easier to get to the next one and the next one. Here are a few tips to help you on your way to getting your first 100 followers:
- Invite your Facebook friends to like the page and get them to ask their followers
- Ask your colleagues to like and share the page, and ask them to invite their friends
- Ask suppliers, clients and any other organisations that you work with to do it
- Promote your page on your website and emails
- Look for other opportunities to promote your page. For example, on delivery notes, flyers in product catalogues or on hold messages
- Run a contest to gain followers, likes and shares with a decent prize
- Be social, join groups, follow others, share, like and comment, the more you get out there the more people will notice you.
So, there it is, our tips on creating a good Facebook page, getting the ball rolling and reaching your first milestone of getting 100 followers. However, there is so much more to consider and plan than what we have covered here, so to help get you started we have compiled the questions below.
Do you have a social media strategy in place?
Does your company have a social media policy?
Have you decided who will own the channel?
Do you have procedures in place that deal with negative comments, reviews, etc?
Do you have any opportunities to advertise the page to your targets?
Not sure where to start? Or do you have a page but not sure how to take things forward? Then we are here to help, just let us know what you want to achieve, and we will make it happen.