Facebook Essentials Social Series
Facebook is the most widely used social media platform and a must for a business of any size. 93% of businesses are active on Facebook*, and over 200 million businesses use Facebook’s apps and free tools*. Those numbers are staggering! Not only is a Facebook business page pretty much a requirement, but they also aid in your website health and help you to rank better on search engine results pages. One thing I’ve learned throughout years of marketing small businesses on Facebook is that things are always changing, so brushing up on your knowledge can’t hurt.
A few interesting statistics about Facebook users*:
69% of Americans use Facebook.
42% of American teens use Facebook.
37% of U.S. adults get their news from Facebook.
73% of U.S. adults visit Facebook every day.
This summer, as an active member of the OWA’s Digital Marketing Committee, I am assembling a social series of blog posts that cover the essentials of the major social networks. Last month the post was about Instagram, stay tuned for next month’s on LinkedIn.
If there is anything you would like clarified or if you have any additional questions, feel free to comment at the end of this article or send me a private message on Facebook at @opticiannow.
First things first, make sure you have a business page rather than a personal page with a business name. Business pages allow more options, settings, tools, and the Meta Business Suite app that is only available for admins of business pages.
Profile Essentials
Profile Photo
Don’t underestimate the importance of a good profile image! Users scroll through Facebook pretty quickly and you want your tiny little photo to stand out. The minimum size is 360×360 but the image will be cropped to a circle; No matter what you upload, all four corners will not appear. Make sure you edit the image appropriately so everything that should be seen appears correctly. When editing, don’t zoom out too much or the image will be too tiny to recognize.
Mobile vs. Desktop profile views
Cover Photo
The cover photo is prime real estate and visibility for those who visit your page, the big header image at the top of your page. This can be used for simply another logo, a photo that represents your brand, events, promotions, announcements, you name it. Cover photos display at 820 x 312 pixels on computers, and 640 x 360 pixels on mobile devices. With this in mind, I’ve found it best to edit the cover photo to have extra empty space around all edges with the main message in the center – this ensures something important doesn’t get cropped out.
Complete All of the “About” Sections
The about section is the most important of them all! If you can’t remember when you setup your page, it’s likely that some options have changed so it’s advisable to visit this area of your page to review. The fields include:
Bio – this has a fairly short description limit, make sure you get your best points included.
Category – select the most applicable category, if more than one applies then choose the dominant one.
Address & Phone – if you have one make sure you enter these! If you’re not a brick and mortar, and you’d prefer, it’s okay to leave this blank.
Email – if you have a general email address enter that here. If you would rather this not be public then leave it blank.
Website – a must! If you do not have a website use a link that is most important to you (LinkedIn profile, scheduling link, etc).
Hours – by inputting hours this shows visitors a green “open now” or red “closed now” when on your page.
Services Tab on Facebook Page
Complete the Services Section
This is the second most important section of information on your page. I would recommend listing your most popular handful of services here, too many can dilute the point. You can create a service, add a description, and even a photo.
Choose your Action Button
You can have up to two action buttons display on your page. Buttons stand out and people are looking for something to click. Select the most actionable for your business. Options include:
Message
WhatsApp message
Call
Email
Contact us (website with contact info)
Book now scheduling tool
Sign up form
Start order url for restaurant
View shop
Get tickets
Learn more url
Get quote auto messenger questions
Visit group
Play game
See menu
Claim your Vanity URL
This is a must do! You want your Facebook URL branded like a website URL – ex: Facebook.com/OpticalWomen is far easier for anyone to remember or type in than Facebook.com/38294959918288392. Try to select a timeless name that will not need to be changed again later. Also try to have all social media profile URL’s have the same name – ex: Facebook.com/OpticalWomen & Instagram.com/OpticalWomen.
Simply click “edit page info” and go through the steps to claim your new URL! Your page must have 25 likes to be able to do this. Once this is complete be sure to share the URL wherever you want: email signature, website, business card, etc.
Pro Tip: Usernames are universal across platforms, so if you share a post from Instagram to Facebook you should edit your Facebook post to display the Facebook username. If you do not, the post will link to the mentioned username’s Instagram page rather than Facebook page. It’s a good rule of thumb to keep people on the same network they visit you from because not all people partake in all networks.
More Important Things
Note: Meta owns both Facebook and Instagram and you’ll notice some similarities in features between the two networks.
Add Featured Items
Featured items are specific posts, photos, or stories that you can have displayed on the top of your page in your intro or about area as highlights. These display as a portrait image so landscape or square images may get cropped.
Add to your Stories
Stories are what appear in circles above all other content at the top of your feed. These are mostly for fun short updates or for things you may not want to live on your profile forever. Stories have a 24 hour lifespan and then disappear. You can also double-dip and share your posts to your stories.
Follow Pages
Following other pages as your page can boost your engagement, credibility, and visibility. When logged in as your page, find and like/follow other pages. Try to stick to applicable professional pages because your followers can see who you follow.
Reviews
You can opt to have or hide reviews or ratings on your page in your settings. Allowing reviews is encouraged because it can show your credibility to other followers and those who visit your page.
Videos
Videos are incredibly popular on Facebook and can acquire tremendous exposure for your page. Comparable to Instagram’s “Reels”, Facebooks are called “Watch”. Statistics show that videos between 2 and 5 minutes gather more engagement from social media users.* Live video is also an option to explore.
Events
Creating a page on Facebook for your event is an additional way to promote and expand your marketing reach efforts. From your homepage, in tools, click on “events” and create from there. Add info to all of the fields, including an image, and once complete you can share to your page and followers. Once people RSVP to either attend or are “interested” they will get updates anytime you post an update to the event page.
Pin a Post
When you “pin” a post to your profile it remains pinned at the top of your feed above all posts. You can pin more than one post. Find the post you’d like pinned and click the … menu in the top right corner of the post and select “pin post”. When you’re ready to unpin the post, follow the same directions to unpin.
Ads or Boosted Posts
Facebook ads have the potential to reach over 2.1 billion people.* The Ad Center allows business pages to create ads that are extremely targeted to specific demographics or geography. Facebook ads provide the highest return on investment (ROI) among all paid advertising channels.* When used properly, The Ad Center tool can be very effective and is worth looking into if you’re interested in advertising on Facebook. I could write an entire book on the Ad Center alone! If you want to pursue ads, do some Google searches for tips and tricks before jumping in with both feet.
When you post content that is popular, Facebook will sometimes recommend “boosting” that post to reach more people. This is essentially an ad also, but it is just for that one post, rather than a new “ad”.
Activity
Be your Page
Over time, Facebook has made it much easier to navigate AS your page. You can follow other pages, like, or share posts from your personal profile or as your page. Keep in mind when acting as your page, your followers can see the posts and pages you like and follow.
The posts of who you follow will show up in your feed and you’ll want to like, comment, or share their stuff. When you do this you can capture new followers because your likes and comments will appear in the feed of that page’s followers. In essence, your actions are “recommended” to other people and thus, your engagement can gain you followers.
Be Engaging
As the most used network, engaging with your followers, and those you follow, is made extremely easy. Having this common ground can allow conversation between two people that would be extremely less likely to meet under any other circumstance.
Like others’ posts and comment on posts. If someone comments on your post, do your best to ALWAYS respond to them! It could be a response as simple as a like, a response with an emoji, or more than that. The person left the comment for a reason and replying shows that you value your followers.
Schedule Posts
One thing I hear repeatedly is that people don’t have time for social media. This is an easy fix! When creating a post there is an option to schedule it out instead of posting it right now. Sit down and schedule several posts over a set time period and you’re done! Doing this will show your followers that you’re active and allow you the ability and freedom to not give social media a second thought.
Reshare Others’ Posts
I love to share things that other people post, there are some gems out there. Sharing others’ posts can humanize you and show that you value connections. When you share someone else’s post it also notifies them that you have.
Invite Friends to Follow
Switch to use Facebook as your personal self and go visit your page – you will see an “invite friends” button or in the … dropdown menu. This will bring up a list of your friends, the ones you select will be sent an invitation to like your page. This is a quick and easy way to gain followers!
Pro Tip: If you share a URL and it doesn’t appear “pretty”, you can use Facebook’s debugger tool to re-scrape the URL to display correctly. Look at the image below to see before and after re-scraping. Having the image display can get more people to see your post.
Before vs. After re-scraping a URL in Facebook
*Sourced from this Hubspot article
Follow the Optical Women’s Association on Facebook: @opticalwomen
Well, there you have it. I realize that there is much more to Facebook than what I included in this article, but this is what I deemed “essential” with a few extra tips.
If you’re on mobile, you can use the Meta Business Suite app to manage everything mentioned in this article.
You should also revisit your about section and bio at least once a year, or every six months, to make sure the information is still current.
Want to help the OWA with our Facebook presence? Consider joining the OWA’s Digital Marketing Committee.
Written by: Carissa Dunphy
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