Starter Guide To Facebook Pages

This was posted on 02/17/2011 and was filed in Social Media, Guides and Information | (No Comments Yet)

What Is A Facebook Page?

Facebook pages are essentially mini sites on facebook for your company, organization, or even hobby to live on. They allow your business to get out there into the world of social media and integrate right into the facebook user streams. Facebook users may 'LIKE' your page and add it to their list of interests, therefore giving your brand more recognition and spreading it out with the world while also letting users see your latest posts and updates.

How Is It Different From A Profile?

Profiles are meant for human beings - not businesses. Many companies will go out and register a profile under their business name, and will start adding friends to try and up their web presence. This is the wrong way to do things. Pages have content and features that have been put in place distincly for business owners that let them perform and interact with users in a completely different way. Rather than having 'Friends', they have 'Fans'. These fans can share pictures, videos, comments, reviews, etc with the business and the business can create new pages to show off and can place 'LIKE' buttons on their website to promote their page. These buttons allow users to form a connection with the click of a button, rather than having to accept a friend request.

Facebook pages repesent a business or organization and Facebook Profiles represent and individual person. Clean and simple.

You might be wondering if your business even needs a page. Generally, I would say - YES. It does. Facebook is one of THE most popular and most visited websites on the planet. You are missing major oppertunities by not creating a page for your business. Facebook not only provides a way for you to interact with your fans and clients, but it helps your business spread out to friends of your fans by showing them, 'Hey! Your friend likes this... You might too.' Interacting with your fans and showing them what is going on with your business helps keep your business in their mind and helps drive sales to your store. On top of this, it provides a significant SEO boost to your business when search engines see your page setup and the different users that are interacting and liking it.

Setting Up Your Facebook Page

Head over to http://facebook.com/pages/create.php to setup your Facebook Page. Here, you will setup the page based on what kind of business or organization you are trying to represent. Never make a page for a business or organization that you are not a representative for!

Once your page has been created, you will want to go in and setup your company information. You can always go in and change this, but it is important information your users will be looking for. Make sure you list your website, your products, a description of what your company does and what it sells. If you have an address, pop that in and you will be able to setup a Places Page to support the physical address of your location. You can post deals and your users can 'Check In' to your business from their mobile phones - promoting your store even more.

Once your page has been created and setup, its time to actually let people know that it exists. Go ahead and make your first post - Remember, this will work exactly like a normal Facebook profile. If you login to your facebook account and post on your page's wall, the post will appear as if the PAGE posted and not your USER ACCOUNT. Make your post to show that yes, you are alive and let's start letting people know that it exists. There is a button titled 'Suggest To Friends'. This will allow you to tell your friends, colleagues, etc. that your page exists. Go ahead and tell your audience about the page and that will put you off to a good start. I would HIGHLY reccomend adding a link to your facebook page to your company website, and a LIKE button (See the FAQ below) to drive even more traffic. If you want to advertise in-store, create a flyer or even create a window decal to advertise your Facebook Page.

Advanced Features: Place Pages, FBML Pages, and Addon Applications

Once your page has been setup and you think you're ready to dive into more it's time to look at additional applications for your page. FBML Pages allow you to create 'SubPages' for your page. You can put just about ANYTHING you want on these - Javascript, XHTML, FBML, etc as long as it is standards compliant and won't mess with others' computers. This is very useful for displaying additional information to your customers - your current inventory, a contact form, instructions to your store, etc

Place Pages are pages that are built around your business's address. They allow you to put up deals and coupons for when your customers 'Check-In' and cause your business to show up when Facebook users are looking for nearby places on their phones. To create a place page for your business, either wait until people start to check in to your business and Facebook notifies you that it has been created OR goto your business, check in and claim your business. Once your place page has been created you may need to merge it with your existing page.

If you are looking for more advanced features, check out some of the applications that have been made for pages. Edit your page and click on 'Apps' to see what you currently have installed.

That Was Easy... Is There More To This?

Oh, yes. Facebook is CONSTANTLY releasing new features and updates to the page system and there are many topics that were not covered in this guide. You will need to monitor your page, keep your fans entertained and make sure you are always growing. You can look into advertising your page on Facebook or even use your page to boost sales and increase traffic to your site. Create FBML pages to give your customers more informatino about what your company is and create deals for when they come to your store. If you need help with any of this or have simple questions, feel free to contact us - we will continue to update this page.

Frequently Asked Questions About Facebook Pages

How Do I Get A Facebook Page Username?

Your username may be used to give yourself and your fans an easier way to get to your page. By default, your facebook page's URL will be http://facebook.com/pages/your-page-name/9844393483493498. You may sign up for a username to store at http://facebook.com/yourbusiness/. To grab your facebook username, you will need to first attain 25 fans (Why? To cut down on spam and people trying to hoarde page names and sell them off later) and head over to http://facebook.com/username/. The process is incredibly easy and takes only a minute or two to do. Once your username has been set, you cannot change it and no other member or profile may take it.

Do I Need A Facebook Account To Make A Page?

No! While I would fully reccomend you make an account to link all of your pages to, you do not need an account. The creation process for your page would be the same, but you would provide an email address and password to login and administer your page with.

Can I Have Multiple Pages Linked To My Facebook Account?

Yes! Just keep creating pages and they will all be administerable under your Facebook account when logged in. Facebook has a great management system for all of the pages that you control that may be accessed at http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/

Can I Let Others Control My Page?

Yes. You may make any Facebook user or any person with an email address an admin on your facebook page. To add and remove admins, head to your page and click 'Edit Page'. Choose the 'Manage Admins' tab on the left and you will be able to add and remove administrators.

How Do I Make a Like Button?

If you are a web developer or blog owner, you may be interested in creating a 'LIKE' button for your Facebook page, website, or even individual website pages. Head to http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/ to create LIKE buttons for single pages. This will generate HTML code that you will need to place on your site. There are many options to choose from to customize your button, from the theme to the font you may use. While we do have these options the display and shape will always stay the same so your users will know exactly what they are clicking. When you make your button, make sure you copy the IFRAME PLUGIN CODE. XBFML is a topic for another day.

If you are a developer looking to create a loop for like buttons, you will need to do something like this example in PHP:

WordPress LOOP Example:

We need to use urlencode or a similar function to create a URL-friendly link. If we include a URL that has slashes, equal signs, or number signs ( /, = or #), we will hit issues. Trust me!

Example:

OUTPUT:

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