Facebook has an informal, living room vibe something like you get when hanging out with a bunch of friends with the TV on. Sounds great for personal interaction, but how can your business participate? There's a fine line between fitting seamlessly into the conversational flow and awkwardly interrupting.
It is possible to make it work! Think about that TV on in the living room. Everyone shushes to watch that really good commercial. "I love that commercial," they say. Think about those conversations that turn to favorite cafés / pet groomers / bicycle shops / fitness clubs…
Reflect on your business's personality. Would your operation be comfortable in jeans and T-shirts sitting on the floor with a group of 25 to 34-year-olds, gossiping about stuff? Does it seem appropriate for your brand and message? If not, There are many other social media channels that you can look at, like LinkedIn or Google +. As you can see below, there's a huge difference in demographics between the most popular channels.
http://www.littleblackbox.uk.com/where-are-your-customers-hanging-out-online/
We're taking a look at the Facebook Business Page for a number of persuasive reasons, like these:
- 1.5 billion active users
- Like and Share buttons are clicked almost 10 million times every day
- 300 million photo uploads per day
- Average time of each Facebook visit is 20 minutes
- Your competition is on Facebook (42% of marketers report that Facebook is important or even critical to their business. Source: State of Inbound Marketing 2012)
- One in every five web page views is on facebook.com (infodocket.com)
https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/
It's hard to argue with these numbers. We recommend getting yourself a spot on Facebook, with a high quality Facebook Business Page. Experiment with it. Try an ad or two. Post relevant, interesting content. Link it to your other social media outlets so it automatically posts links to blog entries or press releases or coupons.
It'll cost you some time each week to maintain, but not as much as you might think. And the page works for your social media marketing 24 hours a day, putting you in position to capitalize on lead sources you didn't have before.
What follows is a brief primer on what's involved in getting started. It's remarkably easy and very much worth trying.
On your Facebook account, find this down-arrow and click it. One of the menu choices will be "Create Page." Upon selecting that option, you'll encounter this screen:
Let's stop here for a minute and decide what kind of page is best for your purposes.
The Local Business or Place Page Type
Use this one if you have what's called a brick and mortar store, a physical premises that people can visit and do business. If your commercial domain is mostly online, you probably want to move on to "Brand or Product." Also, if you have more than one location, select the "Company or Organization or Institution" page.
Facebook asks for an address and phone number, and a category, such as:
- Attractions/Things To Do
- Bank
- Bar
- Book Store
- Concert Venue
- Food / Grocery
- Hotel
- Local Business
- Movie Theatre
- Museum/Art Gallery
There are at least 40 choices, but If you can't find a good fit, go with the "local business" option.
The Local Business category goes on to give you fill-ins including hours of operation, parking, and the ability for visitors to check in using Facebook Places.
Company Organization or Institution Page Type
Once you select this option for businesses that have multiple locations, you again have the extensive list of categories to choose from. It's a little different from the Local Business list, but if you can't find a good match here, select "company," "organization," or "small business."
If you are an eCommerce outfit, and sell only through your own website, the Brand or Product type of page is probably closer to what you want.
The Brand or Product Facebook Page Type
Choose this one if your products or services are sold through multiple resellers, either online or in a physical location. This is where big and small brand names like Toyota, Apple, Walmart and Crown Maple Syrup do their Facebooking.
The next step is the same, with a slightly different list. Choose your category from the pulldown menu. If you just cannot find a good match, consider changing to one of the other page types that has a better fit.
Artist, Band or Public Figure
If your new Facebook page all about you or your team/group/ensemble/troupe, etc. and will feature awards, communication with fans, news and photos about you want this one. The category choices are different from the other lists, and they are fairly exhaustive. This is the category for Actors, Artists, Athletes, Authors, Politicians, Musicians- anyone who needs a corner of the internet for promotion.
Entertainment
Now, if your thing is a book, TV channel, movie, radio station, webcast, podcast or other artistic product, the Entertainment page type is for you. You'll be able to enter all kinds of information about your product, like an ISBN number, later in the process.
The Cause or Community Page
Unlike the other types of pages, this one has no category drop-down menu. That's because this page type is really for the unique, one-of-a-kind groups out there. Notice that Non-Profit Organization, Cause and Health / Medical / Pharmaceuticals are included in the Company, Organization or Institution Page Type. Local Business or Place also includes community/government and church / religious organization in its category list. See if that might fit you better than this page type.
It might be worth it to click on more than one Page Type tile just to see what categories are included in each one. A good reason for doing this is that the category you select presents you with customized fill-in forms specific to the category.The smoothest route to being findable on Facebook is being careful with the category you choose!
The next step is to enter your business name and agree to the terms, click on "Get Started."
After you enter the category and name, you'll be asked for a simple description, photo, whether or not you want the page added to your favorites (yes, you do) and your preferred audience...
We'll take a look Profile Picture and Preferred Page Audience later.
See more at: http://www.marketinggum.com/types-of-facebook-pages-for-business/#sthash.66QAefUG.dpuf
Once you begin the process, Facebook makes it easy to enter information that can help your customers find you. Here's a look at the process for a completely fake company called Heart Mart Discount Cardiology.
When you click the "Get Started" button, it takes you to this screen
Then here:
One of the best features is the ability to insert a profile picture and a cover photo. Usually, the profile picture is a photo of your product, your logo, or other permanent identifier that represents your brand.
In the case of Heart Mart, we found a bit of public domain clip art to act as our logo. We saved it to our computer from a Google search and uploaded it here.
The next step is to add the page to your favorites- no problem.
You also have opportunities to give Facebook some demographic information like age groups, gender, interests and map locations when you click on the "Preferred Page Audience" tab.
Location, age, gender and interests help Facebook promote your page to the right people.
Click "Save" and you get this:
The final item in our brief overview is the Cover Photo. This goes in the large gray area across the top. Once you create or find a great photo or artwork to place here it's a simple matter of popping it in. Click on "Add a Cover."
An original photo, whether professionally done or homemade is usually the best idea. Take a picture of your product, your office exterior, equipment- something that identifies your organization. Later, you can regularly update the photo to keep your page fresh. On a holiday like Independence Day, wish all your visitors a happy one with an image of fireworks and flags.
Dimensions of your graphic are critical to making it look just right. We chose this photo of a girl's face…
But got this error message:
Check out our offer here for exact details for sizing your Facebook graphics:
So we went online to find a photo for our fake business. Since we are publishing this online, we needed a non-copyrighted photo to insert. We did an image search on "medical center"
Then clicked the "Search Tools" button, then "Labeled for Reuse."
The Ronald Reagan Medical Center at UCLA looked great, so we saved it and inserted it into the space. You can reposition the photo to get it look perfect.
Now that you've got the look you want, take time to carefully explore the remainder of the setup options, like creating a Call to Action button leading to a landing page on your website. You're well on your way to a very successful inbound marketing campaign!
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At United WebWorks we understand that you don't just want a nice-looking Facebook page. You want more revenue! Social media marketing is just one dimension of a total and successful online marketing package that can win you more business and finally put you in the lead over your competition. So have a seat in the living room and join the conversation!
https://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-create-manage-facebook-business-page
http://www.marketinggum.com/types-of-facebook-pages-for-business/