Using Facebook as a Business Page 101

Now, you have to have a personal facebook page to create a business page, so you can be an “administrator” of your business page.

When you sign onto your personal page, you can access your business page in basically three ways.

1) When you first sign in to your personal page, you are on your home page. You have two pages with your personal page the same as you do with your business page: Home page and Profile page. Anyway, from your personal home page, there will be a tab for “Pages” on the left side of the page. You may have to click on more to see it, but once you click on the “Pages” tab, you can click on the link of your business page and go to your business page. It takes you to the profile page of your business page where the “wall” is and you can make posts as your business. Once you’ve signed in this page recognizes you are an administrator for it. However, as soon as you click on the Home page or Profile page tabs on the top right next to the Account tab you will go back to your personal page. Now, if you clicked on “Pages” from your personal home page (like before), and then clicked on the “switch” tab next to your business page link instead, you will again, go to your business page profile page. However, this time when you click on the Home or Profile tabs on the top right next to the Account tab, you don’t go back to your personal page, but when you click on Home, you see the news feeds coming into your business page. When, you click on Profile, you stay on the business page profile page. 2) The same things are exactly the same when sign onto your personal page, and you click on the Account tab on the top right of your personal Home page or Profile page. You click on Account, then “Use Facebook as Page” and the same two options are there; you can click on the link to your business page or click on “switch” and the same thing will happen as described previously. 3) The third option to get to your business page is simply to type it into the search box and go to it. This will have the same affect as clicking on the link for your business page as mentioned above, and thus, it won’t have the same affect as when you click on “switch.”

The Thing to remember is that however you get to your business page, when you make a post, it will appear as your business (main profile picture) and not your personal profile picture.

Home Page: Whether you are on your personal pages’ home page or your business pages’ home page, you will see news feeds. The news feeds on your personal page will be those of your friends and pages (businesses) that you like. The news feeds on your business page will be those of other businesses that your business likes. As your business, you can’t like people, just other business pages. On the Home page you can make a post the same as you would on the Profile page or your wall. When you make a post on your home page it just goes to your wall. So, you can post something, upload a picture, upload a video, post a link, etc. on your Home and Profile pages.

On your business page, all the tabs on the Home page are accessible on the Profile page, except for your new feeds and maybe the notes tab, but the Profile page will have more options/tabs to view and any apps you add will appear on your Profile page.

Notes: One of the best uses of a note I’ve seen is to create a contest within a note and post the link to your note on your page (actually, repost it if need be because it will automatically go to your wall when you create it; anything you do from any of your tabs will show up on your wall). This way when people comment within your note you created, you can keep track of what people have said.

Profile Page: A place where you can make posts as your business, as the administrator, and interact with people that like your page, trying to get them to comment, participate in contests, trivia, get rewards, and connect with local people and businesses. Any events at the store, make sure to list them on the events tab. Some of the other tabs and applications can be useful, but sticking with the basics and studying pages of other businesses is the way to start out with your page.

Insights: You can see how many people have viewed your page and the demographics involved.

Facebook 101:The first thing you need to do with your business page (same as you need to do with your personal page= friends) is to get people to like your page.

One of the best ways to get more people to like your page is to go to the bottom left of your page and click Share. When you click on Share, you can share your business page with all your friends by making a comment/recommending your friends to like your business page and it will post on your personal page wall for all your friends to see your comment(s) about your page and the link to your business page (including the profile picture of the page).

Sharing your page with your friends is one thing to do as well as trying to give your friends incentives to share your page with their friends and get their friends to like your page as well.

Other things to do to get people to like your page:

Put your page’s facebook link on your emails, documents you give to customers, receipts or stickers on the carry-out bags, in-store flyers, signage posted in the store, circular mailings to customers.Also, try to ask for email addresses of your customers at register and get emails from doing in-store promotions and contests. Having their emails you can email specials and a link to your facebook page. Also, you can have in-store contests that require email addresses as well as going to your facebook pg.

You should make things you post relevant, useful, interesting, fun, and interactive.You should make several posts a week to keep people’s attention and interest up. You should also make posts that will reward people who like your page and keep up with it! Also, any or most specials, special contests, special events, and any kind of advertising program you have going should be posted on your facebook page to keep followers of your page well informed on what’s going on in your store special. Specific specials or opportunities for people that like your page should be done from time to time.