Facebook 101

Part 1 of 2

Facebook currently boasts 1.79 billion users, so we’ll assume you’re one of those users and that you’re familiar with how to set up and use a personal Facebook profile. What you may not be familiar with is how to set up and run a business page—and having a Facebook business page for your company is as necessary as having a website and blog. Why Facebook? Refer to the opening sentence of this post.

Setting Up a Company Page

Happily, setting up a Facebook business page is pretty simple. First, though, if you’re not part of the 1.79 billion who have a personal profile, you’ll have to set one up because Facebook requires it before you can administer a business page (you can add additional admins, too, but we’ll get to that later). Following are the step-by-step instructions of creating a biz page.

1. Begin by going to Facebook’s business homepage or to your own profile page and choosing “Create a Page.”
2. Select the type of business you’re setting up (local business or place, brand or product, company or organization, etc.). You’ll be asked a few more questions based on the type of page you selected.
3. Complete your “About” details. You can add up to three categories, which allows you to be accurate and focused so you can attract the right audience. If you’re a photographer specializing in wedding or bridal photography, make sure you add that. If you also take business portraits, include that. Then write a dazzling (but true) sentence or two about your business. Don’t stress too much if it isn’t perfect at this point. You can always update it later.
4. Include your website to confirm that your business is real.
5. Add a profile photo—one that captures who you are and what your business is all about—whether it be of you the photographer or of a wedding couple you shot in the perfect light.
6. Tell Facebook who your audience is. A photographer wants to capture the attention of couples planning their weddings, but maybe that photographer only specializes in outdoor weddings.
7. Be sure to add your location because if you live in Texas, someone in Alaska who likes your page probably won’t be engaging your talents for the big day or shopping in your store. If you run an online business (either solely or partially), however, you can set your location to a wider area.
8. When you fill out “Interests,” you’ll be adding what your target customer is looking for, so be accurate so can you attract the type of customer who would be most interested in and likely to use your services.
9. Lastly, be sure to add a Call-to-Action button. This feature allows your followers to connect directly to your website and either sign up for your newsletter, book a session, shop online, or perform another function that may not be available on your Facebook page.

That’s it! Your business page is ready to go. Now click through the tour so you’re familiar with your page and how it works. Additionally, if you run a brick-and-mortar business, be sure to include information such as your address and hours of operation so that customers who need services/information fast can contact you ASAP. Also, add some eye-catching photos—the wedding photographer would want to highlight their best, most unique, creative work so their photos stand out and showcase their talent. Finally, don’t forget to check out your Settings button. This button controls pretty much everything about your page—from audience optimization to adding apps to run your page more efficiently.

Adding Users

Because you have a business to run (and a website to maintain and a blog to write and . . .), Facebook allows your page to have more than one user. As the page’s creator, you’re automatically set up as the admin, with full access to the page. Each successive person you assign as a user must first have their own personal Facebook account, but you don’t have to be friends with them on Facebook in order to assign them a role. Here’s how to do go about assigning additional helpers:

1. Under your Settings button, on the left-hand side, click “Page Roles.”
2. Type in the person’s name you want to assign a role or, if you’re not Facebook friends, type in their email address.
3. Click “Editor,” which will bring up a dropdown menu, to assign the user a role. There are five roles: admin, editor, moderator, advertiser, and analyst.
   • The admin level has full access to the page. Anyone who is an admin can manage the page’s roles and settings, edit the page and add apps, create and delete posts on the page, send messages from the page, respond to and delete comments on the page, remove and ban people from the page, create ads, view insights, and see who has published as the page.
   • The editor has the same access but cannot manage roles and settings.
   • The moderator is restricted from editing the page and apps and from managing the page’s roles and settings but has all other access.
   • The advertiser can create ads, view insights, and see who has published as the page.
   • The analyst can only view insights and see who has published as the page.

Click “Add” and you’re done! Now you can assign running the Facebook page to your editors!

Facebook also has an app called Business Account Manager. This tool allows you to manage multiple pages and roles and ad accounts. If you only have one page to manage, Business Manager isn’t necessary, but if you run a larger business and manage multiple pages and ad accounts, Business Account Manager allows you to do it all from your Manager account, making your job that much easier. If you want to read more about it, Facebook has a simple, easy-to-read guide on all things Business Manager.

There’s a lot more to Facebook than what we’ve covered here. The good news is, we’ll soon be writing about Facebook Ads (ad accounts—mentioned above), Power Editor, and Facebook for retail and e-commerce. We’d like to know what questions or comments you have about what we’ve shared so far. And we’d love it if you shared your Facebook secrets with us!

Lindsay Flanagan

Lindsay Flanagan is a senior editor and project and social media manager. She earned her Master of Arts in English and Creative Writing and spent over a decade working in higher education before joining the Eschler team. She and her husband are the proud parents of two brilliant daughters and make their home in Heber, Utah.

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