Yay, you have decided to start a Facebook page for your blog or business!

Facebook is one of the most powerful social media tools for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and bloggers – and it is free!

 

 

 

As more people turn to their mobile devices to discover new things, small businesses need a strong online strategy. Facebook is the mobile solution for 65 million businesses pages.

 

Facebook is one of the most powerful social media tools - and it is free! 8 steps to start a Facebook page Click To Tweet

 

First things first

You need to create a personal Facebook account first before you create a business page. It is easy and free and you really don’t have to do much with the personal page if you do not want to.

 

Once your personal page is created, click the arrow at the top right of the screen and a drop down menu will appear. Click Create Page.

 

Choose a business category for your page. Then choose an industry-specific category for your page and type in your company name. Click Get Started.

 

Facebook will prompt you through the basic set up from here. Be sure to include your website and a brief description of your business or blog in the About section. You can always come back and edit this section more later by clicking the About tab on your page.

 

Upload a profile picture (size: at least 180×180 pixels). Add your page to your Favorites for easy access if you like.

 

The final step here is all about your potential audience (gender, age, location, interests). Do your best to fill it out. Facebook does a great job of knowing what people like to look at and putting the right information in front of them, take advantage of it’s savvy marketing skills!

 

Ta-da! You know have a Facebook page for your blog or business!

 

Now, let’s make it pop!

 

About section

Once your page is created, click the About box on the left hand side of the screen. Fill in this basic info and be sure to include a short description.

 

One thing I definitely recommend doing while you are here is changing the Facebook Web Address to your blog or business name so that someone can easily find it. For example, mine would be www.facebook.com/thefitniche. If you do not change this, FB automatically just generates a bunch of numbers and letters that follow the www.facebook.com/.

 

Add a Cover Photo

Click the little camera picture at the top left, above your profile picture and upload a cover photo. You can create a cover photo in Canva for free. The image should be 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall, and less than 100 kilobytes for best load time and display results.

 

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Once you upload and save your cover photo, click on the image on your FB home page.

 

This will open the image, be sure to put your website and any info you may want to include about your blog or business in the image description section on the right hand side.

 

This gives readers a call to action or a place to go if they open your cover photo and want more.

 

Feature video

A feature video will appear in your About box on the left side of your FB homepage if you choose to have one. You could use this video to talk briefly about your blog or business or just showcase a special project or event.

 

The first thing you have to do is upload the video into a post. Smart phones make this super easy! Once you do that, a video library type box should appear on the left side of your Facebook homepage. It is similar to how your photos are arranged – just a collection of all your photos, or in this case, videos. Click the Videos box.

 

Once here, click the video you want to feature. If you just have one, then the choice is easy! Add a description if you have not already. Then, right below the Like, Comment, and Share links are, click Feature this video.

 

Create a Call to Action Button

This is another great, free marketing tool that Facebook allows users to take advantage of. If you have an ebook or product to promote, you can use this box to direct readers to a webpage with a sign up form and more information.

 

Or you can use this box as a “Contact Us” or “Call Us” prompt that makes it easy for customers to get a hold of you.

 

People like one-click, easy to follow directions. Don’t make them think too hard.

 

This feature allows potential customers to contact you with in seconds… and it is so easy to set up! Literally will take you less than a minute.

 

Invite Friends to LIKE your new page

If you already have a pretty active personal Facebook account that you used to create this business page, you can click the Invite friends to like this page link on the left side of your FB page.

 

You can choose all or some of your friends to invite and it will send them an invite notification. Easy peasy.

 

Posts

Now it is time to start writing some Facebook posts! It is never a bad idea to start out organized, so create a little “road map” of the content you want to share.

 

For example, I may want to share a mix of fitness tips, healthy recipes, exercises, social media and blog marketing, and business advice. This will give you some direction so you don’t wake up every morning trying to figure out what the heck to post on Facebook.

 

There are four types of content you can share on Facebook: links, images, videos, and text. Video seems to be the most important engagement driver, followed by text, links, and photos. Try to use a good mix of all four of these and if you aren’t using video yet, start!

 

Be sure to share and link to other bloggers’ posts. Chances are they will like, comment, and share your content if you do the same for them.

 

Facebook Marketing

Marketing Plan

So you have your “road map” of different topics you want to share on Facebook, now put it into a weekly calendar. Here is an example:

 

Monday – Share something personal (a story, picture of your dog or family, what you did over the weekend, etc.)

Tuesday – Share someone else’s content.

Wednesday – Share an inspirational or educational image or video – or better yet – go LIVE!

Thursday – Use an image, video, infographic, or blog post to promote your own blog or business.

Friday – Ask a relevant question to readers… something that sparks emotions or inspires them.

Saturday/Sunday – Share a video… something educational, funny, or inspirational.

 

You can schedule your posts for the week right in Facebook. Just start writing your post and instead of hitting Publish, click the little arrow on the right and a drop down menu will appear. Here you can schedule a future post or even backdate a post. You can view all your scheduled and past posts by clicking Publishing Tools at the top of your page.

 

Write a Compelling Headline

People’s attention span is low, low, low. So you have to make sure your headline and first few words catch their eye. To see how your headline ranks in overall quality, SEO value, and social shares, try CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer. Simply enter your post in the text box and the tool will provide recommendations such as how generic the headline is, if you need more power and emotional words, if it is too wordy, etc. This tool is free and so easy to use – I LOVE IT!

 

When to Publish

According to this article on HubSpot Blogs, the best days to post to Facebook are Thursday and Friday and the best times are between 1pm-3pm when people are less interested in working and more interested in browsing the internet.

 

I am loving these easy to follow steps about how to create a Facebook business page! Check 'em out! Click To Tweet

 

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You may also like: How to start a successful Facebook Group to grow your business

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Let’s chat!

What is something you struggle with when it comes to Facebook and your blog or business?

 

 

Photo cred: Wonderlass