Now in ALL the social media and networks, the current King of the Castle is without a doubt Facebook. Facebook is the world’s leading social network, with over 400 million users — 50 percent of whom login everyday.
The 1st step to building a brand presence on Facebook is to create a Page (used to be called a FAN Page, but the term Fan is passe and outdated nowadays…).
Unlike your personal profile on Facebook, the info and content shared over Facebook pages gets indexed by search engines. This is pretty important difference to those looking for traffic.
Start at the beginning…
Luckily creating a Facebook Page for your business is easy. Simply go to facebook.com/pages and click on the button top rioght that says [+Create Page] and follow the wizard. Have a GOOD look at the pages created by your competitors as a good guide. You’ll get an idea about how what you like and don;t like in a Page, and then work on how your Page could look.
Once you’ve got your Page created, it’s time to optimize it for SEO by editing its properties. Add all the normal relevant information here will help in getting the page indexed quickly.
Creating the perfect profile picture
The Page profile picture is displayed in any of the many of the newsfeeds when you share something with your fans from your page. We tend to recommend using your comapny logo.
Facebook specifies that profile pictures should be 200px wide, while height can vary as you want it. What is less easy to find in the info is how the thumbnail that Facebook uses across the system is generated from this picture.
You’ll find that Facebook crops images as it wants when generating a thumbnail, losing any information around the edges. There is however a “title safe” area within all images. So when you create your profile image that’s 200px wide, allow a 12 pixel border around crucial information (such as any writing or a logo) to allow for Facebook cropping.
Also remember that all Facebook thumbnails are square (with little rounded corners), and they are sized based on the length of the shortest side of the pic. So when thinking of rectangular profile pictures, ensure to keep the desired thumbnail imagery within a square boundary.
The Major Real Estate on the Page : Cover Photo
Now its time to add a cover photo. Your cover photo is the 1st thing anyone will see when they come to your Page. This is the kind of real estate you can leverage MAJORLY if you think about it for a while.
Some big no-no’s:
- Don’t add any price information
- Don’t add contact information
- Don’t add calls to action
- Don’t add references to any Facebook features such as Like or Share on the cover photo (Breaks Facebook terms and rules and u’ll get slapped!)
Cover photos are 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. If you upload an image that’s smaller than these dimensions, it will get stretched to this larger size. The image you upload must be at least 399 pixels wide. To get the best quality image and fastest load times for your Page, upload an sRGB JPG file that’s 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall and less than 100 kilobytes.
Page Usernames…
Usernames allow us to easily promote our business presence on Facebook with a short snappy Page address. The Page address can be used in marketing communications, company website and business cards.
This username will be used in the publicly accessible URL of your fan page and it is one of strongest ranking factor for Facebook search. Make sure you use a username that closely matches your company online name.
IMPORTANT: You will not be able to edit or transfer this username once you set it.
Also, if you want you can still make use of a domain you already own to point to your Facebook Page using a domain redirect. If you own your own domain (and frankly, who doesn’t), you can set up http://facebook.mydomain.com to point to your profile. Easy to remember, easy to share. Obviously, the same tactic applies to profiles you may set up on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. as well.
Start to get some followers and fans…
Begin by inviting your friends to like your page. Start sharing your blog articles on your Facebook page. People who like your page will automatically start seeing these stories on their Facebook wall. As we progress, we will look at advanced options to boost social activity on your page.
The Simple Way to post from WordPress
There are some awesome plugins for WordPRess that post every post directly to your Facebook Page. These need a bit of API work to keep up with the work with Facebooks ever shifting API and rules and regulations, but can be done.
Networking with other platforms
Building a large following does require a complete network of other social platforms, working in conjunction, to drive visitors to your business page. One brand that does this well is Victoria’s Secret with their PINK line.
As you can see, on their PINK landing page they have a link to their Facebook fan page and their MySpace profile. Victoria’s Secret leverages the traffic their home page gets and pushes them to their Facebook page.
Many companies lack this level of dedication, expecting their consumers on Facebook to find them automatically. However, that’s not usually the case.
When is the last time you went looking for a brand’s Facebook fan page? More often than not, a consumer will stumble upon the page, either through a friend or from a hub, similar to Victoria’s Secret’s PINK page.
Understandably, the fact that the demographic targeted by Victoria’s Secret PINK, aligns exactly with the demographic that is most active on Facebook, has helped grow the group as well.
Key Takeaway: Connecting multiple social platforms and a hub from the brand website, can help funnel consumers throughout the network.
Now what do we do with it?
Once you’re up and running then you have to work on the making the page work of course.
Add content and links…
Luckily this does not require ANOTHER time consuming slog, use the tips and trick here for automatically publish links/posts on your Facebook Page directly from your WordPress website or blog with no further input from you.
Do some Housekeeping for sure
If a follower states “I f’n hate Fiji” or “Deanarau Sucks,” they aren’t exactly brand loyalists you want hanging about. Your brand’s Facebook Page is a community, a “fan” page where followers “Like” you. Most of your Fans do “Like” you — so there is not reason why it should be a -ve experience for your core audience.
Keep it as a pleasant destination for the real fans; it’s your Page after all, not a third-party blog. Do some house keeping if the Page gets spammed with off topic links and throw away comments. Remove all that clutter, profanity, and Farmville spammy links. Do NOT hesitate to “report and remove” offending followers to the Facebook Police.
