How to create a Facebook Page

So you have decided that you need to get on Facebook and reach your target audience. Well done on getting this far. Here are some figures to let you know that you are making the right decision.

• 84.2% of all Irish Internet users used social networks in December 2010.
• The average Irish person spends 18 hours and 7 minutes online each month (Comscore)
• 77% of all Irish internet users use Facebook (Comscore)
• 90% of those aged 15 – 24 years use Facebook, and two thirds of those use it every day. (Ipsos MRBI)

So you have the info. Getting on Facebook is an important tool for any business or organisation that wants to interact with people. Your audience is already there. They use the service daily and for hours at a time. Now it’s your turn to get involved and interact with your community.

So how do you get involved? There are a myriad of potential ways to set up on Facebook and get your business into the social media realm. If you have plans on taking the Facebook world by storm or just want a medium to interact with your clients, then a Facebook page is for you. The advantages of this are that it is open to the public, you can share information easily, anybody in your network can like you page and post comments. You can add photos to the site which can be tagged by people. All this helps your communication and interaction of your business. Offer incentives to join such as competitions and freebies. The possibilities are almost endless so have fun and explore. You can ‘like’ pages of similar companies or Facebook Pages that you enjoy and are successful to garner ideas.

By taking this step by step process, you will be able to set up your Facebook Page quickly and easily so sit back and enjoy.

1. Creating an account -  Log on to the Facebook page portal. You should come to this screen.
   
   
   Choose the most appropriate link for your page. This will bring you on to the next page where you will be asked to either set up a Facebook account or use your Facebook Profile if you have one set up. You must have a Facebook Profile to set up a page. Follow the step by step stages on this page.
   
   
   
2. Fill in Information – Now you will be brought to your homepage for the first time. This is the ‘Get Started’ section and gives you the chance to fill in your information and personalise your page.
   
   
   
3. Upload a Photo – Personalise your page further by adding a photo. Use your logo, person or something that makes most sense to your Brand and building credibility. The file must be smaller than 4Mb and as the avatar is square it is bet to use a square image
   
   
4. Suggest your page to your friends – Get your page started with some ‘likes’ by recruiting your own friends. Type in a friend’s name, highlight it in blue and click to add to selection list. Once you are happy with the list, send it your friends as an invitation to join your page.
   
   
   
   
5. Import Contacts
   Find and import your email contacts. Again, check the box beside the names of those you want to invite. You can preview the invitation which will be sent as a message to their email or Facebook account under ‘Recommended Pages’
   
   
   
   
6. Write Content
   Once you have a photo uploaded and some fans, you can start engaging. For status updates you can send to all, or segment by location and language. This targeting comes in handy for those who are spread through different regions and want to target a particular place for an event or other.
   
   
   
   When linking to a blog or external site relevant to your business, click “Link” and paste the URL. Click “Attach.” Once you “attach” the URL, you’ll see that the text and photo from the page you’re linking to will populate automatically. You can change the title, paste different text into the snippet, and change the pictures (if there are several options, indicated by the “Choose a Thumbnail” prompt).
   This is the best and cleanest way to link to another page. The post looks better and it will perform better if the link is attached instead of typed in to the status. Note that you can click on either the link or the snippet to change the text before you click “Share.
   
   
7. Get a Vanity URL -  Once you have 25 fans on your Facebook Page, any of a Page’s admins can reserve a vanity URL so that your Facebook URL is www.facebook.com/yourbusinessnamehere.
   
   Go to the Username page, select the Page name from the dropdown menu and then write in the name you’d like to use. Click “Check Availability.” If it’s available, a prompt will ask, “Are you sure you want to set [URL] as [Facebook Page]‘s username?” Click confirm to lock in that URL — and keep in mind that you can’t change the URL for a Page once you confirm.
   
   
8. Use the tools available to you
   Facebook Insights is a great tool that can help you figure out when to post and what kind of content does well. Measuring social media success is complicated, but many brands focus on engagement. Activity on your Page is a good sign, and you can keep tabs on activity by clicking “Facebook Insights” on the right sidebar, just below the admins.
   
   
   
   
9. Assign Other Admins
   
   
   
   Speaking of admins, you can invite several people to run the Page and post content — links and statuses will come through as written by the Page and not the individual.
   
   In the “Admins” section of the sidebar on the right, click “See All.” A new page will populate with the names of the admins. To make someone else an admin, just type in his name (it’ll populate in real time) — there is no limit to the number of admins a Page can have. Admins are kept abreast of happenings on the Page — including comments and posts so that your company can interact with its fans — via email.
   
   Now that your Facebook Page is all set, you can learn more about what to do, what not to do and when to post to get the best engagement.