Creating a Facebook business page doesn’t have to be difficult. You likely already have all the photos, text, and ideas you need to build your Facebook business page. You just need to sit down and work through a few simple steps to get your page up and running.
Need some motivation to get started? Consider that 2.5 billion people use Facebook every month, and more than 140 million other businesses already use Facebook to connect with that massive audience.
So, let’s dive into how to create a Facebook account for a business. Follow these steps to launch your page by the end of the day.
Bonus: Download a free guide that teaches you how to turn Facebook traffic into sales in four simple steps using Hootsuite.
Before you can sign up for your Facebook business page, you need to log into your personal Facebook account. But don’t worry—the information from your personal account will not be publicly visible on your business page.
So, if you’re not already logged into your personal account, log in now, then dive into the Page creation steps.
Select the type of page you want to create: business/brand or community/public figure. In this post, we’ll assume you’re creating a page for a business or brand, so click the Get Started button for that option.
Next, enter your business information. For your page name, use your business name or the name people are likely to search for when trying to find your business.
For category, type a word or two that describes your business and Facebook will suggest some options. If your business falls into more than one of the category options, choose the one your customers are most likely to think of when they think about your business. We’ll show you how to add more categories later.
Once you choose your category, the box will expand to ask for a few further details, like your address and phone number. You can choose whether to make this information public, or to show only your city and state.
When you’re ready, click Continue. Note that doing so indicates your acceptance of Facebook’s Pages, Groups and Events Policies, so you might want to check those out before you proceed.
Next, you’ll upload profile and cover images for your Facebook page. It’s important to create a good visual first impression, so choose wisely here. Make sure the photos you choose align with your brand and are easily identifiable with your business.
You’ll upload your profile image first. This image accompanies your business name in search results and when you interact with users. It also appears on the top left of your Facebook page.
If you have a recognizable brand, using your logo is probably a safe way to go. If you’re a celebrity or public figure, a picture of your face will work like a charm. And if you’re a local business, try a well-shot image of your signature offering. The important thing is to help a potential follower or customer to recognize your page immediately.
As we explain in our post on the best image sizes for all social networks, your Facebook profile picture displays at 170 x 170 pixels on desktop and 128 x 128 pixels on mobile. It will be cropped to a circle, so don’t put any critical details in the corners.
Once you’ve chosen a great photo, click Upload Profile Picture.
Now it’s time to choose your cover image, the most prominent image on your Facebook business page.
This image should capture the essence of your brand and convey your brand personality. It will display at 820 x 312 pixels on desktop or 640 x 360 pixels on mobile. The image must be at least 400 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall, but the recommended size to upload is 720 x 315 pixels.
Once you’ve selected an appropriate image, click Upload a Cover Photo.
Ta-da! You have a Facebook business page, although it is extremely sparse.
Of course, while the skeleton of the Facebook Page for your business is now in place, you’ve still got some work to do before you share it with your audience. Don’t worry—your page is not yet visible to the public. (We’ll make that happen later in this post.) What you see now is a preview.
Your username, also called your vanity URL, is how you tell people where to find you on Facebook.
Your username can be up to 50 characters long, but don’t use extra characters just because you can. You want it to be easy to type and easy to remember. Your business name or some obvious variation of it is a safe bet.
Click Create Page @Username in the left menu to set up your vanity URL.
Click Create Username when you’re done. A box will pop up showing you the links people can use to connect with your business on Facebook and Messenger.
While you might be tempted to leave the details for later, it’s important to fill out all of the fields in your Facebook Page’s About section right from the start.
As Facebook is often the very first place a customer goes to get information about you, having it all there is important. For example, if someone is looking for a business that’s open till 9, they want to confirm this information on your page. If they can’t find it, they’ll surely keep looking until they find another place that’s more forthcoming.
To start filling out your business details, click Edit Page Info in the top menu. From this screen you can share all the important information about your business.
This is a short description that appears in search results. It should be just a couple of sentences (maximum 255 characters), so there’s no need to get too elaborate here. We’ll show you where to add a longer description later.
Add all the contact details you want to make public, including your phone number, website, and email.
If you have a physical storefront or office, check to make sure that your location is marked correctly on the map. You can also add details about your service area, so people know, for example, which neighborhoods you deliver to.
If your business is open to the public during specific hours, enter those here. This information appears in search results.
If relevant, enter your impressum, price range, and privacy policy link. An impressum is a legal statement of ownership, and it is generally only required in some European countries.
Click Save Changes under each section to implement your changes as you go.
You’ve filled in all the simple details about your business, but there’s not much here yet to tell people why they should engage with your business on Facebook.
Fortunately, there’s a section of your Facebook business page where you can add a longer description of your business. To access it, click See more in the left menu, then click About, and then click Our Story on the right-hand side.
In this section, you can add a detailed description of what your business offers customers and why they should Like or Follow your Page. This is a great place to set expectations. How will you interact with fans through your Facebook Page? Offer a compelling reason for them to stick around.
Enter a headline and text for your story, then upload a relevant photo. When you’re finished, click Publish.
Before you start inviting people to like the Facebook Page for your business, you should post some valuable content. You can create some of your own posts, or share relevant content from thought leaders in your industry.
You could also create a specific type of post like an event or product offer—just click one of the options in the Create box at the top of your page.
Make sure that whatever you post offers value for your visitors when they arrive at your Facebook page, so they’ll be inclined to stick around.
Your Facebook business page now represents a robust online presence that will make potential customers and fans feel comfortable interacting with you. It’s time to hit that big green Publish Page button in the left-hand menu.
That’s it! Your page is live and visible to the world. Now you need to get some fans!
Start by inviting your existing Facebook friends to like your page. Use your other channels, like your website and Twitter, to promote it. Add “follow us” logos on your promotional materials and email signature. If you’re comfortable doing so, you can ask your customers review you on Facebook, too.
To grow your audience quickly, check out our post on how to get more Facebook Likes.
Now that you’ve mastered the basics of how to create a Facebook page for business, it’s time to think about ways to optimize your page. These strategies will help maximize engagement so you meet your Facebook marketing goals.
Here’s a quick video overview of the steps you can take to optimize your Facebook business page. We’ll dig into these components in more detail below.
There are hundreds of reasons why people visit your business on Facebook, and you may not be able to provide them with all the information they need right on your page. But you can provide them with a way to get it by setting up a call-to-action (CTA) button.
Facebook’s built-in CTA button makes it very easy to give the consumer what they’re looking for, including allowing them to engage with your business in real life.
The right CTA button will encourage visitors to learn more about your business, shop, download your app, or book an appointment.
Bonus: Download a free guide that teaches you how to turn Facebook traffic into sales in four simple steps using Hootsuite.
To add your CTA, click the blue box that says + Add a Button, then choose which kind of button you want.
For each type of CTA, you’ll be given several text options to choose from. Select the option you prefer, then click Next.
Depending on the button you chose, you may be asked to select some additional options. When you’re ready, click Finish and your call-to-action button will go live.
Is there important information you want all visitors to your page to see? A promotion you don’t want them to miss? A top-performing piece of content you want to show off? Put it in a pinned post.
A pinned post sits at the top of your Facebook business page, just under your cover image. It’s a great place to put an attention-grabbing item that will draw your visitors in and make them want to stick around.
Start by publishing a new post, or scrolling down your feed to find an existing post you want to pin to the top of your Page. Click the three dots on the top right of the post, then click Pin to Top of Page.
Once you’ve pinned the post, you’ll see a blue thumbtack icon in the top right corner.
Tabs are the different sections of your Facebook page, like the About section and photos. You can customize which tabs you want to include and the order in which they appear in the left menu of your page.
If you’re not sure which tabs to include, check out Facebook’s various templates.
Each template has a set of buttons and tabs designed for particular types of business. For example, the Restaurants & Cafes template includes tabs for offers, reviews, and events.
To access templates and tabs, click Settings in the top menu, then Templates and Tabs in the menu on the left.
Since Facebook is, after all, a social network, it’s a good idea to use your page to build a community for your business.
One way to build community is to connect with other pages that are relevant to your business but not competitors.
For example, if you run a shop in a popular shopping area or mall, you could connect with other shops in the same area. Think of this as an online version of your local business improvement association or chamber of commerce.
If you have a virtual business, you could connect with other businesses in your industry that could provide additional value for your followers without competing directly with your products.
To follow other businesses, navigate to their Facebook page, then click the more icon (three dots) under the page’s cover photo. Click Like as Your Page. If you have more than one Facebook business page, choose which one you want to use to like the other business, then click Submit.
This business will now appear in the Pages Liked By This Page section on the right of your page. Here’s how this looks in practice on the Hootsuite Facebook Page:
Pages will receive a notification when you like them and may check out your page or even give you a like in return. [contenupgrade variant=popup]
Your Facebook page settings allow you to get into some pretty fine detail about who can administer the page, where your posts are visible, words banned from the page, and so on. You can also see people and pages who have liked your page, control your notifications, and so much more.
Think of the Settings tab as your behind-the-scenes console for every adjustable parameter available to you. Take a few minutes to go through each setting and make sure that it’s optimized for how you want to manage the Page and how you want your audience to interact with you.
To access your settings, just click Settings at the top right of your Facebook page.
Check your settings regularly, as your preferences and requirements may change as your business—and social following—grows.
For even more control over who can administer your page, and to control the roles filled by team members, contractors, and agencies, consider setting up Facebook Business Manager.
The more information you have about your audience, the more content you can create to satisfy their needs.
Facebook Page Insights makes it easy to gather data about how your fans are interacting with your page and the content you share. To access Page Insights, click Insights in the top menu of your Facebook business page.
Insights gives you information about your page’s overall performance, including some data on audience demographics and engagement. You can see metrics on your posts so you can understand how many people you’re reaching. You’ll also see how many comments and reactions are gained from specific posts—data that helps you plan future content.
A key feature of Insights is the ability to see how many people have clicked on your call-to-action button, website, phone number, and address. This data is divided by demographics such as age, gender, country, city, and device, making it easier for you to tailor future content to your audience. To access this information click Actions on Page in the left menu.
For more details, check out our post on how to use Facebook Page Insights.
Backlinks help boost the credibility of your Facebook business page and may help improve your search engine ranking. They also help direct new potential followers to your page.
Include a link to your Facebook page at the bottom of your blog posts and where appropriate on your website. Encourage other companies and bloggers to do the same when you collaborate.
Once your Facebook page is set up and optimized, check out our full guide to marketing on Facebook to take your Facebook strategy to the next level.
Manage your Facebook Business Page alongside all your other social media profiles using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can create and schedule posts, engage followers, monitor relevant conversations, measure (and improve!) performance, and much more.
Christina Newberry is an award-winning writer and editor whose greatest passions include food, travel, urban gardening, and the Oxford comma—not necessarily in that order.
This content was originally published here.
Successfully navigating the complex and ever-changing landscape of search engine optimization can be tough for a small business owner who is already using up most of their bandwidth to run a business.
Why not outsource to someone who specializes in SEO (search engine optimization) and has the expertise to deliver routine results and continuous quality traffic to your website at a low cost?
SEO is the practice of optimizing your online properties and content to rank high in search engine results for queries that are relevant for your business. Local SEO is a higher level of optimization that ensures people in your area know that you are close and available to supply the services and products they want right now.
Do you have a business that serves one or several local areas? Then you’ll want to know these statistics:
Search engines and search engine users knowing exactly where you are located, being able to see customer reviews, and easily being able to find all the ways to get in touch with you is vital to beating out the competition in your area.
Your run-of-the-mill website SEO won’t bring the impactful results of local search engine optimization. And local SEO is what you need to be found by new customers in your area. It is what connects your business with real-life customers in your community.
The desired result of your investment in SEO is that everyone in your area sees your business at the top of page one of search engine results or map search results when they are looking right now to make a purchase of the type of services or products you provide.
Outsourcing your SEO simply means you are engaging a contractor or agency to manage your website’s on-page and off-page search engine optimization. SEO services could include activities such as the creation and execution of SEO strategies, Google My Business listing optimization, content marketing, link building, local SEO, and web design.
There are two ways you could take care of SEO in-house: Either hire an employee to do it, or you do it yourself. If hiring a full-time or part-time marketing whiz with SEO skills as an employee with benefits was in the budget, chances are you would have done that already. And if you have never sat down and figured out how much an hour of your time is worth, go do that and then come back agreeing that DIY SEO is equally, if not more, a waste of money.
If you’re thinking of hiring an SEO specialist for your business, take a look at the average salary, according to Indeed.com. You’ll need to be prepared to set aside $50k in salary each year and then add to that the taxes and benefits employees require.
That means hiring an in-house SEO specialist would cost you well over $4,000 a month when you could retain the services of a full team of SEO strategists for a fraction of the cost (and never have to worry about sick days or Workers Comp). When you weigh the cost against the benefits, it’s an easy decision to make for your business.
The same way a business would contract out maintenance of the landscaping or the janitorial services of their office, you can contract out the setup and continued maintenance of your businesses search engine optimization needs.
In today’s competitive environment, you have to use search engine marketing or SEO to reach your full potential. Otherwise, you’re leaving a ton of potential business on the table. Whether you’re a small business owner or large corporation, a search engine marketing company can offer you a number of distinct advantages. Following are just a few of them.
Experience and Know-How
A qualified agency that does search engine marketing Fort Myers, FL, has often been executing SEO campaigns for companies for five, 10 or even 15 or more years. It also employs highly experienced SEO specialists who know how to use coding and various software languages, including JavaScript, C++ and XML, to render your website more compatible with search engines. These professionals will also make your website more responsible across all digital platforms, such as mobile phones and laptops.
Saves You Money
It’s much more cost-effective to use a search engine marketing Fort Myers, FL, company than hire a full-time search engine optimization specialist. That’s because the latter earns an average annual salary of $52,602, according to ZipRecruiter.com. More experienced SEO specialists can make $83,000 or more. On the contrary, your search engine marketing agency can tailor its services to better meet your marketing budget.
Higher Rankings
Your search engine marketing Fort Myers, FL, specialist can help you attain much higher rankings in major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Bing, and AOL. The SEO team will accomplish this by using unique keywords and meta tags to reach your core customers. Your listings will then pop up when these people search for your products or services.
It doesn’t take long for a Fort Myers, FL, search engine marketing company to get your SEO campaign up and running. Once it fully understands your products or services and key objectives, you can start getting great results in a few short weeks.
Smargasy Inc is a highly reputable digital marketing company that provides internet marketing solutions, cloud solutions, cyber security, and other helpful services for clients, and you can reach the company at 289-214-8592 or https://smargasy.com.
Online reputation management is something every business owner should take seriously. In an era when consumers rely heavily on the information found in reviews, social media comments, and blog posts to decide where to shop, it’s important to maintain a positive image. That’s not always as easy as people think. Here are a couple of reasons why seeking out professional reputation management Fort Myers FL is worth the time and effort.
Balancing Online Information
Just as the Internet makes it easier to find helpful information, it’s also made it much easier to spread rumors and innuendo about people and businesses. In some cases, it’s possible to counter those rumors with facts, especially if those facts are presented effectively. Part of reputation management Fort Myers FL is ensuring that the information found online is balanced. The goal is not to try to hide anything. Instead, the goal is to ensure that all of the positive attributes of your operation and the products you offer are easier to find than the rumors. This approach provides consumers the opportunity to explore for themselves and come to their on conclusions.
Attracting The Best And The Brightest
While much of the focus has to do with cultivating a positive image that current and potential clients appreciate, there’s another group that deserves attention. Job seekers relay heavily on the Internet to research potential employers. If a considerable amount of the information about your company is less than flattering, you could lose out on some great employees. By utilizing reputation management Fort Myers FL to present a more balanced perspective, attracting some of the brightest talent out there will not be as difficult.
These are only a few of the ways that reputation management can help your business. Whether you operate a local shop or a national corporation, pay close attention to how you’re perceived online. It will affect your future in more ways than you think.
Call Smargasy Inc today or visit us at https://www.smargasy.com to learn more about how we can help enhance your online reputation.
If you’re a business owner or marketing executive, you probably realize how important digital marketing is to your success. However, unless you have the wherewithal to support an in-house digital marketing team, you can’t focus much effort on digital marketing. That’s when you need to contact a Fort Myers, FL, digital marketing company. Here’s why.
Expertise and Knowledge
An established digital marketing company Fort Myers, FL, has usually worked in the industry for 10, 20 or 30 years and employs a highly experienced team of digital marketing specialists. These individuals learned their skills by earning bachelor’s degrees in digital marketing, marketing or business and creating digital marketing campaigns for various types of businesses. They also know how to use various internet software languages, such as HTML, JavaScript and XML, to make your website compatible with major search engines.
Cheaper Than Hiring
It’s almost always less expensive to outsource your digital marketing functions than hire one or more digital marketing specialists. That’s because digital marketing specialists in Fort Myers, FL, earn average salaries of $49,490 per year, according to ZipRecruiter. Some earn as much as $74,431 annually. By comparison, a digital marketing company will typically charge you a monthly fee for services rendered.
Increase Brand Awareness
A talented digital marketing company Fort Myers, FL, can increase your company’s brand awareness. It will achieve this by writing convincing headings and copy that highlight the features and benefits of your products or services. The digital marketing team will then continually send these promotions, including email, pay-per-click and social media ads, to your target customers.
Variety of Services
Your top digital marketing company Fort Myers, FL, will usually provide other essential services, including website design, SEO, cyber security consulting, and even online reputation management. This gives you one reliable source for all of your digital marketing efforts.
An experienced Fort Myers, FL, digital marketing company can help you save a tremendous amount of time. Instead of focusing on digital marketing, you can do the things you do best.
Smargasy Inc, which you can reach at 239-214-8592 or https://smargasy.com, is a multitalented digital marketing company that’s been providing exceptional digital and offline marketing campaigns for companies for more than 30 years.
The digital marketing industry is expected to increase to $146 billion by 2023, according to Forrester, a premier industry research company. This represents an average growth of 9% per year. With such prodigious expenditures, it’s safe to say that digital marketing works. Furthermore, if you’re looking to increase your digital marketing efforts, it’s best to hire an experienced Fort Myers, FL, digital marketing agency. Here’s why.
Simple Implementation Process
In most cases, a qualified digital marketing Fort Myers, FL, company can get your digital marketing campaign up and running in one or two weeks. It will first need to learn more about your products or services and key financial objectives. Your digital marketing team will also evaluate your website and current marketing programs to create the optimal campaign.
Reasonably Priced
A company that provides digital marketing Fort Myers, FL, services will always provide you with a fair price quote. As a guideline, most digital marketing companies charge businesses between $90 and $210 per hour for services, according to Priceithere.com. Individual projects can range from $4,000 to $,7,000. Most importantly, if you want to limit your digital marketing budget to $1,500 per month, your agency can make it happen.
Competitive Advantage
Your digital marketing Fort Myers, FL, agency will give you a huge advantage over local competitors. It will accomplish this by running your email, pay-per-click and social media ads on a continuous basis. Your digital marketing team will also highlight key advantages your products or services offer over the competition, which will make more companies or consumers want to do business with you.
If you’re looking for an experienced digital marketing company, conduct a search online for these types of establishments. Call several of the companies; then, select the one that offers the services you need at the right price.
Smargasy Inc provides exceptional digital marketing and IT solutions that will help your business stand out from the rest, and you can reach the company at 239-214-8592 or https://smargasy.com.
The ability for your business to make and receive phone calls is critical to your success. Your clients and vendors need to be able to contact your company and speak to you by phone for a variety of reasons.
When the phone system that you have in place right now cannot handle the influx of calls and messages, you need to upgrade to one that can serve your business better. As you consider your options for commercial telephone systems Fort Myers FL business owners need to look for certain design features and fixtures.
Multi-call Function
When you shop for one of the available commercial telephone systems Fort Myers FL clients like you want to choose one that can handle a multitude of calls at a single time. When your business is particularly successful, chances are that you have dozens of calls coming in at the same time. You want to avoid having customers hear busy signals or having to keep calling back before they actually get to speak to someone from your company in person.
The systems that you can buy right now can handle dozens of incoming phone calls at the same time. Callers will be routed to one of the dozens of lines that come with the system so that they can speak with someone at the first time that they call.
Mobile Access
You also want the system to be able to be outsourced to mobile devices if needed. You do not want to be glued to a desk all day to answer phones. You want to be able route the calls to your smartphone or cell phone if you are away from your office.
You can find out more about commercial phone systems for your business online. Contact Smargasy Inc at https://www.smargasy.com to get more information.
The change from Google’s 7-pack, to a reduced 3-pack has had a major impact on local SEO. Many businesses struggled to get featured when there were seven spots available. Now getting into the top three can seem like rocket science. The good news is that this goal is not impossible.
However, it does take time, skills, and knowledge to get it done. Being seen by local consumers just as they’re searching for your type of product or service is the most targeted type of marketing known today. But getting there can be tricky unless you really know what you’re doing.
To help you get started down the right path, here are three helpful tips:
1. Get more citations
When it comes to ranking your local listing, one thing Google pays close attention to is how often a company is mentioned in other sources. In other words, it looks for “citations” to validate your business. A citation is a mention of your business name along with another piece of business information anywhere on the web – with OR without a link back to your website.
The additional information could be your phone number, website URL, or physical address – combined or individual. In order to count as a citation, the information must be an EXACT match to the information on your Google My Business listing.
Citations help prove to the search engines that you are a real company; therefore, the more of them you have from quality sources, the better your local listing rankings will be.
2. Add photos to your listings
It’s no secret that consumers love photos. The more, high quality images you have on Google local listing profile, the more appealing it will be to potential customers. This goes farther than Google; Yelp has even published advice on how to optimize your business listings, claiming that photos make a massive difference. It even goes as far as to say that according to research from Review Trackers, consumers spent 2.5 times more of their time on listings that featured photos.
3. Get as many reviews as you can
Reviews are an important part of getting noticed online these days. Consumers love writing reviews about businesses and they also like reading them. Google has taken note of this. It wants to promote the best local businesses and what better way to determine who those businesses are than through positive user reviews? If you want to really increase your rankings, encourage your customers to leave reviews whenever you can.
Getting your business to show up on Google’s 3-pack is a lot more challenging than it was with the 7-pack; obviously, because there are less spots. The tips above will help, but you will need to continually keep up with local search changes and ensure all of your company’s information is listed correctly and updated going forward. Not only that, but make sure you make smart use of categories and strategic keyword placement within your profile to give it strength.
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that has been around since the mid 90’s. Since then it has gone through many changes and upgrades. One of the first business environments to use VoIP was the “Call Center” type. Now you will find it readily available for any type of business because it is scale-able. This means each system can be tailored to fit your business needs. From Doctor’s offices to Real Estate offices to Auto Dealerships and even the home based office. The possibilities are endless.
The following are just a few of the many benefits of using VoIP Technology for your business.
So let us review, VoIP is a scale-able technology for your business and can be custom fit for it. You have the ability to literally take your business with you wherever you go. VoIP is a money saver that will help you keep that overhead lower. This will allow you the capability to pass those savings on to your clients. You can keep your current analog system if you choose and still be able to take advantage of the digital technology offered. Smartphones can be used as a virtual extension for those employees that work outside the office. As you can see there are many possibilities available by using VoIP.
What are you waiting for? Give us a call today and schedule your free demo.
What exactly is a Hosted PBX and how will it benefit my Business? Ok, PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange. With the P.O.T.S. (Plain Old Telephone System) companies had to invest a large sum of money for the phone service equipment. Have you ever worked for a company with multiple extensions, but only a few actual phone numbers? Well if they are not using a VoIP system then they are using this scenario which is a PBX. You have an internal server someplace in the company, usually a closet or equipment room. This is where the conventional phone lines will connect instead of running a line to each individual extension (that would be VERY costly). Each phone can dial externally from the server. As well you can dial each individual phone internally by dialing either a 3 or 4 digit number.
So that explains a PBX, what is a Hosted PBX? Well to be honest it is very similar with one small exception. The server is actually based in the cloud. This will allow you the ability to still have multiple phone lines and you will have to dial an extension when you wish to dial one of the desk phones in your company. The result is less costly equipment and you can start to free up space with in your company. The following are just some of the benefits of using a Hosted PBX:
So let us review, “What is a Hosted PBX?” In laymen’s terms it is a server that is based in the cloud. It provides you with low cost maintenance and equipment. You will have no down time due to maintenance or upgrades. There will be no loss of communications in the event of a disaster. It is simple and easy to use with “Plug-N-Play” capabilities. It can grow as your company grows. That’s it, short and sweet right? So go ahead and give us a call and schedule your free appointment today.