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A Guide to

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2Hot Potato | Guide to Facebook business PaGes

Facebook, with over one billion users can be the hub of a successful social media marketing strategy.

Facebook is the leader in social media customer sources, with more than 52% of marketers finding a customer on Facebook this year. Interested in driving traffic to your website? Not only does Facebook generate direct leads, it increases website traffic1.

Despite the potential benefits of a Facebook presence, not all businesses have leveraged this platform. 59% of small businesses do not have a Facebook page, while 41% do. Larger companies are doing a bit bitter. 58% of Fortune 500 companies have a Facebook page. Interestingly, 71% of the fast-growing companies on the Inc. 500 list said they have Facebook pages2.

Even more powerful are Facebook usage statistics. Over 50% of users login each day and users log 8.3 billion hours per month. Undeniably, Facebook offers a large opportunity to engage with your audience. Avoid being part of the 59% of small business that do not have a Facebook Page, create yours today!

Hot Potato’s Facebook Guide Hot Potato’s Facebook Business Page guide will share everything you need to know about creating a Facebook Business Page, from initial setup to content creation. Topics include:

• Settingupyourbusinesspage

• Facebookimageoptimization

• Creatingcustomtabs

• Content

• EdgeRank

• Facebookpromotions

• Measurement(INSIGHTS)

• Newin2013

Setting Up Your Business PageCreating a Facebook Business Page requires that you own a personal account. From your personal account you can create a business page. Visit Facebook’s Create a Page to begin now (while logged in to your Facebook account), or

click the create a page button on your pages list.

FACEBOOK business Pages

3Hot Potato | Guide to Facebook business PaGes

The first step is to decide what type of business page you are creating. Are you a local business or place, company, organization, or institution, brand or product, band or public figure, entertainment, or a cause or community?

Next, choose a category that best applies to your business. Then, provide your busi-ness/company/brand name. If you select a local business or place, you will need to provide some additional location information (address, city, state, zip, phone #).

Provide an overall description of your business and links to your website, Twitter, blog, and more to improve the ranking of your Page in search.

After entering this very basic business information, you will be prompted to upload the very important “profile picture”. Below we will share Facebook image best prac-tices, including information about profile pictures and cover photos.

Facebook Image Optimization Since profile pictures are the first things people will see when you post updates, make sure they are noticeable – you really just need a solid logo or symbol that represents your company/brand. Your profile picture displays at 160×160 pixels. It is recommended to use a square image, as rectangular images will be cropped to fit the square display.

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Timeline banners were meant for branding the heck out of your company page. They are located at the top of your timeline, right above your profile picture. Therefore, timeline banners should be integrated with the profile picture you select. Here’s where you make good use of that logo, perhaps with various keywords placed on what your company strengths and services are. Be sure to follow Facebook’s cover guidelines (ex: images can’t consist of more than 20% text).

Below are size guidelines for your Facebook profile picture, cover photo, and custom tabs.

Visual content is gold on Facebook. Photo albums, pictures, and videos get 180%, 120%, and 100% more engagement respectively3. Be sure to upload photos to your timeline that are the optimal size.

TimelineImages:

On wall – 403 x 403 pixels

Photo viewer – 960 x 960 pixels

MAX UPLOAD – 2048 x 2048 pixels

Milestones and Highlighted posts – 843 x 403 pixels (max)

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If you share links to your FB page, the link preview will be 155 x 114 pixels (see below).

Visual content, as mentioned earlier, can be the most popular content on Facebook. Make sure your images are optimized for Facebook before uploading by following the size guidelines above!

custom tabs

Custom tabs are located at the top of your Page, below your cover photo and offer a great way to customize your page. For example, the Hot Potato Facebook Page tabs (seen above) are links to our Pinterest, Google+, and Twitter profiles, offering fans an easy way (and encouraging) to engage with us on those sites as well.

Each tab is an “app”. By default, photos will show up in the first position. This cannot be changed. Every other position can be customized to your preferences. We will take you through an example of adding your Twitter profile as a custom tab on your Page.

One trick is to visit a Page that has a Twitter tab. Click on that tab, and then scroll all the way to the bottom and select “Add a Twitter Tab” at the bottom.

You will then be prompted to select the Facebook Pages you would like to add the app to (yourself or any of the Pages you manage). Select the applicable Page.

6Hot Potato | Guide to Facebook business PaGes

Then, authorize the tab application to continue. Then enter of all your relevant Twitter information including your preferences.

There are endless possibilities for custom tabs, you can even use whatever image you would like to maintain your visual identity throughout your Page. To edit the settings of your tabs/apps, go to edit settings in the admin panel of your Page and click on apps in the left hand toolbar. Here you will find all the apps associated with your page. You can edit the settings, or get the link to each tab here.

7Hot Potato | Guide to Facebook business PaGes

To change the order of how your tabs appear on your profile, hover over the tab. A pencil should appear in the top right of the tab. Click on the editing pencil, and choose “swap position with”, selecting the tab you’d like to swap with.

Content

Your Facebook Business Page has been created. Now what? Start creating/sharing content!

Facebook business pages provide a great opportunity to engage with your audience.

There are a variety of features including status updates, videos, and photos that

allow you to share your content. Consider these statistics4:

• 50% think that a brand’s Facebook page is more useful than its website

• Promotions and discounts are the biggest motivators in liking a brand

on Facebook

• The top 3 ways consumers interact with brands on Facebook is to print off

coupons, like/comment on brand’s page, and to learn about new products

• The top 3 ways brands could get non-likers to like them on Facebook are

to have more giveaways, post less often, and let them hide that they like

the brand

Contentideasinclude:

StatusUpdates– Status updates are one of the most useful features of Facebook.

You can use a status update to share that blog, case study, or white paper you just published. Ask a question to engage your audience.

Photos/Videos–Preferences are switching to visual content. Research shows that photo albums, pictures, and videos get 180%, 120%, and 100% more engagement respectively.

Contests– If appropriate for your company, a contest can help you get more likes or increase engagement. Consider having a sweepstakes, essay, photo, or video con-test. However, make sure to familiarize yourself with Facebook’s strict promotion policies.

ExclusiveContent– Your audience may expect exclusive content/offers in return for liking your Facebook business page. In fact, as mentioned above, promotions anddiscounts are the biggest motivators in liking a brand on Facebook. Consider offering your fans exclusive deals/coupons.

Events- Does your company have events? Create events on Facebook to promote you events and increase attendance. You can even create events for things likes sales that your company may have.

8Hot Potato | Guide to Facebook business PaGes

EdgeRank Algorithm Facebook users spend a majority of their time browsing through their News Feed. 40% of the time spent on Facebook is in the News Feed, while only 12% is spent on profile and brand pages5. Therefore, showing up in the News Feed of your Fans is a top priority, since many do not visit your actual page. Content you share, status updates, photos, etc. are what you share in your Fans News Feed. However, not all of your fans will see your updates. Why? In an effort to selling advertising, and provide users with the most relevant and wanted content Facebook has developed EdgeRank.

EdgeRank is a ranking algorithm developed by Facebook to determine what is dis-played on the News Feed. The three variables that make up the algorithm are affini-ty, weight, and time decay (seen above).

Affinity– how close of a relationship a Fan has with a brand (repeat interactions)

Weight– value of a post (amount of likes, comments, etc.) (commenting is more valuable than a like)

Timedecay– how long has it been posted? The older, the less valuable

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Complicated? How about a more simple explanation from PostRocket6.

10Hot Potato | Guide to Facebook business PaGes

Facebook Promotions Have you ever considered starting a Facebook contest/promotion to generate buzz for your company’s Facebook page? Contests are a great opportunity to increase engagement or boost your fan count.

If you have been on Facebook, you may have seen or even participated in contests/promotions from anyone from small businesses to major brands. Have you ever liked a page to be entered into a contest? Have you ever commented on a post to be entered into a contest? Facebook’s promotion policy is very strict, and these types of promotion actually violate Facebook’s terms. Yet, you see it all the time. Small businesses and even major brands are unfamiliar with Facebook’s strict policy.

Despite the large number of Facebook promotions you see that are actually in violation of Facebook’s promotion policy, you probably haven’t heard of many getting busted. Is it worth the risk? Just because “everybody is doing it”, does not make it ok. It is not worth risking your Facebook page where a large following/community has been built or tarnishing your brand’s image.

Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines are as follows:

1. Promotions on Facebook MUST be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or a Page App.

2. You MUST include a complete Facebook release as well as acknowledgement that the promotion is not endorsed, sponsored, administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

3. You MUST NOT condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.

4. You MUST NOT use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.

5. You MUST NOT use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion.

6. You MUST NOT notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles (timelines) or Pages.

11Hot Potato | Guide to Facebook business PaGes

Back in 2009, Burger King created a Facebook promotion called “Whopper Sacrifice”. Users could use the whopper sacrifice app to sacrifice, or delete, 10 of their friends in return for a free whopper. “What would you do for a free WHOPPPER? Now is the time to put your fair-weather web friendships to the test. Install WHOPPER Sacrifice on your Facebook profile, and we’ll reward you with a free flame-broiled WHOPPER when you sacrifice 10 of your friends.”

Deleted friends received notifications, similar to the ones you are used to receiving, informing them that they were de-friended for a free whopper.

The response? Almost 234,000 people Facebookers were de-friended as a result of this promotion. However, Facebook wasn’t thrilled. A spokesman said that the promotionviolateduser’sprivacy. In particular, the de-friending notification would disrupt user’s privacy expectations. Facebook requested that Burger King tweak this feature.

Burger King did not face removal of the page, or any harsh punishment. However, instead of making the requested tweak, they decided to stop the promotion all together. “While Facebook was a great sport, they did ask for changes that would have resulted in a different approach to our application, counter to what we developed,” said Burger King in a statement. “Ultimately, based on philosophical differences, we decided to conclude the campaign and chose to ‘sacrifice’ the application.”

Lesson to be learned- Before you being a promotion/contest on Facebook, be sure to familiarize yourself with Facebook’s Promotion policy.

Measurement (INSIGHTS)

So, is all your work on your Facebook Business Page paying off? Quantify your efforts by using Facebooks built in analytics tool, Insights. Understanding and analyzing trends of your Page can help you make necessary improvements/adjustments.

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Note: You need to have a minimum of 30 likes on your Page to accesss Insights. If you meet this criteria, these analytics can be accessed through the admin panel on your Page. Click See All on the Insights box.

You can navigate through four tabs on Insights: an overview tab, likes, reach, and talking about this.

There are two types of Facebook insights7:

• UserInsights: Total page Likes, or a number of fans, daily active users, new Likes/Unlikes, Like sources, demographics, page views and unique page views, tab views, external referrers, media consumption.

• InteractionsInsights: Daily story feedback (post Likes, post comments, per post impressions), daily page activity (mentions, discussions, reviews, wall posts, video posts).

The real question is what do you want to measure? What are your goals? Goals need to be quantifiable to measure success. For example, your goal may be to increase the amount of fans you have by a certain percentage, decrease your “unlike” rate, or increase the average number of comments you receive. Setting these goals lets you know what metrics you need to be paying attention too.

Also, Insights can be helpful in determining the effectiveness of the content on your page. Facebook INSIGHTS show the number of interactions within a Facebook page. The peaks in interactions can be linked to content generated which induced an individual to interact with the piece of content (comment, like, share, etc.)

New in 2013Facebook, like all social media, is constantly updating its features. Here are some of the newest developments so far in 2013:

GraphSearch–An upgraded search tool that allows users to perform more sophisticated searches on Facebook. Instead of searching for a specific person, place, or thing, conduct an advanced search such as, “people who like cycling and live in Chicago, IL”.

CoverPhotosCanNowHaveCalls-to-Action- Facebook has updated their page terms, now allowing users to include calls-to-action in their cover photos. Calls-to-action, such as “get it now” or “tell your friends” were previously prohibited. Keep in mind that covers still may not consist of more than 20% text.

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ReplyLinks-New reply links allow you to reply directly to comments on your page, making having conversations even easier. Active conversations will be moved to the top of the thread.

Hashtags- Facebook is working on incorporating the hashtag. They are testing whether to follow in Twitter’s footsteps by allowing users to click on a hashtag to pull up all posts about similar topics in order to index conversations around trending top-ics and build those users conversations up.

Facebook is such a great tool for companies to interact with their fans. But, if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. After the initial creation of your page, be sure to follow some of the tips provided throughout this guide to optimize your page. But most importantly, make your page worth visiting.

Resources

1. Hubspot, 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report

2. Goldhat

3. Facebook for Business

4. Lab42

5. Comscore

6. Postrocket

7. Mashable

AboutHotPotato

Based in Naperville, IL outside of Chicago, Hot Potato Social Media is a full service social media marketing agency that helps companies and brands implement and manage social media and other inbound marketing programs for measurable, and often profound sales results. For more information, check out the website at www.HotPotatoSocialMedia.com, or call 630-868-5062.