A nifty way to promote your business is through Facebook. Of all the social media platforms (with the exception of Twitter) Facebook is by far the most popular, with over 900 million users worldwide. They’re easy to set up and are excellent for promoting what you do because they allow other users to interact with you and they let you share your current status message with everyone that has liked your page. If you’ve not created a brand page for your business, no matter how big or small, the time to do it is now. Nadine Borne from XL Telecom explains what a Facebook brand page is and how can you make one for your business.

1. Brand Pages vs Individual Profiles.

Everyone on Facebook has a profile. It’s where those pictures of you at the picnic and your status updates show up. A brand page is exactly the same, but instead of representing an individual, it represents a business and the business can use it to post pictures and status updates. When someone links to you on Facebook as a person, no matter how you feel about them they are called your “friend”. With a brand page when someone links to your page by clicking the “Like” button at the top of the page, they become your fan (sometimes known as a “Like”). You can also have your own dedicated URL that takes people directly to your Facebook brand page.

2. Creating a Brand Page.

To create a Facebook Brand page, you must sign up for your own individual Facebook profile. Once you’ve got one, you can then use your profile to create a brand page for your business. When you’re viewing your Facebook News Feed you’ll notice a grey title called “Pages and Ads”. Hover your mouse over the title of this section (or click if using an App) and you’ll see the word “More”:

3. Local business, company or brand/product.

When setting up your account, Facebook will ask you to choose one of these labels. Depending on the structure of your business, you may find it important, but for most newbies any of the labels will work and you can always change it later.

4. Company category, name and address.

After you’ve told Facebook what type of page you’d like to be, it will ask you to choose a sub category. Don’t worry too much about choosing the right one as you can also change this later – and unlike Yellow Pages, it won’t affect who sees your page too much. The name you give should be what you want to appear, rather than, for example, your company’s legal entity name e.g. My Industries rather than My Industries Stores UK Ltd.

5. The About description.

The About section is your chance to summarise what you do in a few short sentences. This text will be on the “About” section of your page and will allow anyone who visits the page to see an overview of what you do. It’s a good idea to fill out all the details in the information form, however, because The Company Description section will also show when people click on the About message to see further information and it allows you to add greater depth and background. Make sure you write them well as these snippets allow you to reveal a little more about the personality behind your brand – be selective about what you include and because Facebook is an informal medium, feel free to use humour if appropriate. There are also Description and Mission fields plus space for talking about your Products and Awards you’ve won if you want to really show off.

6. The cover photo.

You can also upload an attractive and vibrant cover photo that conveys a message about what your product or service is like (Fig 3). I’ve used Coca Cola here just as a great example of a page that gets across its key brand messages with just a few words and a great picture.

7. Your first status update.

Once your page is up and running, all you need to do now is write a status update. “Hello World” is traditional, but why not begin as you mean to go on – with a really hot offer. That way, when your friends and customers visit it they will see it’s worth Liking the page for the future.

8.Telling the world.

Having a Facebook page is no fun if you don’t have many fans.The skills of getting new fans deserves a whole article in itself, but as you’re just starting out, why not begin by e-mailing the direct link to your page out to your company employees and your friends? Even your mum probably has a Facebook account by now and would love to hear about what you do! Once friends and family are all onboard you can then think more creatively about advertising your page, setting up viral deals, competitions, etc. Good luck!