9 Steps To Set Up A Facebook Business Page

You should be well aware by now that your business needs a Facebook page. If you didn’t know that, you do now! If you don’t know how to set up your business’ Facebook page then don’t worry – you’ve come to the right place! We’ve put together a handy guide on exactly what to do when setting up your Facebook business page.

We are going to safely assume that all of you already know what Facebook is. So, we’re going to start by quickly going over what the difference is between a personal profile and a business page…

On a personal profile, you have quite a variety of types of post that you can publish to your wall. For example; you can post photos, GIFs, videos, you can start a live video or even start a poll.  On a Facebook business page, you have the ability to do all of these things, but also and most importantly, you have the ability to promote your business. This can be done using a whole bunch of features, all of which you can only have access to on a business page. We will go into more depth on these features in another post. For now, here are your 9 steps to set up a Facebook business page:

Step 1 – Create a Personal Page
Step 2 – Create a Business Page
Step 3 – Upload Profile and Cover Photos
Step 4 – Follow the Prompts
Step 5 – Add a Short Description
Step 6 – Make a Username
Step 7 – Fill In Your About Section
Step 8 – Add a Button
Step 9 – Add Content

Step 1 – Create a Personal Page

The first thing you’ll need to do is create a personal Facebook page. If you have one already, you can go straight on to the next step. If you don’t have one, they’re pretty easy and straightforward to create. Go to Facebook.com and the sign-up/login page is the first thing that you’ll see.

All you need to do is fill in the boxes as shown above. It’s as simple as that! Some of you may not want a personal Facebook profile – but you don’t have to do anything with it. You just need the personal profile to be able to create the business profile.

Step 2 – Create a Business Page

In the top right corner of your personal page, you will see a drop-down arrow. If you click on it, a menu will appear that looks like this;

From this menu, you want to choose the ‘Create Page’ option.

Then you’ll need to choose the page type that is relevant to your business. You’ll have the following options to choose from;

So in this instance, let’s say we’re setting up a ‘Local Place or Business’ page. When you click on that page type, there will be a bit more information for you to fill in.

What you’ll need to do first is choose a category that your business fits in. There are over 50 categories to choose from, so make sure you choose the one that is most relevant to your business. It will then ask for your business’ name, address and phone number.

Facebook requires local business or places to provide all of this information before letting you create the page, so a word of advice – have all this information to hand when creating your page.

When you’re ready and have checked the information is accurate, and you’ve read the terms and conditions (yeah, we know, nobody does that) you can click ‘Get Started’.

Step 3 – Upload Profile and Cover Photos

The next thing you’ll need to do is upload a profile and cover photo. The photos that you choose should represent your brand and be easily identifiable by your customers. You might want to use your logo, or even the front of your shop (if you have a physical place they can visit). This will be something that your customers associate you with.

A word of advice – make sure that the photos you choose are of high quality. Profile photos should be 170 x 170 px and cover photos should be 828 x 315 px.  Oh, and even though your profile picture will appear square on your Facebook page, it will be cropped to a circle in posts. So don’t put any critical details in the corners!

Once you’ve uploaded your profile and cover photos, the initial set up is done! You should be taken to your brand new Facebook business page. But you’re not quite finished yet… sorry.

Step 4 – Follow the Prompts

At this point, when you’re taken to your page, you might find that Facebook is giving you some prompts. This can be advising you to fill in more areas of your profile and/or showing you around your profile. It doesn’t take long at all and we would highly recommend that you follow the prompts.

Step 5 – Add a Short Description

Now what you’re going to need to do is add a short description to your Facebook business page. As you can see from above, it is one of the first things Facebook prompts you to do. Click ‘Add a short description’. There is a maximum character count of 150, so when they say short, they mean it!

For this description, you’ll need to share what your customers need to know as clearly and concisely as possible. Remember to click ‘Save’ when you’re done!

Step 6 – Make a Username

After you’ve filled in the short description, you’ll want to fill in the rest of your profile. So let’s go to your username from here.

Your username will appear at the end of the Facebook URL – so, facebook.com/exampleusername. Don’t make it something complicated with a lot of numbers (that is, of course, assuming that your business name doesn’t contain a lot of numbers!) So using your business name or a variation of it is generally a safe bet.

Note: It is possible that when you try and add a username, Facebook will tell you that you need a minimum of 25 likes to be able to do this. But not to worry, we have a way around this ’25 likes’ conundrum for you. From our experience, we have found that adding a second admin (the first being yourself) to the page, seems to do the trick. We aren’t entirely sure why this is the case – nobody seems to know why – but your second admin will be the one who needs to change the username. A colleague or even a friend can be an admin.

When you’re done, click ‘Create Username’. You should then get a pop-up box displaying the links people can use to connect with your business on Facebook and Facebook messenger. Click ‘OK’ to continue.

Step 7 – Fill In Your About Section

Facebook is often the first place a customer will go to check out your business, so having all of your business information on display is vital.

Anyway, to get started on your ‘About’ section, click ‘About’ in the left-hand menu on your Facebook page. The menu should look like this;

Your ‘About’ section allows you to add or edit specific details about your business. These details may be;

• Contact information
• Business address
• Opening Hours
• Price range
• A menu (if applicable)
• Other social media accounts

There are many other options, as you will be able to see from the image below…

We know, there’s so much information to fill in! But, it’s not as bad as it looks,  and we do highly recommend you fill all the information in straight away. It’s best to get all the information up and sorted whilst the page isn’t getting any traffic.

Step 8 – Add A Button

We’re nearly there now, don’t worry. Once you’ve added all the information you can to your ‘About’ page, you need to turn your attention to the ‘+ Add a Button’ button on the right-hand side of your page.

The add button allows your customers to perform actions quickly and directly from your Facebook page, such as (and if applicable);

However you use the button should make a direct impact on your sales or business once it is a well-established business page. The type of button that you choose should depend on what you would most like someone to do from your Facebook page. For example, if your business is a hairdresser, a good use of the button would be to make a booking with you.

Step 9 – Add Content

Next, you’ll want to make sure you have some good quality content on your page. When you start inviting people to ‘like’ the page, they aren’t going to do so if there is no content on your website or if the content is bad. You could either create some of your own posts or maybe even upload a video to introduce your company – the video would be original, relevant and unique content – everything that Facebook loves!

When you are ready to start posting content onto your Business page, you will be able to select what type of post you would like to create. The tabs at the top each include different types of posts for you to choose from. Clicking on each tab brings up these options, so you can do anything from creating a poll to creating an offer for your product or service.

Now you’re ready to show off your new business page to the world! You can invite your family and friends to ‘like’ the page. If you have any other social media accounts you can use them to promote your new business page. Don’t forget to add a direct link to your Facebook page from your website and ask your customers to leave you a Facebook review – people trust them the most.

That’s it! All done. But before you go anywhere, you should give our post on the Facebook News Feed Update a read, just so you’re aware of the way Facebook’s new algorithm works. Don’t worry – we explain it all!