How to set up a Facebook business page UK

Facebook started in 2004 and has been growing at a mind-blowing pace ever since. It is the biggest social network in the world. User numbers in the UK alone now sit at around 45 million people. That’s 45 million people (and another two billion people worldwide) that you have the opportunity to engage with and put your brand in front of – and it’s quick and easy to set one up.

What is a Facebook business page and does my business need one?

A Facebook page is a version of a Facebook personal profile for brands, local businesses, companies, celebrities and charities. There are currently 60 million active business pages. A Facebook business page can really be seen as a mini-website and there’s so much functionality available that some businesses even use their Facebook page as an alternative to having a website. After all, it is also free. And with the relatively new ‘looking for recommendations’ option, more people than ever are using the platform to get referrals via the social network, and with a business page, you can actively and directly participate.

With a Facebook Business Page UK you can:

build an audience
tell people about your brand
use the Facebook ad programme
communicate and connect with customers and prospects for free (and choose whether to increase exposure with paid ads)
learn more about your customers
rank higher on Google
include all your company details and logo
start posting photos and videos
receive messages
track what’s working and get buyer behaviour information with page and audience Insights.

So, even if you’re not an avid personal user yourself of Facebook, it’s definitely worth considering setting up a business page.

“Facebook has helped us grow our brand in the local area and beyond. We can inform our potential customers which events we will be at and which shops that are local to them stock our products. We have recently run a Facebook campaign asking our followers to recommend shops and cafes we should sell into which has been hugely successful. When we are at events we regularly have people saying they have seen us on Facebook and as a small business it’s always lovely to hear that the word is spreading about our product.”

Randa Abdullah-Hucker, owner of Hullabaloos Lemonade

2020: the year you became a marketing guru

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How do I set up a Facebook Business Page?

Setting up Facebook business pages can take a matter of minutes and Facebook will help walk you through the steps.

Before you start you’ll need:

your business or brand name
all your business information (telephone number, email, address, website, opening hours)
a short description – one or two sentences explaining a bit about your business and what it offers
a profile and cover photo.

Don’t forget that all of these can be updated at any time.

Once you’ve got all of those in place you can click get started and follow follow these six simple steps to set up your own business.

Step 1 – Create your page

Go to facebook.com/business and select ‘Create a Page’. You’ll be met with several business type options including local business or place, brand or product, and cause or community. Simply select the option that closely matches the type of business you’re creating the Facebook Page for.

This page will either be attached to your personal Facebook profile or, if you don’t have one, you’ll be prompted to set up a business account to manage your page from. Even if the page is linked to your personal profile, people won’t publicly be able to see that it’s you running the page or any of your profile information like your profile picture or friends and family.

Step 2 – Choose your name and category

Choose the ‘Business or brand’ option, then on the next page name your Page, choose a category for your business (like plumbing services, food stall, gardener), then add your address and telephone number.

Your name will probably just be your business name but you could add a bit more of a description or strapline for clarity – for example ‘Munchies’ could become ‘Munchies Italian Street Food’ or take a look at ‘Hullabaloos’ below…

Step 3 – Add profile and cover photos

Upload your profile images and cover photos (find the right dimensions here).

Your profile picture could be your logo or a picture of you and the Facebook cover photo could be a product image, but you could also get really creative – take a look at these 50 Facebook profile and cover pictures to inspire you. Your Facebook cover photo is key as it helps customers to identify your brand.

Canva is a really good free graphic design tool to help you design and correctly size your profile photos.

Step 4 – Complete your details

You’ll now be taken through to see how your Facebook business page looks. You can edit it and add all the additional details like your company’s information, short description, opening hours, website address and a catchy username (this will sit at the end of your URL and is the unique username you’ll give people to find your page or message you) – Hullabaloos is facebook.com/HullabaloosRocks.

Add your call to action button (what do you want people to do after they’ve visited your page – for example, Call Now, Shop Now, Sign Up or Donate?) Click ‘Add a Button’ under the cover photo.

Step 5 – Explore the Settings

At the top right you’ll see a Settings button, this will take you through to a menu where you can control everything to do with your social media page like your notification settings and adding other people as admins (under page roles) so that they can post and reply to messages. Click on ‘Edit Page’ to manage all your tabs and to add more like Reviews, Shop, Offers and Events.

Step 6 – Get started

It’s time to post! When you’re happy with how your page looks then you can start posting and begin promoting your Facebook. A short bit of text with a great image or live video is best.

Or, you can choose to create a more specific type of post like an event or an offer by clicking through the tabs at the top of the status box to see all the options. You can look at other social media networks for inspiration.

If you have a post you’d like everyone to see first when they come to your page then you can choose to pin that post to the top of your page (select ‘Pin to top’ from the top right of the post after posting). This will stay there until you remove it or replace with another post. This can be an introduction to your business or brand or simply be an upcoming event.

What should I post about on my Facebook business page?

Now you’ve got a page it’s really important that you keep all the info up to date and post regularly to improve engagement and increase your search visibility. Facebook has more information here about creating posts.

Draw up a social media events calendar so that you can plan in advance what you’re going to post about and when. Upcoming events are very important to keep on top of. Growing success online is often about success offline (in ‘real life’) so if you’re doing lots of interesting things in your workplace, meeting new suppliers, getting involved locally and taking part in events, then you shouldn’t have any shortage of content to post about. Invite your friends to like your page and make sure to invite customers.

Here are six brilliant ideas for Facebook posts to get you started:

How can I grow my Facebook business page audience?

These are some easy steps that you can grow your Facebook business page audience.

Invite your friends to allow people to follow your page by clicking ‘send message’.
Post content regularly that is engaging, shows your business’ personality and that people might like to share (so then you’ll get in front of their friends too).
Interact with other pages (partners, suppliers, businesses local to you) by liking their pages, sharing their content and tagging them.
Interact with your fans by asking questions, replying to comments and messages quickly (Facebook rates you on message response times).
Include follow and social sharing buttons on your blog, website, email signature, at events and at your premises (if you have them).
Consider marketing on Facebook and paying to promote some of your posts to get in front of a larger audience.

How do I make sure my Facebook paid campaigns are successful?

Once you’ve started promoting, you can delve into Facebook ads. In the Promotions tab on your page you can set up advertising campaigns or Facebook will give you the option to boost an existing post. This will help aim posts and products to your targeted audience. You can choose from lots of different types of Facebook advert formats depending on what you’re looking to achieve and you can select specific audiences based on location, demographics and interests. Cost of advertising will be based on two things – the desirability of your audience and the relevance of your advert to your selected audience.

Use this checklist to help put everything in place for a successful paid Facebook ad campaign.

You must be logged in to use this checklist

Select your audience carefully and make sure the message is relevant for them.

Use amazing images or videos.

Have a clear call to action and include an incentive if you can.

Create a dedicated landing page that links seamlessly from your advert.

Double check spelling and that your links work.

Practice and test - don’t expect to get it spot on first time, use small budgets to test different creatives, messages and audiences.

What tools are there to help me optimise my Facebook page?

Facebook Page Insights

Probably the most important tool within your page is Insights. It gives you loads of metrics telling you how your page, posts and ads are performing. You can see results including likes, engagements, reach, page visits and video views. This is key to help understand how to further your Facebook marketing and social networking campaign.

Facebook Publishing Tools

In the top navigation of your Facebook page you’ll find the Publishing Tools tab. In this tab you’ll find functions that will let you manage recorded and live video, make lead generation forms so that you can collect leads directly from ads, showcase products (if you have a shop attached) and more.

Facebook Audience Insights

Audience Insights can give you buyer behaviour information, demographics and interests so you can get to know your potential or local audience better and work out how to target them more effectively.

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How to set up a Facebook Business Page in the UK

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