Jordan Wall

Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition 1 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Table of Contents 2 Why your small business needs Facebook 3 Creating Your Facebook Business Page 4 Posting engaging content 10 Tracking your progress 14 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Why Your Small Business Needs Facebook Congratulations on taking the first step to mastering how your small business will benefit from using Facebook. It’s more than a formality to have a presence on Facebook - it’s a necessity. A Facebook Business Page saves you time and money, which is invaluable as a small business owner. Build brand awareness by posting about store updates, product launches, and promotions at the same price you pay for air. Grow a loyal fanbase by chatting with customers online and answering their questions, improving your customer service. Reach new customers locally and globally; there may be a market for your company in another city or even another country. This guide will teach you how to create a Facebook Business Page, best practices for posting, and tracking your progress. Enjoy! 3 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Creating Your Facebook Business Page 4 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Creating Your Facebook Business Page 1. Visit www.facebook.com/pages/create.php to start creating your Facebook Business Page 2. Click on the Local Business or Place section. 3. Fill out the information and click Get Started. Don’t worry, you can change your category later Fact: There are over 40 million small business have Facebook Business Pages. (Source: Tech Crunch) Translation: That isn’t a coincidence. 5 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Creating Your Facebook Business Page Profile Photo The profile photo is on the square space on the top-left of the page. Upload an image (ideally of your company logo) from your desktop or mobile phone. It will appear each time you post, comment or share on Facebook. The dimensions of the photo must be 180 x 180 pixels, so it’s possible some of your image may need to be cropped-out. 6 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Creating Your Facebook Business Page Cover Photo The cover photo is the “banner” across the top of the page. It’s the image that draws all your visitors attention the moment they see your page. Select a photo that fits with the branding, culture, and values of your company. Take advantage of this giant visual real estate by sharing a customer value or promotion. 7 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Creating Your Facebook Business Page The following steps bring you to a page where you will fill out essential information about your business so people can find your Facebook Business Page on Facebook and Google: 1. Click on About tab on the left side of the Facebook Business page. 2. Click Edit Page Info on the right side of the page, just under the Facebook Business Page’s banner image. Fact: Half of internet users live with someone who owns a Facebook account. (Source: Pew Research Center) Translation: The person sitting next to you on the couch has a Facebook account. 8 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Creating Your Facebook Business Page Fill out the information fields in the General, Contact, Location, and Hours tabs. This tells your customers more about your company with the added benefit of Google ranking your page higher. Being on the first page of a Google search is like being on the front page of the internet. *Your business can have more than one category. *Ignore Impressium, it’s for certain countries that may be required by law to include a statement of ownership on their web presence. Fact: There are 500,000 new Facebook users every day – that’s 6 profiles a second! (Source: Social Media Today) Translation: In the time it took you to read that, three Facebook profiles were created. 9 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Posting Engaging Content 10 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Posting Engaging Content If you don’t ask, you won’t get A call-to-action (CTA) is asking your customers to engage, and one should be included in all your posts. Asking visitors to post a comment or click on a link to your website are great examples of CTAs. Be a bloodhound. Track! Tracking links you put in your Facebook posts lets you follow the number of times they clicked it. http://bit.ly not only shortens links but tracks its engagement. Fact: There are over 2 billion monthly Facebook users (Source: Omnicore) Translation: Hello? 2 billion monthly users! 11 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Posting Engaging Content Show off Place your logo on all photos you upload for brand recognition by using programs like https://pixlr.com/ or https://www.canva.com/ Incorporate #hashtags Hashtags boost your post’s popularity by targeting users who use the hashtag so often it becomes a trend. A hashtag unique to your company, you can filter users to post the hashtag, which is handy if you’re running a contest with a CTA that requires customers to a task to be eligible. 12 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Posting Engaging Content Keep it current Posting about Halloween in November won’t get you any engagement. Make a social media calendar to ensure your posts stay current. Kick clip-art to the curb Posting pictures found on the internet will not make your page standout. Take the pictures yourself or find professional stock photos online (https://www.pexels.com), which gives your page a professional, yet relatable, feel. 13 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Tracking Your Progress 14 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca Tracking Your Progress Page Likes Page Likes are people requesting to follow your Facebook Business Page’s activity. When users like your Facebook Business Page, they are known as “followers”. Followers get your Facebook Business Page updates and posts on their News Feed. Comments & Reactions Comments are people’s feedback on your post and reactions (like, love, laugh, surprised, sad, angry) reflect their sentiments towards them. When users comment and react to a post, it’s an excellent opportunity to continue the conversation by replying to their comment or simply thank them for their feedback. Shares Shares are users re-posting your content on their timeline or sharing it directly with their friends on Facebook. It lets you know what type of content people enjoy enough to broadcast it themselves. This is very important as it will help your Facebook Business Page to rank higher on search listings both on Facebook and Google. 15 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca To Learn More Visit: www.thinkingcapital.ca/blog 16 Small Business Digital Playbook: Facebook Edition thinkingcapital.ca