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How to Create a Facebook Business Page in 5 Simple Steps (With Video!)

 

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You may already use Facebook for personal reasons such as keeping up with your friends or sharing photos, but the idea of running a business page on the world's largest social network might still seem intimidating. Where do you start? What should your goals be? How much work will it take?

Fret no more! This short video and blog post will offer step-by-step instructions on how to create a Facebook business page, covering some of the reasons why you should set one up and why its interactive elements make it such a great tool for business promotion.

1. Choose a Classification

Facebook provides six different classifications for creating a page:

  • Local business or place
  • Artist, band, or public figure
  • Company, organization, or institution
  • Entertainment
  • Brand or product
  • Cause of community

It is likely you will fall into one the top three options. This classification will help you rank in more relevant searches and provide relevant information fields on your page.

After selecting one of the six, choose the category you are in, and fill out your business name (or if you selected one of the other options, your brand or company name). The business option also asks for further location information. Keep in mind that your category and name cannot be changed once your page is created. So type wisely; otherwise, you’ll have to delete the entire page and start anew. 

2. Complete Basic Information

Upload a photo that will stand as the main visual representation for your business page. Ideally, this should be your company logo. Facebook will then ask you to invite your friends. Uncheck the option to “share this page on my wall” and “like this page.” You don’t want this popping up in news feeds until you’re done building the foundation of your online image. You will next be prompted to fill in your basic information. Add your website URL and a brief bio in the ‘About’ section. You can choose to focus on your product, business model, strategy, or the like. 

3. Fill the Page

Click “Edit Info,” and add information you deem pertinent for your organization. If you’re a local business, you’ll likely want to add your hours of business. Businesses should also add a description. A description is different from your ‘about’ section in that you can share more in-depth information about your business.  Be sure to add an email address, and spend time adding pictures to the photos tab. 

4. Take Advantage of Features

Take advantage of the various features Facebook business pages have to offer. Clicking on the “Get Started” button under your default image displays multiple steps you can take to make the most of your page. Here are six worth trying:

  • Invite your friends.
  • Tell your fans.
  • Post status updates.
  • Promote this page on your website.
  • Set up your mobile phone. 

5. Play and Track

At this point, you have built and shared a Facebook page that, hopefully, accurately represents your business, brand, or company.  Play around with the page and see if you can discover any original ideas on how to present your business, brand, or company.

To measure how all these efforts are going along the way, make sure you take advantage of Facebook Insights by clicking the “View Insights” tab on the right-hand side of your Facebook page. This will allow you to see how many people have become fans of your page, or in Facebook terms, “Liked” your page. You can change the time frame to compare how many Likes you received on one day versus another. Also check out the insights tool for additional tracking information.

For further information on executing each of these points, watch the video tutorial above.

Have you discovered other ways to optimize your Facebook presence?

An Introductory Guide: How to Use Facebook for Business

Free eBook: How to Use Facebook for Business: An Introductory Guide

Let's face it: your prospects are on Facebook whether you like it or not.

Download the free eBook and learn to use Facebook to achieve your business goals!

Posted by Anum Hussain on Fri, Sep 30, 2011 @ 04:00 PM

COMMENTS

I like the way you simplied the process of creating a facebook face. You will make a good teacher. (LOL)

posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 2:03 PM by John @ Internet Business Ideas


@John: Indeed, I've been teaching for several years. Thanks for your encouragement! 
 
Best, 
Lily Zhu

posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 3:36 PM by Lily Zhu


Very informative - well done - a great resource. Keep up the good work.

posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 11:11 PM by Bruce Blackwell


Lily: Great tutorial! I dig the way you broke it down...

posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 3:55 AM by Ricardo Bueno


Thanks! This has been very helpful and easy to follow. 
 
 
 

posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 7:57 AM by David Diana


The Static FBML app is a powerful tool for creating custom tabs on your FB Fan Page. In fact, I may have first read about it right here on hubspot! I've gone on to build a number of business application tabs and I created a pretty thorough Static FBML tutorial which would be a nice complement to this excellent post. Cheers....

posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 10:34 AM by Tim Ware


I would also recommend to use Ping.fm to post easily to twitter, facebook and some other networks at the same time. Awesome tool!

posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 at 9:17 AM by Iflexion


What is the differences between being Local and Brand/Organization for your Fan Page? My inclination is to pick organization so that it is displayed nationally, but my business category, Education, is not a choice under Brand/Organization. Help.

posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 at 3:41 PM by Kat


Great tip. I will try to integrate this technique too in some commercial websites I maintain...

posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 at 8:27 AM by dodong flores


@Kat: have you had time to watch the video? I actually explained the difference between choosing between local and brand/org there. To summarize, the main difference lies in the kinds of info you can display. If you want to emphasize the kinds of services you provide and your mission instead of open hours or location, then brand seems to fit better. Were you able to find a category under Brand/Org similar to education (e.g. non-profits)? If there is no way for you to identify with the education category under brand/org, you might want to include Edu in your company name. 
 
Hope it helps, 
Lily Zhu

posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 at 9:24 AM by Lily Zhu


Thanks Lily- I did check out the video. I am still wondering does choosing a local category effect who will be able to see or to join the page as a fan?

posted on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 8:21 AM by Kat


@Kat: Since I've never published a local fan page, I suggest experimenting with the local fan page and ask a friend of yours from a different region (as indicated on his/her Facebook profile) to try becoming a fan.  
 
 
 
Good luck, 
 
Lily

posted on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 1:34 PM by Lily Zhu


I tried to set up a Page for our business (I have 1 partner) I mistakenly set it up using my emial address and password. I want to change that to a common email for my partner and I to be able to access and populate the business site. How can I make that change?

posted on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 1:40 PM by Steve Cannon


@Steve, a few points: 1. admin's e-mail address will not appear on the page, so there is no privacy concern; 2. if you'd like to use a common e-mail address to register the page, that e-mail address must be registered on Facebook in advance (i.e. you need to create a profile for that common e-mail address); 3. if you are only trying to get instant updates for both you and your partner, you can add your partner as an admin and he/she will automatically receive updates. 
 
 
 
Hope this makes sense, 
 
Lily

posted on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 1:51 PM by Lily Zhu


Thanks Lily. Can my partner also create updates? Also how do I add my partner as an admin?

posted on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 1:54 PM by Steve Cannon


@Steve: Click on "edit page" right under your page profile picture-->near the left bottom corner you will see "Admins", and click "add" next to that. 
 
 
 
Lily

posted on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 2:11 PM by Lily Zhu


Hello Lily,  
 
Thank you, your video was really easy to understand how Facebook pages work and I feel ready to proceed. I just have one question which you might be able to answer. 
 
My website (it's an e-shop, and it just went live about 3 weeks ago) is based in Greece and it has English and Greek versions. How can I separate these 2 languages in the business page? I just don't feel it's right that a fan writes in English and another replies in Greek. Can I create 2 business pages, let’s say one as "ClickaGift in Greek" and the other as "ClickaGift in English". Does Facebook accept this? 
 
Thanks in advance, 
 
Regards 
 
Raquel 

posted on Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 3:02 AM by Raquel


Hi Raquel, 
 
I checked the language support options and here is my observation: 1) greece does not seem to be supported on Facebook as of now; and 2) the same business page doesn't seem to support multiple languages. Your logic definitely makes sense, and since Facebook has not yet developed such multi-language support, I think you can definitely create 2 pages and name them as you suggested above. Facebook accepts this: it doesn't care what name you give to your business page (there can even be overlaps) as long as you manage them well. 
 
Hope this helps and good luck! 
Lily

posted on Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 7:17 AM by Lily Zhu


Hi Lily, 
 
Thanks for your quick reply. You've answered my queston. 
 
Thanks again for your help. 
 
Regards 
Raquel

posted on Monday, March 01, 2010 at 1:54 AM by Raquel


A very interesting approach to using Facebook. I would have never thought of it if I hadn't read your post. Thanks so much!

posted on Saturday, October 01, 2011 at 5:31 PM by Rod Fewer


I really appreciate posts, which might be of very useful 
The Marketing Blog

posted on Sunday, October 02, 2011 at 12:32 AM by Scotthudson


Nice valuable information... I would love to read more of your post buddy... 
 
Thanks and Regards

posted on Sunday, October 02, 2011 at 4:51 AM by NavendraGanesha Pillai


What's the difference between a company and brand page? Also, can I keep my personal profile and have a page for my business? 
Thanks

posted on Sunday, October 02, 2011 at 6:33 PM by Jacqueline Parham


Thank you all for reading! 
 
Navendra, if you simply click my name, posts I have written will appear; however, all HubSpot content is worth a good read :) 
 
Jacqueline, the only difference between company and brand is how you rank in searches. A FB user will not notice what "type" of page you have.  
 
And yes, your personal profile has no connection with your company page, you may have both accounts! 

posted on Sunday, October 02, 2011 at 7:04 PM by Anum Hussain


Thanks for answering so quickly!

posted on Sunday, October 02, 2011 at 7:26 PM by Jacqueline Parham


Thanks for the video link and I found that your insights aligned with those presented in the chapter about Facebook in the "Branding Yourself" book by Eric Deckers and Kyle Lacy. Would you agree? This is a book I am reading for a University of Nevada, Reno management class on social business and media/networking. Please feel free to check out my blog and for anyone looking for a link to the aforementioned book go here <a> http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=branding+yourself+book&hl=en&prmd=imvns&resnum=3&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&biw=1366&bih=667&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=4246695148361370963&sa=X&ei=dO6JTrqHJOqesQL5zIGxDw&ved=0CIYBEPMCMAA

posted on Monday, October 03, 2011 at 12:22 PM by Josh B.


Thanks.. It was really helpful in creating a page for my company.

posted on Monday, October 03, 2011 at 1:59 PM by http://www.netgen4u.com/about.html


Great article. Does anyone know how to integrate a database/e-shop on a FB page or it best just to link back to the website. 
Thanks

posted on Tuesday, October 04, 2011 at 6:06 AM by Jody


Sorry for the delayed response... 
 
Josh, I'll have to check out the book! 
 
Jody, just link back to your site. Hopefully you have analytics set up for your website, which it make it easier for you to track how many people clicked on that link from Facebook--helping you understand how important your Facebook business page is for your company. 
 
HubSpot can also help track your website analytics very well if you have the software!

posted on Friday, October 07, 2011 at 10:05 AM by Anum Hussain


Hi, great info.  
 
 
 
Is it possible to upload more than one persons contact list to your business page?

posted on Friday, October 07, 2011 at 9:30 PM by pat


hi 
ive created a page and when i invite friends i get no respones. ive created the like button but no likes? 
what have i donewrong? 
regards george

posted on Sunday, October 09, 2011 at 2:05 AM by george pav


This is a nice and helpful video.

posted on Sunday, October 09, 2011 at 8:32 AM by Daniel Muguko


Excellent 5 tips for creating facebook business page. Thank you Anum.

posted on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 1:26 AM by Marry Shobasky


Add the Facebook Store Finder app to your page to drive traffic to your business. Includes features such as store hours and driving directions. Support one or multiple locations. Great for non-profits and events too. http://www.facebook.com/storefinder

posted on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 3:16 PM by Anup


Oh, I so need help and cannot find answers anywhere. I set up a business page (public figure)for a friend and have three challenges: 1. I cannot figure out how to "like" other pages; FB says "Use Facebook As Page under Account, and then liking other pages that relate to your page." Where is the 'Account' function? I have searched everywhere. 2. When searching for the Page, the title comes up with "Page" in light grey underneath. How do I change "Page" to some other description? 3. Also, a "Like" button does not appear to the right on the search, either.  
 
Any help is most appreciated!  
 
Warmly, Lauren

posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 1:03 AM by Lauren


I created the page following guidelines from facebook that I needed to create the page using my profile. But I want to invite businesses to like my page, not be part of my personal profile. I don't see where I can do that. I don't see where I can separate my profile from business. I know I can click on "use facebook as "business page", etc. But I use my iphone app a lot for personal and it's already happened. Posts that should be business are on personal, etc. I cannot seem to get answers from facebook. HELP

posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 2:10 PM by Susy Boyter


Why even take the time to create a custom Facebook landing page? You should know its advantages and why it is so important for a business to have! http://bluewheelmedia.com/make-a-facebook-landing-page

posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 3:22 PM by Kayla


I'm having the same issue as Lauren stated above: 
 
1. I cannot figure out how to "like" other pages; FB says "Use Facebook As Page under Account, and then liking other pages that relate to your page." Where is the 'Account' function? I have searched everywhere. 
 
Help? 
 
Thanks - Erin

posted on Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 2:27 PM by Erin


In response to Lauren's question about figuring out how to show your "liked" pages - try this. For some reason I couldn't see the "search box" while I was logged-in to my facebook page. So I googled a page I wanted to "like" while I was still signed in. After clicking on the link to that page in the google browser, I scrolled down to the sidebar and clicked, "Add to my page favoites" - a pop-up box should then appear asking which page you want to add that like to (this is only if you have multiple pages). After specifying such, I went back to my FB page and BAM - the like sidebar had magically appeared. Hope this works for you! 
 
Best, 
Erin

posted on Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 2:45 PM by Erin


video play an important role to give immediate understanding.INFORMATIVE VIDEO SHARING.After watching the above video anyone can create a fan page on Facebook.Thanks for sharing

posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 4:45 AM by Search Engine and Optimization


Hey 
 
I am having a bit if confusing at the moment with Facebook 
This may sound really stupid but I'd like to be sure 
I already have a personal facebook account and I (within that account) created a page and set that to local business, is that me setting up a business page? 
Or do I need to set up a new business page from the home page of Facebook (while logged out)? 
 
I ask this question because I have set up this page for my business and someone else is telling me Facebook for business is different from a Facebook Page. 
 
Please reply 
Thanks

posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 8:40 PM by Alex


^Nope, you can make your business page from your personal account--no difference!

posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 11:06 PM by Anum


Comments have been closed for this article.