Creating and Maintaining Facebook Pages

Creating a Facebook page is essential for almost any business. Creating a Facebook page can take a while to create. The administrator must pick out appropriate profile and cover photos for the face of the page. Next, they should come up with an url that is short, and is either the name of the business, or a phrase related to the business. This creates ease of access for the user. They will quickly be able to search for your page if the address is related to your business. Next, a description of the business is essential to create awareness and bring in new customers. This should be short and to the point so that customers do not lose interest. It is also important to update the business information on the page. This includes the location, hours of operation, phone number, and services offered. Facebook gives the administrator many options as how to provide contact information for the business. Finally after a page has been created, they should invite people to like the business. The biggest drawback to this is that the administrator can only invite people that they are friends with on Facebook to like the page. However, this can be easy free advertising in the beginning since it is similar to word of mouth advertising; one friend shares or likes your page, and then a friend of a friend shares or likes your page, and so on and so one. An initial administrator would be wise to make other trustworthy business associates administrators of the page as well. This allows for more "invitations to like" to be sent. If a business has a social media marketing budget, they can also spend money on paid advertising within desired location parameters. 

Creating a Facebook page for a business is easy, maintaining it is harder! Once a page has been successfully completed and updated, it is important to maintain the page. Updating the page with fresh items from the company directly is important. A business should figure out their target market and create their posts with these people or other businesses in mind. It is also important to share third party information as well. Though it should not be the focus of the page, it shows that the business is aware of their industry and are staying up to date with current affairs. As with all posts, a business needs to find the right balance when posting. If a business posts too often, the consumer may become annoyed. If a business does not post enough, then the consumer may forget about the business. Facebook can help with this by allowing the user to schedule posts. This allows the user to create their desired post, but pick a different time and date for the post to publish. The administrator does not have to be logged in and this post will automatically publish by itself. After creating posts, it is advantageous that the business reach out to customers who like the page or comment on the page. Engaging the customer and building a relationship with them helps the customer to return to the business later and it may even inspire other potential customers to like the business.