Start Your Facebook Page (video)

by Joshua Botello

If you are looking to start digital marketing, a Facebook account is a good start to reach your customers, with over a billion active users. If you need to run a business from your Facebook account, track who views your page, and make sales with Ads you need to invest in a Facebook Business Page. A Facebook Page is a free and easy way to gather analytics on your audience, Schedule and post content, and use advertisements. So let hop on to Facebook and start-up that business page.

The Set-up

We’ll naturally start on Google.com. We need to make sure that we are logged into our Facebook profile so let's go to Facebook.com. We will type in our Facebook profile login and password. Verify you are logged in to our Facebook profile and then open a new tab.

Now it’s time to open your Business page. On your profile, in the 2020 interface will be these buttons. Click the plus button and choose the page. it will bring up a page with a sidebar that looks like a profile.

The first thing you need to do is add your business page name. Then the business category, we will choose two: skate shops and a product/service. Finally, your business description. This will be a few short sentences on who you are, what you do when you started, and what you hope to do. Then click Create Page.

The Buildout

That’s it our page is created, But there are a few more things to do. First, let’s power up that business page. First thing you need to do is create a page picture, this can be a logo or some other brand element from your business. I happen to have one so we can just add that. Next your header image. Again, I happen to have one. So we can add that. If you have photos of the business or of your team you can add those but you can always add those moving forward.

From this business page you can schedule your posts and interact with your audience. If you want to set up your ad account and manage your page on a higher level, you want to set a Facebook business Manager account. So let's do that.

In a new tab in your browser, go to business.facebook.com. This will put you into the Facebook Business Manager. This site is where you can manage everything on your facebook business page instead of on your Facebook page. You can also connect your instagram accounts. Let me know down in the comments if you would like to see that as well and will put that video out in the future.

So lets put in your Facebook Page information and Facebook will automatically identify the page and link it to your account. It will ask to verify the correct information. Once that’s done you are now connected and can do business on Facebook!

Facebook Apps

We have one more thing we can do to round out our set up phase on Facebook. Let’s set up a Facebook Page and manager on a mobile phone. The advantage is you can run your business, marketing, and performance from your smartphone and conceivably anywhere you go. So grab your phone and follow along.

Before you are able to download anything you need to set up your iCloud and iTunes accounts. I'm going to assume you already have those up and running, so let's continue. We are going to head to the App Store and search for “Facebook Page Manager”. You would click here to download the app. Since I already have it I don't need to do that.

Now we can download the Facebook Ads Manager. This will give you access to ads on both Facebook and Instagram. You may be able to find that app on the search page or just type in “Facebook Ads Manager” and then push Get to download. Since I already have the app I don’t need to download it, but once you do you can click open.

So let’s give you a quick tour. First, on Facebook Page Manager, it will seem really familiar and is set up nearly identical to the browser version. Here you can see the information and timeline of all your posts. The advantage of a Facebook Page is the ability to schedule posts. This is very powerful when executing a marketing strategy. Here you can also check your post performance and insights. Here you can communicate with your customers directly through Facebook Messenger and even Instagram. Look out for that video above to open and set up your Instagram Business account.

So, Let's take a look at the Facebook Ads Manager. Again we will need to log in with our Facebook ads account info. Once we get past our welcome information, we get to our home screen dashboard. Instantly we can see the performance of our ads. We don't have any ads running at the moment but those would be here. Finally, you can use either one of these icons to create a Facebook or Instagram Ad. You just need to pick your assets like a photo or video. Then choose your ad copy and details, then your audience for your ad, and finally your budget. Once that is done you place your order and run the ad.

Facebook and Business pages are a great starting point for your digital marketing strategy with many powerful tools catering to businesses and their needs. You can always branch out to other networks from there.

Funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.