7 Best Practices For Facebook Pages For Franchise Or Small Business Owners

Traction Group recently completed a facebook webinar to nearly 150 franchise owners and, in doing so, we uncovered a few common errors and misconceptions about setting up and managing a facebook Page for small business. So we thought we'd clarify a few of these and give you our recommendations for Facebook Page best practices. This isn't a complete list by any means but definitely covers some misunderstandings that business owners share in getting started in promoting their business on the popular social network.

1. USE A FACEBOOK PAGE NOT A PROFILE: First, please use a Facebook Page and not a Facebook Profile for your business. It is unbelievable how many credible businesses we see out there who are still using a profile for their business, which is a direct violation of Facebook's Terms of Use. Also, be sure to use the correct category when setting up your page, such as "Local Business," and subcategory of "Home Business" or "Professional Service." You cannot change the category or subcategory once you set up your page. To set up your Page, simply log in to your personal profile account and search for "Create New Facebook Page."

2. HOW TO PROPERLY NAME YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE: Be sure to correctly name your Facebook Page and to keep it succinct. It is next to impossible if not impossible to ever change it. We recommend keeping it as short as possible. If you are a franchise owner and you are setting up a Facebook page for your individual franchise territory, we recommend that you localize it. If you serve Richmond, Virginia, for example, then using "[Franchise Name] Richmond VA" would be appropriate. In addition, keeping it short will make it look better on Facebook Ads when you are advertising your business Page. Unfortunately, Facebook will not let you change the ad's title when you're promoting your Page with their ads, although you CAN change the Facebook ad title when you're advertising something other than your Page. Just keep this in mind as your ad title may get cut off if the name of your page is too long.

3. FINDING YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE: It seems that new Facebook Page owners have a difficult time finding their Page after they create it. The easiest way to find your Page is to log in to your personal profile account, go to "Account" at the top right-hand corner, and then go to "Manage Pages." Any "Pages You Manage" will show up there. Find the one you want and just click on "Go To Page." While that's our recommendation, you can also access your Page by typing your Page name into the search bar in the top right corner of the any Facebook page and selecting it from the drop-down that appears - just be sure to type it in exactly as you've set it up as it may not pop up otherwise.

4. FACEBOOK PAGE ADMIN RIGHTS: There seems to be confusion from small business owners about Facebook administrative rights for Business Pages. It's rather simple now with the recent Facebook changes. If you create a Page, you are automatically the Admin. It used to be that you were the permanent Admin but that has now changed, which means that if someone set up the page and left your company's employ, you can remove them as an admin (as long as they had/have given you Admin rights if you're the business owner). As the Admin, you can click on "Edit Page" which appears at the top left-hand corner of your Page under the main Profile Picture (assuming you've added one). There's a box on the right sidebar that will allow you to add or delete Admins. Please note that they must have a Facebook Profile account in order to have administrative rights to your Page.

5. FACEBOOK PAGE USER NAME: Another frequent question we receive is how do you set up a user name, otherwise called a vanity URL. When you create a business Page, Facebook assigns a very long URL which isn't very conducive to branding your business, garnering SEO value, or promoting your Page. First, you'll need to have a minimum of 25 Fans or people "liking" your page before Facebook will allow you to create a user name. Second, if you haven't already created a user name for your personal Profile account, please do that first (so that you don't inadvertently assign your business name to the URL of your personal profile account - ugh, we've had a client do that and it's nearly impossible to undo). Third, before you create your Page's user name, be sure you and your business partners or business team agree on what the name should be because it is permanent and you will not be allowed to change it. Once you're ready, you can follow these instructions about creating a user name for your Facebook Page.

6. FACEBOOK PAGE USER ANALYTICS: So, you want Analytics on your Facebook Page? As an Admin, you have full access to the Facebook-provided analytics. First, you'll receive a weekly email (to the email address you use for your personal profile account) that will include the weekly stats for number of Fans (or "likes") that have been added or removed and how many visits were made to your Page. You will also be able to view the "Insights" on the left-hand sidebar of your Page - simply click on "See all" and it will take you to a full insights page to show you activity for the week including demographics of your Fan base and all the "likes" and "shares" for the week.

7. PROMOTE YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE: Promoting your Page is just as important as creating it and adding content in the form of photos, status updates, blog posts, links, etc. There are many ways to promote your page - too numerous to mention here -- but some simple ideas are to make sure the link or a widget is added to your email signature, customer or prospect email newsletters (if you use Constant Contact for example), invoices, direct mail postcards or letters, TV ads, website and blog. For your website and blog, you can create a Facebook Badge and use that as a widget. Of course, you can also promote your business Page with Facebook Ads, which can be bought as pay-per-click or pay-per-impression.

We hope these best practices are beneficial to you as a franchise owner or small business owner.

Sally Witzky is owner, chief strategist and "tractioneer" of Traction Group LLC, a Richmond VA based social media and marketing agency. She he

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