8 best practices for your Facebook business page

How does a Facebook business page differ from a personal profile, and what best practices should your brand be using to better serve your audience and maximize engagement?

According to Facebook, more than eighty million businesses have pages to connect and engage with over 2.45 billion monthly active users. Furthermore, Social Media Today found that 74% of people follow businesses on Facebook, and consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand they follow on Facebook than all other social media platforms combined.

Having a Facebook business page is a great start, but to stand out from competitors you’ll need to go a step above what they’re doing. To help your brand stand out, we’ve compiled this comprehensive list of Facebook business page best practices that cover everything from creating a page to management tips.

Learn how a Facebook business page differs from a personal page and use these tips to promote your brand on the world’s top social media network.

This may seem obvious, but many businesses create a personal profile instead of a Facebook business page which is why we want to ensure you know the difference. A personal profile is designed for an individual user to connect with friends, family, and others with similar interests. A Facebook business page is intended for brands to connect with consumers and showcase the products or services they provide.

This distinction is critical because a Facebook business page has many features that are designed to help brands increase engagement with their audience. Features specific to Facebook business pages include:

• Call-to-action buttons to link to business landing pages
• Additional sections such as job postings
• Moderation settings that can be used to filter posts

Importantly, setting your brand up as a business page allows people to follow your brand by liking the page rather than sending a friend request that requires approval.

There are several other differences between these types of pages, but all you really need to know is that brands should be sure to use a business page instead of a personal profile.

The process of creating a Facebook business page is fairly straightforward, but for more information, you can check out this step-by-step guide directly from Facebook. Beyond the basics of creating a page for your business — here are some tips and best practices that can help your brand start out a step ahead:

1. Use a properly-sized profile picture and cover image

Make sure the images you use for your profile and cover photos are properly sized; you don’t want people’s first impression of your brand to be a logo that is cut-off or hard to read. Use a PNG format to prevent the images you upload from being significantly distorted, as their sizing will vary depending on what device they used.

Your brand’s profile picture should be at least 180 pixels x 180 pixels and its cover photo should be 820 pixels x 312 pixels. Keep in mind, Facebook will crop your profile picture to a circular shape for ads and posts, but the square version will still be visible when people visit your page.

Stick to using your logo for the profile picture and an eye-catching image for your cover photo. For more information and recommendations on social media images, check out the full Khoros 2020 Social Media Sizing Guide.

2. Claim a vanity URL for your business

All new Facebook business pages are assigned a randomly assigned URL such as facebook.com/pages/yourbusiness/abcd1234. Instead of keeping this long and confusing address, claim a simplified vanity URL such as facebook.com/yourbusiness — which makes it easier for people to find and share your business page.

To claim a Facebook vanity URL, follow these steps:

1. Visit https://www.facebook.com/username
2. Select your business page from the dropdown menu of page options
3. Write your brand name (or the name you wish to use as a username and vanity URL)
4. Click the check availability button to ensure the name is not taken
5. Confirm the change

Keep in mind, you can only change the username of your page once after setting it and in some cases, Facebook may not allow you to claim a vanity URL until you’ve received 25 likes.

3. Add a call-to-action button

Drive people to perform the desired action such as visiting your store or contacting your business by adding a call-to-action (CTA) button to your Facebook business page.

There are several options to choose from, so think about why people visit your Facebook page and how you want customers to interact with your business. For example, a “Shop Now” CTA button might be best if people visit your page to learn about product offerings. However, a “Contact Us” CTA button may be more appropriate if people mostly visit your page for customer support.

Learn how to add a CTA button to your Facebook business page by checking out this in-depth tutorial.

4. Set up custom page tabs

Outside of the standard “About”, “Events”, and “Photos” sections, you can also create custom page tabs that enable users to interact with your brand in other exciting ways. For example, you can create a “Locations” tab that displays your nearest storefront, or a “Jobs” tab that allows people to apply for open positions.

The process for adding a custom page tab will vary based on what you want the page to display, but Facebook recommends working with your website developer to ensure proper implementation.

After getting set up, it’s time to start promoting your business by publishing content and engaging with your audience. Utilize these best practices to help make the most of your Facebook business page.

5. Post a consistent stream of quality content

Before you think about what to post on your Facebook business page, you need to think about how often you’ll publish content. Posting regularly is essential for promoting your business on Facebook because it shows your audience you are active and alert. Think about it, how likely is someone to contact a brand if their last post was from two months ago? Posting consistently expands your reach and signifies your active in case a customer needs support.

How often you should post actually varies based on the number of followers you have according to research from our Navigating Your Social Media Presence During a Rebrand post. If your business is well established and has 10,000 followers or more — post two times a day to maximize engagement. However, businesses just starting out with less than 10,000 followers should focus on publishing 1-5 really exceptional posts a month.

6. Establish the right content mix

Ensure your content doesn’t get stale and repetitive by establishing a content mix that dictates how often each type of content will be posted. For example, a business posting four times a week may decide they want half their posts to be promotional and half to be entertaining. As noted in our Ultimate Social Media Calendar Guide, all content falls under four categories and you should experiment with different content ratios to determine what your audience likes best.

7. Use Facebook polls to gather feedback from your audience

Your Facebook business page is more than a billboard, it’s a community of customers and people who have a shared interest in your brand. We’ve previously discussed Why Feedback Is Critical for Online Community Success, but some companies struggle with gathering feedback due to difficulties of a specific channel. Luckily, Facebook makes it fast and easy to do so through built-in polls that can feature photos, videos, and gifs.

Increase your page engagement and gather valuable feedback by creating polls for your audience to participate in.

In addition to Facebook polls, post open-ended questions that encourage your audience to interact with your brand and other consumers in the comments section.

8. Respond immediately to customer inquiries

In our Guide to Social Media Customer Care, we noted that people prefer customer service through social media over all other channels. However, it’s not enough to simply offer customer care on your Facebook business page — you also need to respond promptly with a personalized response.

In fact, 20% of U.S. citizens expect an immediate response to questions and complaints while 24% are ok with waiting up to an hour. The key takeaway is that there’s no time to waste when it comes to customer care. Some businesses try to provide immediate feedback by using automatic replies, but this can backfire and upset customers seeking a personal response.

Download our Digital Customer Care Playbook to learn how you can build brand loyalty by delivering personalized responses with greater efficiency.

These best practices are a great way to grow your Facebook business page, but what about other popular social media networks such as Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat?

Khoros can help you reinvent your social media strategy across all your customers’ favorite channels. Create a seamless experience across multiple digital channels with the Khoros Platform, which can help your brand understand its audience and nurture relationships with customers.

Request a demo today to learn how Khoros can help you create customers for life.