When it comes to social net­work­ing platforms, Facebook still rules the roost. As well as providing private profiles, the far-reaching medium fulfils all kinds of purposes in social media marketing. The social network presents itself as a user-friendly and cost-effective tool for busi­ness­es as well as for artists, bands, and free­lancers who want to attract more attention and stay in contact with potential customers and fans. Facebook fan pages are not only a great advantage for large companies; they can also be quite prof­itable for smaller firms and free­lancers.

Who can set up a Facebook page?

In principle, any Facebook user can create a Facebook page, but you must either be an official rep­re­sen­ta­tive or have explicit au­tho­riza­tion to do this on the behalf of a business, brand, or com­pa­ra­ble or­ga­ni­za­tion. Even if you only want to set up a fan page for a public figure, you must first be able to produce that person’s per­mis­sion. Those with no official au­tho­riza­tion can still set up fan clubs using a Facebook group, though.

How do they differ from private profiles?

Personal Facebook profiles are intended for private persons who want to com­mu­ni­cate and share in­for­ma­tion with each other as in­di­vid­u­als, rather than as a com­mer­cial entity. In their basic structure, Facebook pages are very similar to these private profiles. Much like a personal profile, they consist of a public timeline (on which updates, images, and links are shared) that can be liked and commented upon. The profile picture, cover image, and basic in­for­ma­tion also make pages look very similar to profiles at a first glance. There are, however, nuanced dif­fer­ences between fan pages and standard profiles. As well as special functions for business, brands, and or­ga­ni­za­tions (such as ad­ver­tis­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties or ad­di­tion­al fields of text), the man­age­ment settings and access rights differ from personal profiles. A Facebook fan page can have several ad­min­is­tra­tors, as long as they all have a private profile.

How to create a Facebook page

Those wishing to use Facebook to expand their business first need to set up a Facebook page. The following step-by-step guide provides an overview of how to create and design a Facebook page for your business.

1. Reg­is­tra­tion

It’s only possible to create a Facebook page if you already have a reg­is­tered account, so page ad­min­is­tra­tors should all ensure that they have a personal account reg­is­tered under their own name. Fake accounts are not permitted and are penalized by Facebook. You can go to the Facebook Business Manager to set up a business account.

2. Set up the page

Now that you are a reg­is­tered Facebook user, you can go to the nav­i­ga­tion menu (under the small arrow) and select ‘Create a page’. You can also find this option on Facebook’s business page. Here, busi­ness­es have access to extensive in­for­ma­tion and ex­pla­na­tions on the diverse ad­ver­tis­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties the network has to offer.

Image: ‘Create a page’ on Facebook
In the ‘Create a page’ section, business owners can find out more detailed in­for­ma­tion about the platform’s various ad­ver­tis­ing options. (Source: https://www.facebook.com/business)

3. Choose your page category

There are many kinds of Facebook pages. To make yours easier to find, you have to choose from the following options:

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

Once you’ve made your selection, a small form appears. This gives you a pool of various sug­ges­tions, allowing you to pick a more specific category. For example, under ‘Local business’, you’ll find cat­e­gories such as book store, hotel, or restau­rant. While under ‘Company, or­ga­ni­za­tion’ or in­sti­tu­tion’, you’ll find options for the in­dus­tri­al sector, small busi­ness­es, and or­ga­ni­za­tions, etc. Depending on the kind of page you choose, the form will prompt you to provide further in­for­ma­tion, such as addresses or telephone numbers. By clicking ‘Get started’, you au­to­mat­i­cal­ly accept Facebook’s page terms and you will be taken on to the next step.

Image: Create a page: selection of appropriate categories
Here you can select the most fitting category for your new page (Source: https://www.facebook.com/business)

4. Setting up a page

You can now add a short de­scrip­tion of your company or brand to let visitors know a little bit more about the business. The de­scrip­tion (max. 155 char­ac­ters) should establish the essence of the company, ideally with relevant keywords (this can be changed later). You also have space to enter the official company website and a unique Facebook address.

Image: Create a page: add a short description
The ‘About’ section should describe your business in less than 155 char­ac­ters and contain relevant keywords (Source: https://www.facebook.com/business)

Click ‘Save info’ to save these new settings and move on to the following step, which allows you to develop your Facebook page’s image.

5. Upload images

Uploading a profile picture will make your Facebook fan page look more complete and pro­fes­sion­al. Busi­ness­es par­tic­u­lar­ly benefit by using striking images that im­me­di­ate­ly com­mu­ni­cate their brand or product. Images are au­to­mat­i­cal­ly cropped into a square, and according to Facebook’s Help Center the uploaded image must be at least 180 pixels wide so that it can be correctly displayed on all devices. The cover photo must be at least 399 x 150 pixels.

Image: Create a page: upload an appealing profile picture
Your profile picture should be a minimum of 180 pixels wide so that it can also be correctly displayed on mobile devices (Source: https://www.facebook.com/business)

6. Add to favorites & defining your target group

Adding your Facebook page to your favorites allows you as a page ad­min­is­tra­tor to gain faster access to your business’s Facebook page. Your page will appear in the nav­i­ga­tion bar on the left-hand side.

Image: Create a page: add to favorites
It’s also possible to save your Facebook page as a ‘Favorite’ (Source: https://www.facebook.com/business)

The final step of the set-up allows you to define a specific target group. Entering in­for­ma­tion about your chosen target group here increases the prob­a­bil­i­ty that the Facebook page will be suggested to those exact people. You can define this target group by choosing their location, age, gender, interests, and languages.

Image: Create a page: define page audience
In this final step, you can define a target group choosing specific bes­timmten criteria (Source: https://www.facebook.com/business)

7. Polishing your Facebook page

You have now suc­cess­ful­ly set up a Facebook page, but your profile is far from complete. It’s therefore rec­om­mend­ed to select ‘Unpublish page’ under ‘Settings/General/Page Vis­i­bil­i­ty’. Only once all the in­for­ma­tion is written and the company website is finished and ready for the ‘fans’ should the page be published.

When creating your Facebook page, you can add further in­for­ma­tion under ‘Page info’:

  • Topics: here you can enter three Keywords to describe the page’s content
  • Impressum: Some countries require an ‘impressum’ to be set up. Look into this before creating your business page.
  • Facebook web address: here you can choose your unique Facebook web address (e.g. ‘www.facebook.com/ex­am­ple­com­pa­ny’).
  • Back­ground in­for­ma­tion: this section is for ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion like the founding year, awards, or details about specific products. This is optional, but it is es­pe­cial­ly valuable for visitors using social media to learn about your business.

Finding success on Facebook: the next steps

A Facebook page is the cor­ner­stone of a suc­cess­ful social media presence. They may be easy to set up, but the real work begins af­ter­wards. Gaining fans and recog­ni­tion for your page is no easy task, but with the right com­bi­na­tion of planning and targeted content strategy, the far-reaching platform can be an excellent marketing tool. Facebook also offers different pos­si­bil­i­ties to com­mu­ni­cate with potential customers through targeted ad­ver­tis­ing. Find out more about the best ways to integrate Facebook into your marketing mix in our Digital Guide article on Facebook marketing.

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