Facebook Overview, Best Practices and Checklist

I. Overview With over one billion people on Facebook you can be sure to reach your audience and gain more fans. Make your Facebook page informative but personable. Tailor your profile to the liking of your customers and learn more about them with Facebook Insights.

II. Best Practices Build your page.

o Give an overview of your company. Explain what you do, and why you do it! In your overview you want to also add in links for your main website and any

other social media sites that you have an account on (Twitter, Foursquare, Google+, etc.).

o Add your business to a category that explains your product or service so users can easily find you.

o Upload a profile picture. A square image is recommended for the profile picture. Dimensions for your

profile picture must be at least 180x180 pixels. You can upload a logo or humanize your brand by utilizing a photo with people

in it. Remember that after a user “Likes” your page, from then on they will recognize you through your profile photo on their newsfeed and are not likely to continue to click through to your actual page.

o Showcase a product as your cover image. Cover photos are 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. Uploading a photo larger

than these dimensions will stretch out the image so be sure to choose an image that fits best.

Cover images should compliment your profile photo. If you didn’t humanize your brand through the profile photo, a cover image is a great place to do this.

o Create albums that showcase your products, services and even employees. When a user is first scanning a page before deciding to follow you, the photos

are going to be their first stop. Keep in mind that stock photos are not social-friendly!

o Create a custom URL. Creating a custom URL allows for your customers to easily search for your

company. This also allows for your business to easily promote the Facebook page in marketing efforts and materials.

This custom URL is extremely difficult to change once it is set, so put some thought into it.

1

Connect with your customer.o Know your audience.

The more relevant your content is for your targeted audience, the more impressions you will receive within Facebook.

o Add your new Facebook link to your website and any other SM sites you already have an account with so your existing customers can begin to “Like” your page.

o Encourage your fans to have their friends and family “Like” your page.o Create ads to reach a wider audience by choosing who you want to target.

For instance, you can target consumers by gender, location, age, and interests. The more targeting you include within your campaign, the better the results.

Engage you audience. o Post with quality over quantity in mind.

Engage users with videos and images that represent your brand. o Post relevant topics and news.

Facebook is a great medium to report on breaking news in your industryo If you’ve achieved something, share!

Facebook has a special post called “Milestones”. This type of post will stretch to the entire width of your profile. Simply draft your post as you would if you were writing on your wall normally. Before you hit post, select the “Offer, Event+” option and select “Milestone”. This will then allow you to title and date the details, choose a photo and save it to share with your fans.

o Give your audience “behind the scenes access.” Show the process of how your products are made. Introduce your staff. Showcase photos from private events.

o Share your products and tutorials.o Encourage your fans to engage with you through targeted action items.

Surveys, questions, contests, giveaways, etc. are great to use to engage users!o Answer any questions or comments that they leave on your page.

It is important to answer both positive and negative comments. Sometimes brands make the mistake of only addressing negative comments. Be sure to thank each user for providing feedback to your team through your Facebook page.

III. Facebook Checklist

☐ Make sure any content that you are linking to from your Facebook page is mobile-friendly.☐ Check Facebook Insights regularly to see what you’re doing right or what you can be doing better.☐ Cross-promote your website and other social media profiles. ☐ Create a content calendar (see next page for an example).☐ Keep a consistent voice for your company across all content channels.

2

IV. Sample Social Media Content Calendar

As you begin to utilize Facebook to promote your business, it is recommended that you incoporate a social media content calendar into your day-to-day social media activities to keep yourself organized, on track with deadlines and in line with the over-arching social media strategy. There are many sample content calendars out there to choose from, so be sure to browse around to find one that meets your specific social media organizational needs.

We encourage you to check out the simple, yet all-encompassing social media marketing content calendar available to you via free download on andrewmacarthy.com, to get an idea of one type of content calendar out there. Download the Social Media Marketing Content Calendar MS Excel Template, here: http://andrewmacarthy.com/s/social-media-content-calendar-template-excel-editorial-calendar-andrew-macarthycom-7w22.xlsx

When filling out the calendar, be sure to include: Number of posts Specific topic Reference links

Here’s a sneak peek of the content calendar:

(Image Source: http://andrewmacarthy.com/andrew-macarthy-social-media/social-media-content-calendar-template-excel-editorial-calendar-download)

3