What You’ll Need

1) A Facebook Profile

If you’re new to Facebook, you may not know that Pages and Profiles are two very different things. Profiles are for people, allowing friends to interact and share with one another on a personal level. Pages, on the other hand, are for businesses and represent professional bodies that have unique privileges.

To create a Page, you’ll first need a Profile. These are easy to set up; Facebook’s homepage always displays the sign up form prominently.



If you’re not interested in using Facebook for personal interaction, don’t worry; your Profile can be hidden from other users by editing the privacy settings found in the top right corner of your Facebook toolbar.

Once your Profile is set up, you can create a Page. Simply look for the “Pages” option on the left menu of your Newsfeed, pictured below, or click here.



The Page set-up process will ask you for information about your business. These questions should be very easy to answer. If there is a section that you can’t fill in, just leave it blank; you can come back and fix it later.

When using Facebook for business, you will sign in to your Profile to act as an Administrator for your Page. Try thinking of your Profile as your online self and your Page as your office. You will interact with customers and fans using the Page as an intermediary body.

2) Images

Facebook Pages are made up of three types of images: Profile Picture, Cover Photo, and App Image. To build a legitimate Facebook presence, you’ll need all three. We’ll go over them one-by-one here.

Profile Picture
Dimensions: 180 pixels x 180 pixels (at least)

The Profile Picture is the face of your Page. It will be seen on every post, share, and comment that you make. For this reason, it’s important to pick an image that visually represents your business. Company logos are a very common choice.

Cover Photo
Dimensions: 851 pixels x 315 pixels

The Cover Photo is your Page’s header image. This is an excellent place to share company news, sales and promotions, and goals. The Cover Photo is also where you can highlight your various Facebook Page features and encourage visitors to “Like” your Page. For more information on how to format your cover photo, you can read How to Make a Great Custom Cover Photo. You can also use this free toll to create custom Cover Photos of your own: www.timelineimagecreator.com

App Image
Dimensions: 111 pixels x 74 pixels

Custom Applications are the engines that drive engagement for most Facebook Pages. Administrators can use these Applications to run contests, create Fan-exclusive deals, and host custom content that would otherwise be unavailable on Facebook. You can learn more about these Applications by visiting Social Page Builder or attending a High Impact Designer Weekly Webinar on Social Media Marketing. You can also learn more about designing and publishing App Images with How to Make a Great Custom App Image.

3) Likes

Facebook Pages rely on Fan support to reach a wider audience. This support is (mostly) measured by the amount of “Likes” a Page has. The more popular the Page, the more likely Facebook is to distribute its material to a wider audience.

There are many ways to get Likes on Facebook. If you already have a Profile that you use, the easiest way is to send messages to your Friends inviting them to Like your new Page. Facebook will prompt you to do this automatically, and the option will be featured prominently in your administrative settings.

Other methods for getting Likes vary in effectiveness based on your industry and your marketing strategy. Popular methods include running contests, creating Fan-exclusive deals, and engaging with Fans on your Timeline. All of these can be accomplished easily with the help of custom Applications. You can also advertise your Page directly through Facebook.

The most important thing to remember when looking for Likes on Facebook is to offer your visitors value. Self-promotion and updates are appropriate on special occasions, but people need to get something back. Try offering exclusive deals or information in exchange for Likes; you’d be surprised how effective they can be!

Congratulations, you’re ready to start marketing your business on Facebook! Your next step is to begin posting, Liking, and sharing content on your Page. You’ll also want to look into Custom Applications to create Fan-exclusive deals and contests. And keep checking back for more Facebook how-tos and news!

Related Posts

• How to Make a Great Custom Cover Photo
• How to Make a Great Custom App Image
• Facebook Contests: Rules and Regulations
• How to Schedule a Facebook Post

Yesterday, Facebook announced a new feature for their mobile application: Home. So what is it?

More than anything, Facebook Home is an attempt to further ingrain Facebook into human communication and daily life. Home is more than an App; it’s a modification of your phone’s operating system. You’ll now be able to access Facebook via custom notifications, entering chats and getting updates without interfering with your other activities.

Why Use Home?

For anyone that uses Facebook on a regular basis, Home is the next logical step. Now, rather than having to close apps, navigate to Facebook, complete an action, then navigate back, users can skip most of those steps with zero effort. This is especially useful for small businesses whose demanding schedules don’t permit wasted time. Ultimately, the ability to integrate Facebook seamlessly into other activities is a useful and effective practice.

Why has Facebook Created Home?

Apart from making their product more convenient for customers, Facebook is motivated by the desire to become an inseparable part of how we communicate with one another. Ubiquity has been Facebook’s strength since overtaking MySpace in 2009, and their proficiency at maintaining their monopoly will be the deciding factor in the company’s growth over the next few years. Home is an excellent step forward for the company, and we’re likely to see many new features and additions to it in the future.

Related Posts
• 3 Ways to Use Facebook’s New Cover Photo Rules
• The New Facebook Newsfeed
• Facebook Announces Graph Search

Facebook just launched a new tool for replying directly to comments. You might have noticed this at the top of your Page:

Now, instead of having to send a notification to all commentators, you can address an individual commentator directly and discretely. Your reply will still appear on the comment feed, but commentators not directly addressed will no longer be bothered with notifications. This new feature also prioritizes comments by level of activity, essentially ranking comments by how popular they are.

How does this affect Pages?

The advantage here is two-fold. Most noticeably, this new feature will eliminate the annoyance of customers who continue getting notifications for conversations that they no longer want to be a part of. Since fans no longer have to worry about being bombarded with comments, they’re more likely to comment and generate a conversion.

In addition to fewer annoyances, this feature will also incentivize readers to comment by promoting comments and commentators that get the most responses. People who comment on your posts will now try harder to get responses, generating interest and traffic for your Page. Ranking comments will also help your readers focus on the important points of the post by highlighting what people are talking about.

The future?

This is one in a series of Facebook updates that will be released over the coming weeks (some may have already noticed a sleeker menu for personal Profiles). Be sure to follow any additional updates, and keep checking your Facebook Page for chances to try out the new format!

Looking for more Facebook news? Be sure to check out our Social Media Section. You can also check out 3 Ways to Use Facebook’s New Cover Photo Rules and The New Facebook Newsfeed for the latest scoop.

Late last week, Facebook relaxed their guidelines for Cover Photo content. What was once a stringent set of rules has now been reduced to only a few sentences:

“All cover photos are public, which means anyone visiting your Page will be able to see the cover photo. Cover photos can’t be deceptive, misleading, infringe on anyone else’s copyright or be in violation of the Pages Terms. You may not encourage people to upload your cover photo to their personal timelines.

Cover photos must be at least 399 pixels wide and may not include images with more than 20% text.“

So what does this mean for Facebook Marketing?

Basically, it means that Admins are no longer restricted from placing advertising in their Cover Photos. This opens up a whole world of possibilities to capitalize on, from increasing sales to boosting Likes and Fan engagement. We’ll explore a few of these options now, as well as some examples of how to implement them.

Cover Photo Dimensions: 851 pixels x 315 pixels

1) Direct Visitors to Like

Pages are now free to put Like incentives directly in their Cover Photo. Now, rather than having to find clever ways to draw attention to the Like Button, Admins can point to it directly. Phrases along the lines of “Like us to get product updates and promotions” are effective for drawing in people who might be inclined to Like your Page.

2) Advertise

The old rules forbade putting price and sale information directly into a Cover Photo. Luckily, that’s no longer the case! Publish as many sales banners as you want! (Just be sure to keep text to a minimum)

3) Drive Contests and Other Promotions

If you’re running a Facebook Contest, your Cover Photo is now an excellent place to promote it! Figure out where you’ll place the contest Tab on your Page and have text on the Cover Photo pointing to it.

Try mixing and matching these ideas to design even more effective Cover Photos! And don’t be afraid to try new strategies; this new policy is incredibly open-ended so almost anything is possible!

Check our Facebook Section for continued tips and updates on Social Media Marketing. And check out How to Make a Great Custom Cover Photo and How to Make a Great Custom App Image for more Facebook image tips!

Since I posted on this last week, I’ve seen another massively popular scam based on the PS4, and now this one getting started around Louis C.K.. Now, to be fair, this one comes from a local, legitimate newspaper, so they might not know that they’re not allowed to do this. Still, come on! Has this just become acceptable now? Will we be plagued by fake share contests from everywhere? It’s a clear violation of Facebook’s Page guidelines as well as a sloppy way to run a contest, since there’s no way to privately contact the winners. I sincerely hope we start seeing less of this in the future.

If you want to know how to run a legitimate Facebook contest, you can read Facebook Contests: Rules and Regulations.

Update: Turns out the contest operator is actually trying to make good on their giveaway! Good for them!

My answer is always the same: “You might succeed to a certain level, but ALL the most successful advertisers leverage landing pages, and you should, too.”

There are three main reasons landing pages are necessary to reach your full potential…

Testing and Indexing
The beauty of online advertising combined with landing pages is how easy it is to test different offers, benefits, copy, and images to maximize the response after someone clicks through on your ad. A streamlined landing page makes it a snap to launch and test multiple variations. However, this means that at any given time you might have multiple different versions of a page, most of which will eventually be deleted.

With this in mind, you want to make sure that you set these pages up so that they are not “indexed” by Google. Otherwise, this may lead to a real mess in Google search results. There may also be results which point to pages which no longer exist. Using a simple “no-index” tag (or using the no-index setting in your landing page software) makes this very easily accomplished.

Matching of Features to Visitors
A product page must address all the different facets of your offering. For instance, let’s suppose you have a cloud-based file storage program with 10 or 15 different features, such as uploading to social media accounts, online storage, file conversion, file compression, etc.

There’s typically no way you can have a single product page or section that gives prominence to all of these features.

However, working in tandem with Google Adwords, you can take your visitors to the exact feature that someone is interested in. For instance, if someone is Googling “online file conversion tools” your ad can take them to a landing page where that specific feature is the most prominent thing on the page. Likewise, if someone Googles “online file compression” you’ll take them to a landing page which focuses on exactly that!

It’s not hard to see how using this strategy will dramatically increase the likelihood that a visitor will become a buyer! Plus, there’s no limit to the number of features you can highlight for people searching matching keywords if you use a simple-to-modify landing page template.

Matching of Demographic Interests
Let’s imagine that you have a product that fulfills needs for dramatically different demographic profiles. In this case, it might be something like an affordable waterproof camera that has broad appeal.

Now, let’s see how this might work if you’re advertising the camera on Facebook. You might target (separately) college-aged students, parents with young kids, and adventurous travelers.

It goes without saying that each group will be waaay more responsive to a different experience when they arrive at your site. For instance:

-The college-aged students might respond well to a high-energy page featuring others their age and would probably react well to some “edgy” messaging.

-The parents with kids would likely respond well to a page showing how they might capture the memories of their kids learning to swim, at the beach, etc.

-The adventurous travelers would likely respond better to beach, snorkeling, and diving scenes from exotic locales.

Nobody would argue that you can do a good job appealing to all those three groups on a single product page. In fact, it’s likely, in this case, that the “parents” messaging would actually repel the college-age demographic, and vice versa.

Being “different things to different people” through multiple landing pages is a task that becomes extremely straightforward when you match your demographic targeting with a meaningful landing page strategy.

With the tools now available to make landing pages easily accessible to even the smallest of companies, what’s keeping you from kicking off your own landing page strategy?

About the Author

Rob Cooper is our guest blogger for this post. He lives in Victoria, BC and has been working internationally in Web Marketing for 12 years, the last 6 running PlusROI.com.

Last Friday at 9:00am EST, the fake Facebook Page “Beats By Dre.” posted this photo promising everyone who liked or shared a chance to win one of 1,239 Beats Headphones. Now, the fact that people fell for this isn’t surprising. Even I got excited when I started reading the post. Sadly, too few are aware of Facebook’s contest rules. If they were aware, they’d know that Facebook specifically forbids this type of promotion and has a history of banning users for running them. Why? Because it’s literally impossible to follow through. How is “Beats By Dre.” going to contact winners? They don’t have their email address or the means to message them directly. This is a scam.

So what’s their endgame? Getting a Like on a Facebook post isn’t necessarily a free ticket to spam users. That’s why the Post stipulates that you have to Like the Page as well in order to be eligible. Once users like the Page, they’re susceptible to advertising from that page, and with the weight behind their current posts, their Reach is going to be huge. Whoever’s behind this charade, congrats, and enjoy it before Facebook shuts you down.

Note: Since the publishing of this post, the fake “Beats by Dre.” Page has been taken down, and there appear to be no negative consequences of Liking the post.

“This Newsfeed… is designed for the way that we’re all sharing today and the trends we see going forward.” –Mark Zuckerberg

How will Facebook’s new Newsfeed Affect Businesses?

Following today’s announcement, many have been speculating on the direction Facebook’s new Newsfeed feature will take and how it will affect small businesses. Here, we’ll break down the new format and let you know what you’ll need to be focusing on when the changes take effect later this year.

First, let’s be clear that Facebook has not directly addressed any features other than Newsfeed (there was speculation of Page changes, but no such luck). It’s possible that there will be more changes to come, but there hasn’t been any official confirmation as of yet. The Newsfeed feature will be rolled out on Desktop over the next few days and on Mobile for several weeks after that. For now, we’ll focus on what we know.

Choice of Feeds

In what is probably the most dramatic change made to Newsfeed, users will now be able to filter the feed based on the source of the information and the format of the content. For example, a person could choose to filter their feed based on photos posted by their friends, effectively eliminating status updates, events, videos, and all other irrelevant material from their visible Newsfeed.

How does this affect companies? It doesn’t. Facebook’s revenue depends on businesses advertising with them, so they’ve been sure to include Pages as default sources for all filter types; users will still have access to your posts and updates in all the places that they normally would.

Facebook has also added a special filter for Pages titled “Follow”. According to their official announcement, it’s “a feed with the latest news from the Pages you like and the people you follow.” This is essentially a business-only feed which will group popular entertainment sources like movies, music, and television with posts from commercial businesses. Facebook has also parried the more recent accusations of limiting Post views by assuring that this feed will feature ALL Posts from every page that the user follows. How often this filter gets used is, of course, dependent on the user, but it bodes well for Page exposure and Reach.

Why Now?

This change comes in the wake of a popular theory that the popularity of web services, and especially Social Media, is dependent on ease-of-use. By making the product more accessible and accommodating, Facebook is hoping to ensure that users will continue to favor their product over competitors like Google+, Tumblr, and Myspace* well into the future.

This trend of accessibility is especially evident in Facebook’s approach to the new Newsfeed: During their portion of the announcement, the Facebook Developers revealed that they had designed the new navigation features and layout by starting with a Mobile platform and working backwards to the desktop. There’s nowhere that we need ease-of-access more than on our phones, so this was an excellent strategy, and one that we’ll probably see more of as big-name companies become increasingly dependent on Mobile.

The Future

As usual, this is Facebook’s world, and we’re just living in it. Facebook needs to cater to businesses in order to survive, so we can be sure that they believe this is a good move. Personally, I think they’ve approached both the concern of ease-of-use and the problem of Page exposure quite effectively. I think businesses will start to see more exposure as the format is rolled out over the next few days, and I think both users and advertisers will find utility in the new functions. More than anything, I’m excited to see where Facebook takes it from here.

You can sign up for the Newsfeed waiting list here: https://www.facebook.com/about/newsfeed

Be sure to follow our blog for more Facebook news and analysis, and check out our previous breakdowns, Facebook Announces Graph Search and How to Get the Most out of Your Facebook Advertisements.

*Speaking of Myspace, watch the video of Facebook’s presentation for a shoutout to Justin Timberlake, one of Myspace’s owners. Mentioning how awesome one of your (former) competitors is in your press conference? That’s cold, dude.

Have you ever considered using Landing Pages to generate Leads? It’s not crazy – the branding and design of a customized Page can go a long way toward building your lists. So how can you make sure that your Page is bringing in as many new contacts as possible?

Are you using an online form creator?
Getting your Landing Page to generate Leads hinges on having an easy and effective way to manage the information. A Form will allow you to ask for contact information in a way that’s easy for both the customer and you; Form Builders like the one available in Landing Page Builder automatically notify you of new contacts and allow you to add contact information to lists or send automatic opt-ins. Many platforms also offer third-party integration, so check with your Email Service Provider to see if you can import their forms!

Have you assured your leads that their information will never be shared with anyone else and that they can easily unsubscribe at any time?
If you’re familiar at all with Email Marketing, then you’re aware that privacy and opt-in/out options are very tightly regulated. Stay ahead of the game by reinforcing your Leads’ confidence in their privacy with trust symbols, verbiage, and automatic opt-in options like the ones discussed earlier. If your lead feels like they can trust you with their information, they will be much more likely to purchase further down the sales funnel.

Are you asking the user to fill in more information than is absolutely required?
Surveys show that each additional required field results in a 15% decline in the completion of the form. For mobile forms the decline is 50%. Asking for your leads’ birthdays might provide some interesting insights, but it could tank your conversions. Identify the facts you absolutely need and limit your Form based on your answers. Try to think like a prospect would think and create a functional form that doesn’t make too many demands.

Do you include fields in the form that might require retyping (like requiring dashes in telephone numbers)?
Every time a prospect fails to complete a form, another barrier is added to the Sales funnel. Many Form Builders will allow you to provide examples in individual fields. Some also allow for multiple answer formats. Be sure that the form that you’re providing is clear and easy for your prospects to fill out on the first try.

Stuck on ideas for Forms? Check out 5 Ways to Use Web Forms for some tips! And be sure to come back next week for even more Landing Page Best Practices! We’ll be covering A/B Testing and how to get the most out of your Page variations.

Think that your great landing page could do even better? Follow our week-by-week tips to learn how! Sometimes, just a few small tweaks are all that a page needs to reach its full potential. When reviewing your page, ask yourself these questions:

Are you segmenting your landing pages based on your sources?
Would you click through an ad that didn’t make sense to you? Of course not. But a comprehensive page goes beyond just good writing and an intuitive design; it also needs to be relevant. Leads coming from a Pay-Per-Click Ad like Google AdWords are probably looking for an in-depth product breakdown and/or a good price. Current customers/verified leads, on the other hand, already know at least something about your product and will be looking for short updates and special offers. Always consider who you’re directing to your page and what’s on it, and you’ll be able to hold a tighter grasp on the market and boost conversions without having to increase your distribution.

Have you made it easy for your visitor to say “Yes!”?
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. An effective landing page must convey, often at a glance, exactly why yours should be the product to buy. How do you make sure of that? By having a plan and making your Page clear and direct.

Have you used a compelling headline and action-oriented benefits?
People don’t respond to bland. Be sure to take the time and write a headline that draws attention and gets the customer excited about your product. Positive action words like “Imagine”, “Create”, and “Inspire” will invigorate your customers and subtly bring them to an “action-ready” state.

Is your actionable item above the fold?
Your Landing Page wants to give your customers a clear course of action. Let it! Explanation of a product or deal may be necessary, but your Landing Page is not the place! Keep your headlines and subheadings short and let your actionable item stand out.

Have you conveyed trust and security?
There are so many reasons to distrust a page: losing privacy, the fear of getting scammed, a lack of information; it’s easy to see why people can be hesitant. So what can you do to make sure that your visitors feel safe? A good layout conveys work ethic and strong motivation, but that’s only the first step. Your page will also need excellent copy, guarantees, and, if possible, video and text testimonials from satisfied customers.

Another important element for conveying security is trust symbols. These could be anything from seals of approval from reliable sites to awards won or partners collaborated with. By providing these symbols, you’re showing the customer that you are a trusted partner and an honest business.

Note: VERIFY YOUR TRUST PARTNERS. It’s great that Example.com loved your product, but if your link to their site doesn’t reflect that information directly, your trust symbol is suspect. Our advice? Dedicate either a part of your homepage or a special landing page to partners and testimonials. The extra layer of information will satisfy most people’s curiosity.

Join us next week for more Landing Page Best Practices! We’ll be focusing on Web Forms and how to turn your Landing Page into an automatic lead generator!