It only takes a few minutes to create a Facebook Page, but that doesn’t mean leads and sales will start rolling in as soon as you hit the Publish button and set your page free to the online audience.
Creating a Facebook Page that drives the results you need takes some thought and some time. It also requires ongoing analysis and management. There are a variety of free and paid tools that can help you analyze your Facebook Page in order to boost your results, but before you pay for anything, there are things you can be doing right now to improve your Facebook Page performance.
To help you design and maintain a Facebook Page that meets your goals now and in the future, follow the ten steps listed below.
1. Add a compelling cover photo.
Your Facebook Page cover photo should be visually appealing and relevant to your brand. Create an image that is 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels high, and remember that your page avatar will appear on top of the lower left-hand corner of your cover photo. That means you shouldn’t put anything important in that area of the image or it will be cut off on your live Facebook Page.
2. Make sure the best tabs are visible.
Your Facebook Page automatically displays links to four tabs directly beneath the right corner of your cover photo. Make sure those are the four most important tabs that visitors should see, so it’s easy for them to click on them for more information.
3. Fill out the About section completely.
Don’t skip filling out the fields in the About section of your Facebook Page. A lot of people who find your page will click on that About link beneath your cover photo to learn more about you and your business or organization. Include as much useful information as you can and be sure to include links to your websites, blog, and other social media profiles.
4. Craft a compelling description to display under your cover photo.
You can add a brief description of your company or organization that displays directly beneath the left corner of your Facebook Page cover photo. Include a marketing message that will motivate your target audience to stick around and learn more about what you do and how you can help them.
5. Track your page’s popularity.
Keep an eye on the number of likes your Facebook Page gets, so you can see spikes of activity and keep doing more of the things that caused those spikes in likes.
6. Publish content frequently.
Don’t create your Facebook Page and then abandon it. Research shows that updating your Facebook Page approximately 4-6 times per day is the sweet spot to gain traffic momentum without annoying your audience with too many updates that clutter their own timelines.
7. Publish diverse content.
When you update your Facebook Page, make sure you publish a variety of content such as text updates, links to great content across the web, images, videos, and so on. This makes your Facebook Page more interesting to a wider variety of people who prefer different types of content. It also makes your updates more shareable across the social web.
8. Track content engagement.
Keep an eye on your Facebook Page updates, so you can see when specific updates or activities generate a lot of comments, likes, and shares. This is the type of content you want to publish more often!
9. Communicate with your fans.
Remember, Facebook is a social network, and that means you need to socialize with your Facebook Page fans and visitors to build relationships with them. Respond to their comments, ask them questions, and acknowledge them so they know you value them. They are less likely to come back if you ignore them.
10. Use Facebook Insights to access more performance data.
Facebook Insights offers a variety of free data that you can use to analyze your Facebook Page’s performance, and it’s accessible directly through the admin panel of your Facebook Page. For example, you can track the reach, engagement, and virality of individual posts on your Facebook Page and use that information to plan your future updates and activities to boost your desired results.
Keep in mind, creating a Facebook Page that drives results also takes effort outside of Facebook. For example, you need to promote your Facebook Page and the content you publish on your page to increase its exposure and boost traffic to your page. Adding Facebook social plugins to your website and blog is a great way to start.
