Everyone wants to be on Facebook, and it’s especially important for businesses. If you haven’t done so already, it takes very little upfront effort to make a facebook business page that will increase your visibility, build brand awareness, and lead to conversions. That said, it’s not something you should take lightly.
In order to make a Facebook business page—or at least one that will actually benefit your bottom line—you’ll need to spend some serious time and energy building that page into a valuable industry resource.
The Facebook platform is full of lonely business pages that sit idle, occasionally receiving an update about the goings on in their particular business environment. We’ve all come across them, pages that have a post history with several weeks or even months in between bland and boring articles.
I’ll tell you right now that if that’s all you have planned for your page, you’re better off without one.
In the 10 Key Points below I’ll explain…
- When it’s worth it to make a Facebook business page
- What it takes to make that page into a tool that drives leads/conversions
- How to build a community around your Facebook page
- What to share/not share on your page
- And plenty more…
Whether or not you make a Facebook business page is up to you. You just need to decide if you’re ready for the commitment it takes to turn a Facebook page into a valuable marketing asset.
Let’s see if you still want to dive into the Facebook community after you’re done reading.
Article Contents
#1 – Do you have clearly defined goals for what you want to accomplish with your Facebook page?
Making a facebook page for business just to have one is a waste of time. Some businesses feel that they need to be a part of the Facebook community because they’ll be behind the times or missing out on something if they aren’t.
To a point that’s true, but if you don’t know why you want to create Facebook page, I’d skip it altogether. An idle page creates a far worse impression than no page at all. Instead, try to understand how your business could/would benefit from having a Facebook page.
- Would your Facebook page act as a landing page where leads could gather more information about your brand and/or products after clicking on one of your ads?
- Is your goal to create an industry resource where you share valuable content, provide a gathering place for discussion, and could build an active and engaged community?
What do you want from your page?
To make a Facebook business page requires that you first outline what you would like to accomplish with your new asset, as well as how you plan to go about doing so.
#2 – Are you in it for the short-term or long-term benefits?
To be fair, both are possible, but let’s make one thing clear. If you’re only looking for short-term benefits from your Facebook page you’re going to have to pay for them. The short-term benefits I’m talking about come from the ads you’ll run to promote your page, your website, or your product catalog.
Even so, you’ll need to create a page that gives potential customers a good impression of what it means to do business with your brand.
That means taking the time necessary to share content, post updates, and interact with your audience. Leaving people hanging on an idle page will do more to hurt your brand image than anything else. Be sure that, even if you’re willing to pay to play, you have the time and resources to keep up a good impression.
#3 – Do you understand your ideal buyer well enough to target them on Facebook?
Speaking of paying for ads, do you know enough about the people you’re selling to that you’ll be able to target them effectively on Facebook? Have you created buyer personas? Do you have data to analyze about their buying habits?
The power of Facebook marketing lies in your ability to target your audience effectively. That said, if you don’t know enough about who you’re targeting, you can blow tons of money trying to find out. You can’t (successfully) target everyone, so be clear as to who it is you want to reach long before you create a facebook page for business.
#4 – Are you willing to allocate a good deal of time and energy to building your Facebook page?
This question is one to consider carefully. Many brands decide to create a Facebook page and interact a great deal early on, only to let their page fall to the wayside once they:
- Get too busy
- Have an office emergency
- Forget to post
- Forgot login information
- Get eaten by a bear
You get my point, the excuses go on and on…
There needs to be a designated team or team member in your organization who is entirely responsible for your Facebook page. There must also be a set cadence with which they post to your page in order to deliver consistent value to your audience.
The potential to build a community around your Facebook page is very valuable, but your community will drop off quickly if you neglect to provide them with the consistent value they had come to expect from your brand.
#5 – Do you regularly create and distribute content?
If your organization already creates regular blog or video content, you won’t need to think very hard about whether or not you’ll make a Facebook business page.
If you create valuable content on a regular basis, Facebook is a great place to share that content. Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C space, you can work to build a community around your Facebook page by promoting your content to the right audience.
#6 – Are you willing to make Facebook a part of a larger lead-generating machine?
Many small businesses seem to think otherwise, but Facebook shouldn’t represent your sole digital marketing tool. Whether you’re creating a Facebook page to make the most of Facebook ads or looking to build a community, the resources you allocate there should represent part of a larger marketing machine.
For Example…
You’ll find that promoting content on Facebook can generate a lot of engagement, especially on your best pieces. You need to take advantage of that engagement by retargeting those that view said content with ads for your downloadable offers, which provide even more information/value around the topic.
This way you’re nurturing these leads through the buyer’s journey and capitalizing on the interest they’ve shown in your content.
Need Another?
The same can be said for any ads you run.
If you show ads that drive people to your website, you’ll want to make sure they see a landing page or popup with your downloadable offer for which they’ll gladly give you their email address. That way you can send valuable content directly to their email inbox, along with insider information, discounts, and promotions.
#7 – Are you willing to spend money to grow your page with very little measurable ROI?
This question may have been better suited a little higher on the list, mainly because many brands are under the impression that they can use Facebook as a free place to market themselves. While this is essentially true, the Facebook landscape is VERY crowded.
If you wait for your organic reach to build you a massive following and a highly engaged community, you may be waiting a LONG time.
Instead, spending money to put the right ads or the right content in front of the right audience will dramatically improve the rate at which you’re able to meet the goals you set for your page (remember those?).
While Facebook ads deliver an insanely measurable ROI, the return on the investment generated by building a following and engaging with your audience is far less exact. You may spend a great deal of money over a long timespan before the community you’re building starts driving conversions.
If you make a Facebook business page, be ready to invest plenty of time and money in your eventual success.
#8 – Do you already have other social accounts that are being ignored?
We’ve walked through several valuable insights in this post already, some of which may even have you feeling like you’re brand is ready for its very own Facebook page.
Before you get started, I want to be sure we reflect on a few (more) important questions for a moment.
- Do you already have other social accounts that you started with the passion and dedication you’re feeling right now?
- Do they currently represent a powerful marketing tool for your brand?
- What can you attribute to their current state?
- What can you do differently for your Facebook page to ensure it becomes a marketing asset instead of a lonely social page?
These are all important questions to answer before you move forward with any new social media account, especially Facebook. The rapid speed with which the Facebook community moves means that you have to understand how users interact with content well before you ever create your first post.
Once you make a Facebook business page, there’s no taking breaks or playing the blame game missing your goals. It’s time to take charge and take consistent action until they are achieved.
#9 – Are you ready to adapt to a continually evolving platform?
I don’t want to sound like I’m out to crush your dreams, but Facebook never has and never will be a marketing machine that you can turn on and walk away from.
The platform is always changing, sometimes dramatically. Not only does Facebook implement changes in its own delivery structure, the way we as human beings consume content and interact with it is always changing.
What does that mean for you?
Say you make a Facebook business page. You’ve followed all of the advice I’ve laid out in the post, set goals, created a strategy, and you understand who you’re targeting. You find your advertising successful AND you’re building a community around your page.
Then one day your ads begin to show a lower and lower return. Not only that but the engagement on your posts drop off significantly.
- Are you prepared to dive deep and determine why it’s happening?
- Are you prepared to continually be optimizing your Facebook marketing to achieve the best results possible?
It sounds a bit dramatic (and it is), but things like this happen every day to experienced Facebook marketers. The key difference between those that are successful and those that aren’t is whether or not they are willing to do what’s necessary to optimize their strategy and get back on top.
#10 – Are you a tester?
This may sound like a funny question but Facebook (and digital marketing as a whole) is a world that revolves around testing. Marketers with the most successful Facebook pages are those that are continually experimenting to determine:
- Audience likes/dislikes
- What drives engagement
- What drives conversions
- And so on…
To make a Facebook business page successful, your team will need to take risks and try new things, systematically determining the best way to reach your target community. Always be testing and you’ll always be optimizing the way you reach your audience.
Final Thoughts
“Should we create a Facebook page?”
It’s something our clients ask us all the time.
However, the problem you should be looking to solve is how to make a Facebook page for your business that will provide long-term value to your industry and become a part of your multi-faceted marketing machine.
Your customers are on Facebook, there is NO doubt about that. What you need to determine is whether or not you have the time and resources to allot to this (potentially) powerful marketing tool.
