Facebook Business Pages - Notes

Course Notes

By @philoakley (Twitter.com/philoakley)

From @outserveweb (Twitter.com/outserveweb)

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England &
Wales

February 2010 Outserve Ltd

© Outserve Ltd 2010 Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share alike 2.0 Page 1
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 4

Facebook® Lists ................................................................................................................................... 6

Business Accounts ............................................................................................................................... 7

Create Facebook® Pages ......................................................................................................................... 8

Create Facebook® Pages ......................................................................................................................... 9

Vanity URL ........................................................................................................................................... 9

Multiple Business Pages...................................................................................................................... 9

Standard Business Page Functionality .................................................................................................. 10

Name your Page ................................................................................................................................ 10

Upload photos................................................................................................................................... 10

Wall ................................................................................................................................................... 10

Events ................................................................................................................................................ 10

Notes ................................................................................................................................................. 10

Video ................................................................................................................................................. 10

Discussion.......................................................................................................................................... 10

How to send updates directly to your fans ........................................................................................... 11

Connect your Facebook® Page to Twitter............................................................................................. 12

Connect your Twitter to Facebook® ..................................................................................................... 14

Instructions to connect Twitter to Facebook®.................................................................................. 15

Find your Twitter RSS feed.................................................................................................................... 18

Facebook® Applications ........................................................................................................................ 19

Slideshare .......................................................................................................................................... 20

Twitter ............................................................................................................................................... 21

Polls ................................................................................................................................................... 21

Static FBML ....................................................................................................................................... 21

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Facebook® Badges ................................................................................................................................ 22

Facebook® Widgets ............................................................................................................................... 23

Facebook® Insights................................................................................................................................ 25

Facebook® Groups ................................................................................................................................ 26

LinkedIn .................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Linkedin Applications ............................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

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Introduction

With over 22 million users in the UK, over 50% of all UK internet users, and 400
million users worldwide (as of February 2008) Facebook®s popularity is
undeniable. Users have taken easily to updating profiles, joining groups and
communicating with each other on a scalable web platform.
With the introduction of fan pages and business pages it is now possible to
engage with Facebook® users without becoming their friend on your personal
profile. Just because you wish to update someone on a new business
promotion does not mean that you want to share pictures of your kids with
them.

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Keep Your Personal Profile Private
If you are setting up a business page or just want to ensure you are aware of
your privacy settings go to:
Settings>Privacy Settings

Click “Profile Information” and it will show what privacy settings you have for
all your information.

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Facebook® Lists

If you do want to use your personal account for business or want more
granular control over your account you can create lists of contacts (e.g. Family,
Friends, Business etc) and then select different setting for each list. For
example you may want to allow Family and Friends to see your photos but not
your Business Contacts.

New lists can be created from the ‘Create New List’ button from the top of
your connections screen and from the ‘Add to List’ button next to each
contact.

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Business Accounts

If you do not have a personal Facebook® account and do not wish to have a
personal account you can open a business account. A business account is
designed for individuals who only want to use the site to administer Pages and
their ad campaigns. For this reason, business accounts do not have the same
functionality as personal accounts. Business accounts have limited access to
information on the site. An individual with a business account can view all the
Pages and Social Ads that they have created, however they will not be able to
view the profiles of users on the site or other content on the site that does not
live on the Pages they administer. In addition, business accounts cannot be
found in search and cannot send or receive friend requests.

You may create a business account if you don't already have a

standard Facebook® account. To get started, you will need to
first create a Facebook® Ad or Facebook® Page. Once you’ve
entered in the required information, you will be taken to the
"Facebook® Login" page and asked if you have a Facebook®
account. If you do not currently have a Facebook® account,
then at this point, please select "I do not have a Facebook®
account." You will then need to enter your email address and
date of birth.

Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of

Facebook®’s Terms of Use. If you already have a personal account, then you
cannot allow you to create business accounts for any reason. You can manage
all the Pages and Socials Ads that you create on your personal account.

Fans of any of the Pages you administer will not have visibility or access to your
personal account or profile. Any actions that you take as a Page administrator
on your Page will show the Page’s name as the actor and not your personal
name.
Unlike personal profiles Business pages are public by default and as such can
be searched by Google so it is good to use any keywords you may have in the
text on the page.

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Create Facebook® Pages
Facebook® Pages have been designed to promote businesses and organisations
and are essentially separate from individual’s personal profiles although one or
more Facebook® users can be setup as “admin’s” to control the settings of the
page and make posts and adjustments that only admins are allowed to.

Facebook® Page Admins

Facebook® Page admins are the people who have control

over the page. They have the power to add new content and
updates. They also choose what fans of the page can do from
entering discussions to posting updates. There can be multiple
admins setup for each page and you can take admin rights
given to another user although you cannot take away admin
rights from the page creator.

A Facebook® Business Page can be seen as a mini website for your Business
with all of the items you might find on a web page or a blog plus Facebook®
style updates. But in addition to this you will be able interact with any
fans/customers who can post to the wall, comment on page updates or enter
discussions on the business discussion board. If you do not wish people to be
able to post comments then the settings can be altered to disallow users
posting.
Facebook® Pages can be accessed from the ‘Ads & Pages’ link from the left, the
‘Advertising’ link at the bottom of the Facebook® homepage or go direct to the
link below
http://www.Facebook.com/pages/create.php
Basics
1. Upload an image/logo/picture
2. Add a brief description
3. Add info if applicable (Address, opening times etc)

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Create Facebook® Pages cont

Profile pictures on Facebook® can have a maximum size of 200×600 pixels. This
applies to Pages Profile Pictures as well. Facebook® Pages do not allow
background images like Twitter. When picking profile picture also consider
how it will look as a thumbnail as this is what is shown on each post on the
wall.

Vanity URL

A new Facebook® page can have a rather long and complicated URL or web
address such as:
http://www.Facebook.com/pages/Stafford-United-
Kingdom/OutserveWeb/254814673522

Once you have 25 fans or more you can create a vanity URL here you can
choose your URL after the Facebook®.com for example:
http://www.Facebook.com/LottyBox

Having a vanity URL which is shorter and clearer. Vanity URL’s are also
available for personal profiles at
http://www.Facebook.com/username/

Multiple Business Pages

Although it is against Facebook® rules to have multiple accounts it is not
against the rules to have multiple pages so you can set up as many pages as
you would like.

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Standard Business Page Functionality
Name your Page
The name you give your page is permanent, so make sure it's the one your fans
and customers will recognise.

Upload photos
You'll be able to upload an unlimited number of photos. The most important is
the profile picture that Facebook® users will see (as a thumbnail) in News Feed
when their friends interact with you. A logo, storefront, or group photo may
work well. Make sure the image is still clear when reduced to thumbnail size
Letting fans tag your photos will mean that their friends can see the link to
your page.

Wall
The home page of a business page defaults to a wall. The wall will show all
recent updates to the page and any comment from fans.

Events
Organise events with your fans and alert them of an upcoming events. Any
events that are happening at you organisation can put on not just your physical
events they could be events you are attending or webinars. Also a promotion
could be an event if it is happening at a certain time. Events have priority in
peoples news feed so use them wisely and do not over use them.

Notes
Lets you share posts about your business with your fans. Can also be used for
importing RSS see later for guide to adding a Twitter feed to Facebook®.

Video
Provides a high quality video platform for pages. You can upload video files.
Send video from your mobile phone and record video messages to your phone.
If you are wish to embed videos that have been put on Youtube (or similar
video hosting services) a copy of the link url added to the posts box will embed
the video on the web page.

Discussion
Allows you to engage with your customers and community in a forum style
discussion

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How to send updates directly to your fans
You cannot send en masse messages to all of your fans. They should be
receiving your updates on their home page. In their Newsfeed. But not
everything appears in everybody’s Newsfeed Facebook® decides what should
appear based on an algorithm which works out what is important to that
person.
What you can do though is send an update. An update is similar to a
Facebook® message but it is sent to the update section of the fans inbox.
How to send an update
Click on the “Edit Page” link on the sidebar. On the right hand side under
“Promote Your Page” you will see a link which says “Send an Update to Fans”.

This will then open an input box to send a message to your fans with some
additional options.

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Connect your Facebook® Page to Twitter
As at time of this guide Facebook® will currently automatically show a box on
your Facebook® page to link a Twitter account to Your Facebook® Business
Page.

Or alternatively can be accessed from http://www.Facebook.com/Twitter/

You should see a list of your pages with a option to link to Twitter. Clicking the
“Link to Twitter” will link to Twitter.com asking permission to link the Twitter
account you login with to the Facebook® Page.

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Once you have linked your Facebook® page to your Twitter Account you can
select what Facebook® page information you want to automatically post to
your Twitter account.

Notes

The tick for ‘Notes’, on the previous page, has been deliberately taken out as
this will be used to receive updates from Twitter and if you left this ticked it
could create an endless circle of posts

For example if you ticked to link Facebook® Page Events to your Twitter
account then when you add an event to a Facebook® Page like:

Then automatically an update and a link will be posted to your linked Twitter
account like:

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Connect your Twitter to Facebook®

If you have followed the instructions above you have linked your Facebook® to
Twitter meaning that Facebook® Page updates (and other selected
information) will automatically get posted to Twitter with a link back to
Facebook®.

In addition to this or alternatively you can link your Twitter to Facebook®

meaning that your updates to Twitter can update Facebook®.

If you do link both ways Twitter to Facebook® and Facebook® to Twitter

then when using the instructions below it is important to untick the ‘Notes’
field from the Facebook® to Twitter updates as otherwise this could create
an endless loop. There still maybe some duplication but this should be
manageable and often posting twice does no harm.

There is not an official application to support the sending of Twitter updates to

the Facebook® Page Wall (there are third party applications see the apps
section) but you can use the Notes application to do this. The Facebook® notes
application is just that a box where you can enter some notes (any notes as
often as you want). Somewhat useful, but one of the best uses for the Notes
Box is to is to bring in an RSS feed from any RSS enabled site (Blog, Twitter etc).
The RSS just allows your regular updates to your other sites such as your blog
or Twitter to be automatically posted to your Facebook® business page. This is
very useful for keeping your Facebook® business page up to date with your
latest content and links without any extra work.
Unfortunately the Notes application is restricted to one RSS feed so one of
your sites. If you would like to bring in multiple RSS feeds one solution is to
combines multiple site feeds into one combined RSS feed using a service like
Yahoo Pipes. Yahoo Pipes is a free service (requiring you sign up for a free
Yahoo account) that as well as many other things can combine multiple RSS
feeds.

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Instructions to connect Twitter to Facebook®

When you are logged into Facebook® and on the Facebook® Business page
click edit page from the top left under the Page Logo

In the applications box you will see the Notes Application:

Any applications that you install on your page should show in this
application box. Notes is an official Facebook® application and is
installed by default (it can be deleted if required)

Continued...

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Click edit on the Notes Application box
Continued...

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This should bring up the settings box and from here you can click “import
blog”. This function can be used to import a blog or any RSS feed, in this case
we are going to connect to a Twitter feed.

This will show the following screen where you need to enter the RSS feed for
your Twitter account (see below to find your Twitter RSS)

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Find your Twitter RSS feed
To find your Twitter RSS feed click on the link on your Twitter home page

Click here and it show you a page like below but all you need is to copy the
web address/URL to copy into the Web URL requested for importing a blog.

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Facebook® Applications
Similar to a personal profile the functionality of a Business Page can be
extended by adding specific applications. Although there are many 1000’s of
applications for a Facebook® personal profile only a small percentage of these
can be applied to Business Page. Most apps are not of a type that you would
want to add them to a business page.
You can search the Facebook® applications from www.Facebook®.com/apps as
below

When you find an app you may want to use you will have to confirm that it
can be used on a page this can be confirmed on the apps page by having the
‘add to page’ link as below:

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Below are a few applications that can be applied to a business page’s:

Slideshare
http://www.Facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2490221586&ref=appd
(or search Facebook® applications for slide)

Slideshare.net is a website that allows you to upload your slide presentations

to the web. Once they have been uploaded they are hosted by Slideshare
website and can be embedded on any website or blog. The Slideshare
Facebook® application brings the Slideshare website functionality to you
Facebook® Business Page including showing your own presentations.

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Facebook® Applications Continued

Twitter
http://www.Facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2231777543&ref=search
&sid=500655701.376077238..1
or
Social Tweet
http://www.Facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=111757625714&ref=app
d
Will add a Twitter tab to your page to show your latest Twitter updates and
links to the full Social Tweet too.
Polls-
Polls are a great way to engage existing and new fans. Add a poll application
like the one below and you can ask questions, get market research or just have
fun.
Poll Daddy Polls
http://www.Facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=138079047824&ref=app
d
Poll Daddy Polls has the option to create polls which can go on Facebook®
pages.

Static FBML
Static FMBL is an application that allows you to create boxes of content either
as a tabbed page or in the sidebar. The boxes allow web design code like HTML
and CSS to be entered so a Business Page can be further tailored and
customised. In additional to standard HTML and CSS, FBML can be used. FBML
is Facebook® Markup language.

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Facebook® Badges

Facebook® badges are a quick and easy way to link people to your Facebook®
Page. Often these badges are put on an organisations website or blog. The
simplest badge, which has become very popular, is a ‘Find us on Facebook®’
Badge normally a simple Facebook® logo promoting a link to your Facebook®
page. As below:

The badge above is available from Facebook®

(http://www.Facebook.com/note.php?note_id=12259414821)

If you have access to your website or blog the HTML code below should be
enough to create the button and link. Of course you will want to change the
link, in bold below, to be your Facebook® Page (the image link refers to my
Flickr page but this should work for everybody)

HTML
<a href="http://www.Facebook.com/LottyBox"><img src="/
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2768/4332871421_e7b6348a22_o.jpg"></a>

If you do not have access to your website then hopefully a request to your
website administrator should get a button on your website.

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Facebook® Widgets

As well as the simple button above Facebook® also make available other
buttons with additional features called widgets. These are available from
http://www.Facebook.com/Facebook-widgets.

The fan box widget will create a box for your website or blog having a link to
your Business page with a snapshot of your fan profile pictures. You can also
add to this a selection of your page posts. This box can be quickly and easily
created for the blogging services Blogger and Typepad alternatively a script can
be produced to embed the box for any website.

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Facebook® widgets continued

In addition to the widget box simple badges can also be created from the
badge link

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Facebook® Insights
Facebook® Insights measures user exposure, actions, and behaviour relating to
your Social Ads and Facebook® Page. By understanding activity and
performance, fans and ad respondents, and trends and comparisons, you are
better equipped to improve your business on Facebook® and elsewhere.
Insights is a free service for all Facebook® Pages and Social Ads.

Only Page admins can view this information, and it is displayed in the left
column of the Page. To view comprehensive Insights, click "See All" in the left
column.

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Facebook® Groups
Groups are a bit different than Pages. Permissions can be set on groups so
that they are either open to anyone, closed (where users must get admin
approval to join) or private (invite only). Groups have administrators that
manage the group, approve applicants or invite others to join.

Groups postings are linked directly to a person’s profile where business pages
are not for this reason Groups are seen as a more personal than Pages.

Importantly Facebook® groups are not indexed on Google where as

Facebook® pages are. So if you want to be found then a page is preferable.

Both Groups and Pages allow you to create related Events. Ads can be
purchased to promote either groups or Pages. Groups cannot add
applications to their pages while Pages can.

As long as a group is under 5,000 members, you can send direct messages
that will show up in the users Facebook® inbox. A Page can send its fans an
update and this will arrive in the update part of their inbox.

Groups are better for organising on a personal level. Pages are better for
brands, businesses, bands, movies, or celebrities who want to interact or
engage with their fans or customers without having them connected to a
personal account.

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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England &
Wales Outserve Limited

© Philip Oakley 2010

“Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook®, Inc.”

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