How To Create a Facebook Page

Monday, April 11, 2011

How To Create a Facebook Page

Posted on 6:38 AM by Ashiq Hassan

How the Heck Do I Access Facebook Pages?!

Find the Facebook "Ads and Pages" section

At first, it can be confusing to remember how to find Facebook Pages. Since Facebook changed its appearance once again in Feb. 2010 (sigh) and then again in December (double sigh) the Facebook Pages icon no longer appears by default on everyone's profile. In fact, you can no longer manually bookmark what appears on the "bookmarks" menu - they show up based on what you've used last. The Facebook Page icon should be a default icon on the left-hand side of your feed page (see screenshot on right) after you've created and used a Facebook Page. Click it, and you'll see the "Ads and Pages" icon.

I'll make it even easier on you: click here for the Facebook Page creation screen - but make sure you're signed in to Facebook, first. If you'd like, visit the official Facebook Page for Facebook Pages (no joke), a place where Facebook updates the community on Facebook Page upgrades.

Click the "Pages" Icon

Bypassing the "Ads" screen

If you're looking for the Facebook Page screen through the Facebook Bookmark Bar at the bottom of your screen, the first thing you'll see when you visit the "Pages & Ads" section is the Ads page. This is the area where you can create a pay-per-click ad. Obviously, we don't care about doing that in this tutorial - find the "Pages" icon on the left, and click it. Unfortunately, you'll have to bypass this screen every single time you want to create a new Facebook Page, or visit an existing one that you own.

Create a Facebook Page
Categorizing and naming a new page

On the Facebook Page creation dashboard, you'll be faced with three categories of drop-down menus. Each menu has a selection of sub-categories. Don't rush through this section, for one main reason:
Be sure that you are absolutely happy with the category you've chosen. You're not alone if you think that the category choices for Facebook Pages are awful. Once you make a decision on a category, you can never go back!

Once you've found a category that's similar to whatever your Page will be about, you can then type out the "Name" for your page -- and be extremely careful as it is PERMANENT, and will be seen within the actual URL of your Facebook Page (for all of you SEO professionals, you'll immediately see the importance of this).

The name that you give to your Facebook Page appears at the top of the page, and before every single post you make on the page, or in reply to a comment. Once you set this name, it is set in stone and can never be edited; not even if you contact Facebook directly and beg/complain/demand them to do it!

Listed below are all of the options from each drop-down category, for your reference:

Local Options
For local-based Facebook Pages
The "Local" category is geared toward the businesses that exist in your immediate area.
Automotive

Automotive Dealer/Vehicle Service

Banking and Financial Service

Bar

Cafe

Club

Convention Center and Sports Complex

Education

Event Planning Service

Grocery

Health and Beauty

Home Service

Hotel/Lodging

Library/Public Building

Medical Service

Museum/Attraction

Park

Pets

Professional Service

Real Estate

Religious Center

Restaurant

Store

Technology and Telecommunications Service

Travel Service

Artist, Band, or Public Figure Option
For people-based Facebook Pages
Promote an individual of any kind with this option!
Actor

Athlete

Band

Comedian

Critic

Government Official

Model

Musician

Politician

Sports Team

Visual Artist

Writer

Brand, Product, or Organization Options
For product-based Facebook Pages
Looking to do business? You'll want to promote something...anything with this option:
Airline/Ship/Train Station

Communications

Consumer Product

Fashion

Film

Financial Service

Food and Beverage

Game

Government

Home Living

Hotel/Lodging

Non-Profit

Online Store

Pharmaceutical

Professional Service

Religious Organization

Rental Cars

Retail

Sports/Athletics

TV Show

Technology Product/Service

Travel

Website

Customize your Facebook Page
Blank pages are boring! Add some content.

(Above: You should be greeted with this screen.)

That was easy. Technically speaking, you now own a Facebook Page! For the sake of this tutorial, I've created a Facebook Page just for it: Pixelrage's Facebook Page Tutorial. Facebook actually forbids the word "Facebook" anywhere in the title of your page. As you can see, it's bland and needs some serious modifications. The first thing I always start with is a good picture for my Facebook Page:
Change your Facebook Page's Picture
The picture that represents the whole page

Your Facebook Page picture is important. Think of it this way: it has a permanent fixture on the upper-left hand side of your page. It has a "mini" version that appears next to every single post you make on your Facebook Page (just like the icon on your Twitter account). When people search Facebook and look for Pages, one of the first things that will attract their eyeballs is the Page icon you chose.

Now that you can see how important this image is, make it count: get a great image, or make one yourself! Facebook Page images are 200x200 pixels, and will automatically generate a miniature version for usage in Facebook search and to appear next to each of your posts. In this example, I've uploaded a custom image I made for the page.
Describe your Facebook Page in the Note Box
One or two sentences & a link to wrap it up

The little "note box" you see below your image is what you'll need to give first-time visitors the scoop on what your Facebook page is about. Click the little blue pencil on the upper-right corner of this box, and it becomes editable. For all of you SEO fanatics, it's a place where a full URL, starting with "http://", will convert to a backlink that points to your site!

Take a look at my example. I've created a link back to this page, and included a short description of what the Facebook Page is about in one sentence. If you've gotten accustomed to communicating in 140 characters on Twitter, you'll surely be able to sum up your page in this little box. When you're done typing, click the whitespace anywhere else on your page to save the contents of the box.

Post Something!
Get the conversation started...add some content!

You can add anything you want to your Facebook Page. Copy and paste a Youtube URL into the "What's on your mind?" bar, and it will convert to a thumbnail with a play button, and a mini-description of the video. Paste a URL, and it will grab the top-most image on that website and display it, along with the page description (sometimes it will let you sift through a bunch of images that it noticed, so that you can choose your favorite one to represent that link). Or, just type whatever you want, as you would with a Tweet...it's your page!

When you post something on your page, it's available to every single person who is a fan of that Page. Therefore, make sure that your spelling is correct, and that everything looks the way you want it to look. Also, note that people will be able to comment on whatever you're posting (unless you've changed the default permissions to block them from doing so...but this is social networking - not a communist regime!)

That's More Like It
Ready for an early launch?

Once you've gotten these fundamental steps done, it's up to you if you'd like to release your new Facebook Page to planet Earth. If you've clicked the very first checkbox that said "Do not make page publicly viewable at this time," all you'll have to do is publish the page. Don't know how? Simply click the "Edit page" link, then click "View Page." You'll then see a message in its own box on the top of the page that says
This Page has not been published. To make this Page public, publish this Page.

If you're not seeing this message, that means your Page is already live...better get moving on adding content, then!

Once your page is up, it's just a matter of promoting it so that others can start to "fan" it. In doing so, pages tend to make their rounds as friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends see that THEIR friends have become a fan of your page. If they like the page, they'll fan it too. This is the basic concept of how things go viral.

Important!
Edit Your Facebook Page Settings

Facebook Page Edit Screen
An admin screen for your page

While you can easily edit the elements of your Facebook Page directly on the page itself ("pencil" icons on module corners, or edit links), you can edit the actual page's settings by clicking the "edit page" link at the top of the page. It's also available on your Page dashboard which lists all of the pages you own.

The edit page section lets you set different things for your page, which determine how your page is seen, and what fans can or cannot do on it. You can also add on (or remove) features. Here's a full list:
Settings: Is your page country-specific? If you want to restrict the page only to people in Italy, or only people in Canada or the US, you can do so here. Simply type in the first letter of your country and select it from the drop-down menu. You can also set age restrictions (this is a must if your page is about certain subjects...whatever those are!) Lastly, you can publish or unpublish your Facebook Page, for whatever reason.

Wall Settings: What do you want non-fans to see the first time they see your page? Only the stuff you've posted to it, or a mix of your posts plus other fan posts? You can also force people to land on either your wall, info, photos, discussions or reviews section (the default is "wall," of course). A "Fan Permissions" area lets you check or uncheck what your fans can do. If you don't want them to write on your wall or post pictures, links or videos - you can disable them here.

Mobile: If you want to update your page from a mobile device, this section lets you enable this function.

Under these settings is an "Applications" area. Here, you can enable or disable various modules for your Facebook Page, such as a discussion board, events calendar, link box, reviews area, or even search for more Facebook-created or community-made modules. Visit the Facebook Apps area to browse through them.

How to Change a Facebook Page Name
A new functionality in October 2010
As previously discussed, changing the name of your Facebook is a problem once you've already saved it. Facebook remedied this. Kind of. If, and only if you have 100 fans or less, you're now able to edit the name of your Facebook page by clicking its "Edit Page" link, clicking the "Basic Information" tab and changing its name in the "Name" field. Note that this only changes the name of the Facebook Page, which is also called the "title," since it appears at the top of the page and in every post you make on it. It doesn't change the Page's URL if you've set a vanity URL - that's permanent.

The bad news about this is the 100 fan cutoff. You're still up the creek without a paddle if your Page has over 100 fans and you desperately need to edit your Page name. It can't be done - the only option would be to re-start the Page (not an option for most) or delete fans down to the 100-mark so that the option unlocks.

In the example above, I changed the title from "Pixelrage's Page Tutorial" to "FB Page Tutorial."

Important!
Promote Your Facebook Page

Getting Ranked in Facebook's "Search Engine"
SEO within Facebook - who would have known?

If you hadn't noticed, Facebook has its own search engine. Go ahead - try it out and search for something. Above, I tried "Toyota." See how the results are all Facebook Pages at the top? It just goes to show how important Pages are! Anyway, Facebook lists results that have seemingly no rhyme or reason. For instance, why is a page with nearly 70,000 fans listed BELOW another one with almost 49,000? Facebook uses an algorithm just like how all search engines do. If you create a new page, it gets an instant boost in Facebook search rankings, to give you a chance to be seen. There's more to it, though:

You'll want to make sure your Facebook Page is all ready to go once you hit "publish." Unless it's a truly one of a kind topic, make sure you have your title, content, pictures, links and everything else ready to go. With some luck, your initial broadcast on Facebook.com will give you a few Fan adds, which will get the ball rolling. Remember: Facebook Pages that are constantly updated and continue getting fans (especially ones who interact with the page) will appear higher in Facebook Page search results! The more your Page "picks up steam," the more it will become glued to the top of a search result for the keyword you've set it to in your Page title. Maybe that's why the Prius page is doing better than the Toyota USA one!

Do Nothing. That's right, be lazy.
Hey, it could just promote itself!
There are pages I've created that have amassed 1,000 fans in less than a month, just bysimply existing. That's right, I didn't do a damn thing. I just created a page that hadn't been thought of yet, and it wound up being the first thing that showed up if you searched for its keyword.

Sometimes, pages don't need to be promoted. If you've found that niche that nobody else has, 'Facebook search' is all that's needed to eventually get noticed. This is a really crappy method, though. However, there is one way to start spreading the "virus": simply be a fan of your own page. Facebook will then automatically post on your/your friends' wall that you've become a fan of [whatever your page is called]. Some of them might be curious, and click the link. Some of them might also fan the page. Then, their friends will see that they are now a fan of that page. THEY might get curious, and fan the page, too.

These are the only scenarios where being lazy pays off as a Facebook Page administrator!

Bookmark Your Facebook Page
Traditional SEO as a part of your backlinking strategy

Submit your Facebook Page to social networking or bookmarking sites like Delicious, Faves.com, Diigo, Mixx and all the rest. Don't forget to send out a Tweet, too. I've also written a Squidoo page about dofollow social bookmarking services - be sure to check it out for some other great recommendations. Don't forget to advertise your new Facebook Page in your e-mail signature!

Suggest It To Your Friends
The best way to widely promote your Facebook Page

Here's the logical way to promote your Facebook Page: click the "Suggest to Friends" link on the left-hand menu under your Page picture, and manually select friends. Here's a few things to keep in mind, though: you can't select all friends, it can only be done one by one...also, when you suggest a Page to these friends, Facebook doesn't allow you to attach a personal message to it. So, your friends will only see a notification on their dashboard saying "[Your Name] suggests you become a fan of [Your Page]". Of course, they might not know that this is your page unless you tell them ahead of time, and many of them might click the little "x" and dismiss it. Therefore, tell your friends ahead of time that you're inviting them.

Don't make the mistake I first made: I once invited about 500 people to become a fan of my page. I literally sat there and clicked 500 profile icons one by one. I had no idea that we couldn't attach a personal message, and was pretty upset after sending the request. As a result, only 35 of 500 friends had fanned the page. It was an epic fail.

Put a Facebook Fan Box on Your Blog
Even major corporations are doing it!

One of the coolest ways to promote your Facebook Page is with a Facebook Fan Box. It's a widget that you can access through the administrator menu of your page (click the "edit page" link on the dashboard), and the option for it is on the right column under the "Promote your page" title.

Facebook Fan Boxes display 10 random fans from your page (all of them are represented by their icon and first name, and are clickable, bringing your to their profile page). It lists the number of fans for your page, and also includes a backlink going to the page itself. You can toggle the "Facebook" stripe on top of the box, the random fan icons, and a "news feed" of recent posts. Overall, these Fan Boxes are widely recognizable as many major companies are putting them on their pages to boost their social networking campaigns. You can further tweak how the Fan Box works, too - visit this official Fan Box tutorial for more information.

How to Name a Facebook Page

Facebook Page Vanity URLs
Rename pages to "Facebook.com/YourPage"

On 12:01 A.M., June 13, 2009 - Facebook opened up the option of allowing users to name their Facebook Pages with a vanity URL, in the same fashion of how they were allowed to create a username (Facebook.com/username). However, Facebook put a hefty requirement that created a lot of animosity amongst the internet community: their bone-headed approach to stop cybersquatters was to make it so that only Facebook Pages created before March 2009 AND having 1,000 or more fans were able to be named. As a result, company owners everywhere were up in arms, as anyone who met these requirements were able to take their company name.

The new date for "open" Facebook Page naming to everyone else was June 28th, 2009. However, many Page owners quickly complained about how there was no option to give their Page a vanity URL - whereas several others were able to do so. Currently, all pages need to fulfill the requirement of having at least 25 fans in order to have a vanity URL. Read on to learn how you can name your pages:

How to Name a Facebook Page
Got at least 25 fans? Register your Facebook URL!

This process is strangely difficult to figure out, as Facebook never posted the link for naming a Page on the Pages dashboard. To get started, visit the Facebook Page user name dashboard. From there, you'll see a list of every single Facebook Page you run in a dropdown list. Every Facebook Page that is eligible for naming will have a text box appearing to the right of it when selected. Pages that are not yet eligible (i.e., ones that don't have 25 fans yet), will simply show a message saying that it is not ready at this time.

Vanity URL eligibility
Only pages that have 25 fans or more are eligible to have a vanity URL. If you have the ability to advertise your Facebook Page on your website or e-mail footer, it would be in your best interest to attain that number of fans as quickly as possible.

The Vanity URL for your Facebook Page needs a minimum of five characters - but you'll be hard-pressed to ever find one that short, since Facebook seems to restrict them for future purposes. One thing's for sure: it is not possible to register generic, single-word Facebook URLs (like facebook.com/diamonds or facebook.com/cars). So, you're limited to compound words or phrases, only (as you guessed it, those short, generic word URLs are probably being reserved for "Big Business" purposes, or who knows what else).

If your Facebook Page is not eligible for naming, you will get the following message:
(pagename) is not eligible for a username at this time. In the future, (pagename) will be able to set a username. Learn more.

Using periods in your Page name
When naming a page, you can only use letters, numbers and periods. Usernames that have periods essentially count both as a "period" and "non-period" version, making it worth your while to use them. For instance, "facebook.com/my.page" also counts as "facebook.com/mypage" - in essence, it's like having two usernames in one. Nobody else will be able to register either, too! If you want to use periods in your Facebook Page name by default, know that you're limited to only four periods total.

Facebook's new notice shows that they are VERY serious about legitimacy!

If You Own a Trademark - You're In Luck!
Skip to the front of the line and get your FB Page name
Here's some great news, if you own a registered trademark: Facebook will be extremely helpful in assisting you with a custom URL on a page. All you'll have to do is create a page for your business or trade name (or, if you already have one - that's fine, too)...then, fill out aUsername IP Infringement Form. This form requires you to have your trademark registration number ready. Remember, that number is in the form of "01/234567" - simply input it in the "Trademark Registration #" field. Trademark owners are exempt from the "minimum 25 fans" rule for pages! If you don't have a registered trademark for your business, I highly recommend getting one if you can afford it. LegalZoom Online Trademarks is a reputable service that will do it for you.

In the description field, tell the Facebook representative that you are not reporting an infringing user, but you are a trademark owner, and would like to secure the name of your company as a Facebook Page. The representative should reply to you rather quickly - usually within 24 hours, and assist you with getting this task done. I've done it twice - once for the company I work for, and another time for a registered trademark I own, and Facebook has been nothing but helpful and speedy in both situations.

Facebook Page Resources
Official Facebook documents and tutorials
Facebook Pages Official Page

This is an official Facebook Page about Facebook Pages, created by, well, Facebook! Use it to look for tips and tricks about how to get the most out of this service.

Browse Facebook Pages

Out of ideas? Look at what other people have created. Here's a directory of all Facebook Pages. You just might learn something new!

Facebook Pages PDF Manual

You won't want to miss this one - a downloadable, all-inclusive PDF created by Facebook to help you create a great Facebook Page!

Facebook Page Usernames

Facebook's official FAQ about setting usernames for your Facebook Page.
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I hope my Facebook Pages tutorial helped you! Please leave a comment below. Once again, thanks for all of your comments and questions. I hope you wind up making a kickass Facebook Page!