How to Use Facebook: Creating a Business or Group Page

Do you post information or events on Facebook for a business or organization where you work or volunteer? No business or group page to use? It’s probably ok to just use your own profile to post the occasional information blast – isn’t it? Right after the funny animal reel you just saw or the yummy meal you recently had at a new restaurant? No, not really…

Creating a Business Page 

If you are part of an organization or business, or you communicate on their behalf, the best way to do that is to create a separate business page or group page and not use your personal profile. This allows you to maintain better security for your personal profile and avoid exposing your private life or connections to the public. Here are a couple quick tips on how to get a new business or group page started.  

Get started: 

• Log out of Facebook and go to Create a Page below the login prompt. Follow the prompts for set up. 
• Choose the right type of page category that reflects the kind of information you will be sharing so your intended community can easily find you: Business/Brand or Community/Public Figure 
• Choose a good page name and username as this will impact the URL assigned to your account. If you get a randomly assigned URL, you can go back and change it to a unique name once you reach 25 or more followers. 
• Be sure to complete as many of the required and optional information fields as possible, this will give your page a professional look and answer most questions about the business or organization at a glance for those searching for your information. 
• Add images that best represent your page in the profile and banner spaces: a company logo, picture of the building or the organization representative is easy to identify. 

Consider your desired audience when you choose settings and privacy. You will have more tools and settings to utilize when managing a business page than a personal profile. Who sees your posts, allowing followers or the general public to post or comment, responding to comments or messages, and controlling who manages the page can be done through Meta Business Suite. 

Creating a Group Page 

If you have a specific interest or audience you want to share information with, joining or starting a Facebook Group is a great way to connect with like-minded people. You can find group pages for anything from a specific neighborhood or city, to hobbies, sports and travel. Many organizations and communities that have a dedicated business page will often have a private group page to give employees or volunteers a place to communicate, plan events or share important information. Joining a Group is easy – just use the general search function to look for your topic of interest and click ‘Join Group’. 

Click on Groups from your profile/page menu Create new group Create a name Choose privacy option Add (invite) people to your group Click create Settings & Privacy: choose who can see your group page content by selecting your level of privacy. These settings are located under your profile picture icon at the top of your page on desktop, or in the menu indicated by three dots under your profile picture on mobile:  With so many trolls, spoofers and scammers these days, it’s a good idea to keep your profile as private as possible for your intended purposes Follow the prompts and choose your settings and level of privacy

 

Page Management Roles

Business and group pages need managers to post content and monitor how the public or members use the page. It is possible (and recommended) to have more than one person to manage a page, to prevent strong biases and ensure that content can be responded to in a timely fashion. There are different levels of management roles: from the Admin who has full autonomy to make changes to the page itself, to a Moderator who can do most things but not change account settings or authorize who can help manage the page. 

Besides the creator, to be an Admin or Moderator of a business or group page, you need to Like, Follow or Join the page first. Then you can be invited by the active Admin by opening the Members or People section found under the cover photo on the page. For the full step-by-step instructions follow Facebook’s help page: Add an admin or moderator to your Facebook group.  

Join Us 

The purpose of this How to Use Facebook series of articles is to help people who are already on Facebook to connect and share information more effectively with their communities. We’ve gathered some information on how to best use Facebook for organic growth and put together a short infographic with some basic rules of engagement. 

Catch up on the first article in our series if you’re not sure why Facebook is the most popular social media platform online. Watch for our next installations for tips on how to create better engagement, use tags and hashtags effectively, and how to protect the security of your account. 

Follow us @BC Community Response Networks to catch all the latest information and resource updates and share with your local community. We invite you to tag us in your posts so we can celebrate with you and share your events too. 

Check our website regularly for all our event updates, resources and information on a wide-array of topics.  

Resources for creating Business and Group Pages: 

Facebook: The Differences between Profiles, Pages and Groups

Facebook: Facebook Business Page

Facebook: Define Your Business Page

Facebook: Create a Group Page

Facebook: The Difference Between Admins & Moderators

Facebook: Add Page Administrators and Moderators

Hubspot: Facebook Marketing (lots of great tips here, you just have to scroll a bit)

 

 

Explore our website to learn more about BC CRN or connect with your local CRN for more information or resources.