Tuesday Tip: 5 Ways to Optimize Your NEW Facebook Page in 2011

So let’s say your company is new to Facebook and finally have gotten around to creating a Facebook page.  It’s now another way for you to expand your brand online and you want to represent yourself as the successful company that you are.  Not only that but you want your page to create business opportunities and encourage networking. We can definitely help you with that!  Below are 5 tips that we suggest when first starting out.

1: Select the Perfect Profile Picture

Choose the perfect profile picture that represents your business and make sure it follows the Facebook specs.

• Photos should be 200 pixels wide.
• In addition to having an image fit those specs, it’s really important to get the thumbnail size just right. You don’t want to pick a photo that is too big or else the automatic cropping of the photo done by Facebook will give you a no longer perfect profile picture.

 2: Create a Vanity URL

When first starting out with Facebook, it can sometimes be hard to get people to “like”  your page, especially if you’re a small business.  However, if you get the word out through email, flyers and on your website, you could get more than 25 fans in no time and be able to create a vanity URL.  A vanity URL is a way for you to easily share and advertise your Facebook page to your current customers and prospects, or anyone you want to show off to.

Once you get 25 fans, log in to Facebook, go your search bar in the browser and type in http://www.facebook.com/username.  It will take you through a series of steps and at the end, you’ve got your own vanity URL, check out Upright’s- https://www.facebook.com/uprightcommunications

3: Add Useful, Basic Information

On Facebook, there is an area where you can add basic information about your company, such as website, year founded and a brief description about yourself.  Be sure to fill out ALL the fields Facebook offers that will be useful to your followers.  You want as much information listed as you can without making it cluttered.

Check out our basic information page.  Remember, depending on what type of company you are, you may have different options on what information you can share.

4: Develop a Posting Schedule

Work with your team members to decide how often you’re going to post an update to your Facebook page.  It could be just twice a week, depending upon how you want to use it, or it could be every other day.  If you post too often, you could lose fans, if you don’t post enough, people will forget about you.  Try to get a happy medium.

** Remember, not all of the information that you post should directly market your company.  They say 80% of business Facebook posts should be industry related information or something completely out of the realm of your business, like doing Tuesday Trivia and the other 20% should focus on the online marketing efforts of your company.

5: Pay Attention to Your Insights

Facebook offers a way for you to obtain information on how your page is performing. Facebook Insights shares with you important data that allows you to better your online marketing efforts.

You can track how many new fans you’re getting, how often they are interacting, what posts receive the most feedback, and which tabs people are viewing most often (it could be your Wall or Videos)

Below is a snippet from Upright’s Insight page:

There is ALWAYS more you can do to help better your Facebook page, but these tips should get you started.