Preparation recommended before creating a Facebook Page

By the end of this 10 minute video tutorial you will have a one pager checklist for the final preparation tasks before you create your page. Don’t worry if you have already created your page, you can use this checklist as a post go live sense check.

Summary

Prep item 1: Check out what other pages are doing
Spend some time looking at the pages in your industry and any you’ve “Liked” on a personal basis and see if you can identify what you like/don’t like about each one.  Some suggested headings to group your thoughts:

• Structure: is it just one page for the company, or one for each branch or product, are multiple pages confusing or do they make sense? How about the page itself, what tabs does it use and are there any applications like an eshop or a helpdesk?
• Style/Tone: formal, familiar, serious or funny? Is there more than one posting? Do they sign off with their names? Is it clear what the page identity is? The tone has to suit the person posting as users will spot if the poster is trying to be something they aren’t. If there’s more than one person posting it’s a good idea to agree on a “merged” style or if you have very different styles to identify yourselves in some way so users don’t get confused.
• Frequency/Quality: how often as the pages posting? Is there any particular time of the day or day of the week. What is being posted, jokes, news alerts or questions? You want to aim to add value or share information with your posts so quality over quantity. Click on the “Edit Options” at the bottom of your news feed, why did you choose to hide those pages?
• Participant contribution: what are the users posting on the page and how is the page responding. How much spam can you see on the page? Can you find any unofficial pages for that brand?  Some users only ever view their newsfeeds and your Page has more of a chance of being shown there if the specific fan has liked or commented on individual posts from your page. Participation is key.

Prep item 2:  Posting: What, When & How often?

• What will you post – You’ve got Questions, Competitions, Videos/Photos, Events, Launches, News updates, Jokes to name just a few.  Look at what you’ve commented on, feedback you’ve gained from your customer base, what questions you’ve been asked…what questions you’ve asked or related news stories that you’ve shared with colleagues.  The content can be tied back to your wider marketing strategy and you can build up a posting calendar to make sure Facebook is included as part of the communication plan.
• When will you post – This is going to come down to when the person who is posting is free and what time/day the users tend to be online and interested in your posts. Once you have 30 users you are able to get access to insights so can track the views and interaction the posts gain, spotting the updates that users prefer, along with the frequency and timing of the updates
• How often will you post – You want to post regularly but not spam the fans, so perhaps you start with a single weekly update at the same day /time. After a few weeks if you are able to, then increase it. The most you probably want to post is once a day, you can ask your fans what they would prefer and you can spot unlikes and unsubscribes happening in insights. If you are using automated tools e.g. bringing stories across from your blog or linking with twitter check the frequency of the updates to make sure that you are not spamming your fans. Commenting is different, if a fan posts on my wall I would always want to comment to thank them or respond to their post.
• Topic Bank – There will always be times when you have writers’ block or perhaps are on holiday so create a topic bank and build up a list of suitable discussion topics or questions that can be used to generate activity. Lengthy pauses in posting are just as bad as posting too often.

Prep item 3: Who’ll post & monitor the page
This was mentioned in the first video, who will hold overall responsibility and who will actually do the posting and monitoring.  You should always have at least two admins; what would happen if your single admin got their account hacked or blocked?

The upgrades made to Pages make it much easier to keep on top of spam and notifications from users but you should still make sure your Facebookers have worked out how they will split their current responsibilities with their new Facebook duties and prevent duplication of tasks or a user’s request for help being ignored.

Prep item 4: What are your page goals?
This was also mentioned in the first video, what are your business goals and how can a Page assist in working towards these goals? Perhaps it’s giving you a route to alert your customer base to a new product launch or providing another route for customer service enquiries.

Get three goals for your page written up and use these as well as insights when you review the Page. Facebook is a slow burn for most of us, but although you shouldn’t expect results overnight make sure you know how it is performing and how much time you’re spending on it. Make time to step back and run a brief review on your page every 6 to 8 weeks.