With the change to Facebook Timeline for pages, many companies are getting very creative about customizing their pages to attract new visitors and engage their fans – thus resulting in greater visibility and business building. But how do you as a small business owner get the most out of your Facebook business page? Here are my top 5 tips:
1. Use a Page Design Service
There are a number of do-it-yourself fan page services that can help you with custom apps, layout and design of your page. They provide easy drag-n-drop methods to designing your own pages. Most have a free option and package options with low-cost monthly fees. I have used and recommend these sites:
- TabSite.com
- iFramesEngine.com
- Lujure.com
If you’re not a do-it-yourselfer, I recommend you hire a graphic designer or Facebook page designer to do the custom work for you. A good designer can create the cover graphic and custom tabs for you. The cost can range anywhere from $200 and up, depending on the level of customization.
2. Customize Apps and Thumbnails
Just below the cover image, you will see your Page apps, which appear as small, square, clickable images. The first one is always Photos and cannot be moved. You can add up to 12 and change the thumbnail images. However, only four are always visible until you click on the little up/down arrow icon on the right side.
As you see in the example above from Amazon, you can add a custom thumbnail image for all of your apps. The dimension for each of these thumbnails is 111×74 pixels. These are areas to get creative and add branding, specials and calls to action.
To change or add a custom thumbnail, first expand to see all the apps by clicking the down arrow to the right of the four app display. Then hover over any app, click the edit pencil > click Edit Settings > Change > then Upload Image. Ta-da!
As I mentioned you can get very creative with these thumbnails! For example, give people a reason to click inside your thumbnail. You can use a strong call to action here, for example “Enter Free Sweepstakes.”
Use succinct, descriptive text, such as “Click for Tips,” rather than non-descript images so that people know what they get by clicking each thumbnail. Get very strategic with the four apps that are always visible “above the fold.” The one that remains constant is Photos, but you can get creative with the other three,
You can also rename the app itself (the descriptor below the thumbnail image). These should be calls to action – think in terms of the action you want people to take.
3. Pin Posts
Any posts made by the Page admin can be pinned to the top of the wall for up to 7 days. This allows you to highlight any important posts in the most prominent spot on your Page.
4. Highlight Posts
Page admins can highlight any post by hovering over the post and clicking the little star icon. This makes the post wider and more visible, spanning the entire width of the page.
5. Write Engaging Posts & Updates
You have to write your posts in a way that makes people immediately want to share or comment, and then stick around or follow up on the posts where you are asking people to engage. The results will be not only more likes, comments and shares for you–but ultimately more leads, subscribers, clients and sales for your business.