Did you know there are over 1.59 billion monthly active Facebook users as of January 2016? (source: Facebook) As a part of the world’s largest social network, your Facebook page has the potential to be an important part of your overall web presence.
Learn 3 easy ways to customize Facebook business pages so your page stands out — plus some bonus tips. 🙂
1. Add Your Services to the Services Tab
Have you noticed the new ‘Services’ tab on Facebook business pages?
Take advantage of this additional Facebook real estate to showcase your services. The first 3 services in the list appear at the top of your news feed with the full list available on the Services tab.
Don’t see the Services tab? The Services tab is only available to businesses that fit into a service-related category, so if you don’t see the ‘Services’ tab, that is most likely the reason. Businesses in the following categories have had success with the Services tab being available.
- Local Businesses
- People > Business Person
- Companies & Organizations > Consulting / Business Services
Important note: The most recently added service will appear at the top of the list, so add services starting with the least important. Hopefully, Facebook will be adding a way for the services to be reordered, but as of this writing, I don’t see that there is a way to reorder them.
How to add a Services Tab to a Facebook Business Page:
- Go to the ‘Services’ tab of your Facebook Business page
- Click the Add a Service Button at the top of the page
- Complete the fields for the Service name, Price (if you want…it’s not required), description and image.
- Click ‘Save’
- Publish your services to your Facebook page by toggling the ‘Published’ toggle to ‘on’.
2. Add a Call to Action
The Facebook Call-to-Action buttons allow businesses to highlight their most important objective front and center.
Call-to-Action buttons link to any destination on or off Facebook that aligns with a business’s goals.
List of Available Facebook Call-to-Action Buttons:
- Contact Us – Link to your contact form on your website.
- Book Now – Link to booking software or booking page on your website.
- Call Now – Link to your phone number
- Send message
- Use App
- Play Game
- Shop Now – Link to your online shop or purchase page.
- Sign Up – Link to opt-in landing page or email marketing sign up.
- Watch Video
- Send Email
- Learn More – Link to a landing page on your website.
3. Get a custom URL
If your page has at least 25 likes, you can get a custom url for your Facebook page. This means your Facebook business page can have a URL like www. facebook.com/sangfroidweb instead of www.facebook.com/pages/SangFroid-Web-Design/106051112765235.
If you are an administrator of a Facebook Page, you can choose your username at www.facebook.com/username just like a user selecting a username for their profile. Choose carefully…you can only change the name one time!
On this page, there is a link to “Set a username for your Pages” underneath where you set your own personal username.
For more information on Facebook business pages, visit the Facebook Help Center page concerning business pages.
#4 Bonus Tip – Local Businesses: Activate ‘Place Tips’ on Your Facebook Page to Engage Visitors
Place Tips are shown to people who are in store and who have given Facebook permission to access their location on their phone. They’re also shown to people who check in to the business on Facebook. Because Place Tips are personalized and designed to be useful, we only show them when there is enough content from the business and a person’s friends to offer an enjoyable experience.
Optional Facebook Beacons may help more customers see your ‘Place Tips’
The most reliable way for businesses to deliver Place Tips to visitors is with a Facebook Bluetooth® beacon. This is a device you can request for free (for some businesses that are active on Facebook) from Facebook. Beacons use Bluetooth to send a signal to the Facebook app on customers’ phones to show them the right Place Tips at the right place.
Facebook is currently providing free beacons to some businesses in the US. Because Place Tips are meant to offer people useful and interesting information about the places they visit, Facebook prioritizes beacons for businesses with active Pages full of content—such as photos, check-ins and status updates—from both the business and its customers.
Request a free Facebook Beacon (free as of the writing of this post).
#5 Bonus Tip: Verify Your Business!
If your page is categorized on Facebook in “Local Businesses” or “Company or Organization“, your business may be eligible for a gray verification badge.
Verified pages will have a verified badge and show up higher in search results to help attract more visitors. The ‘badge’ is a smallish gray checkmark pictured below.
There are 2 options for verifying your page…an automated call or submitting a business document.
To verify your Facebook Business Page:
- Click Settings at the top of your Page
- From General, click Page Verification
- Click Verify this Page, then click Get Started
- Enter a publicly listed phone number for your business, your country and language
- Click Call Me Now to allow Facebook to call you with a verification code
- Enter the 4-digit verification code and click Continue
The phone call method didn’t work when we verified our page (the phone never rang), so we submitted an image of our business license. It only took a day for it to be approved.
See the full instructions over on Facebook »
Happy Facebooking!