Facebook User Guide

Extract from My eBook "Facebook User Guide".

The purpose of this manual is to explain and illustrate how to set up and promote a Facebook page. A page in Facebook represents an "entity" which can be an organization, a public figure, a business or a brand. Facebook is a social platform and the main focus of members is social engagement. It is an undeniable fact that people base brand selections, purchase decisions and lifestyle decisions on recommendations and discussions with other people. This means that your attempt to promote a brand, product or service on a social platform like Facebook must be placed within a social framework. What does this mean? You need to acquire fans and motivate them to "share" your content with their friends who in turn will share it to a wider audience. This is what is called the "viral" effect of a social network.

Acquiring friends happens when people "Like" your page, a process that places a link to your page on their News Feed so that their friends can see it and access your page. Your page may remain fairly static and contain offers, recommendations and some sales promotion but the essential requirement is to post meaningful, social comments as status updates on what is called your Wall. These posts must encourage participation and engagement in response to the content you publish as post updates, photos and/or videos displayed, or discussions that you facilitate. Whichever method you use, the strategy should be aimed at encouraging people to pay return visits to your page and recommending your content to other people.

This manual will outline not only how to set up your Facebook page but also the features and settings that are available for you to use. As of late 2010, a Facebook page is published on a Facebook canvas utilizing an application called a Facebook iframe application. This app must be configured and set up in order to display your page. All the required steps to accomplish this are detailed in this manual.

The Facebook Page

You can use Facebook as a personal platform for social engagement with friends. You set up a personal profile and invite friends with whom you wish to communicate and share news, photos, videos and ideas. If this is how you intend using Facebook, you need not set up a Facebook page. You set up a Facebook page to represent an entity for the purpose of promoting this entity with social engagement.

The page itself is a mini website displayed on a Facebook canvas. The content placed on this canvas is hosted on an external web hosting account. This structure is explained in detail below.

In addition to the content placed on the Facebook page, there are a multitude of Facebook settings and functions that you need to configure. These are described in detail in this manual.

However, do realize that the page itself, and the Facebook functions associated with the page, will not in themselves give you any particular benefits. Facebook is a social platform for establishing social engagement with people and you need to map out a clear strategy for how you are going to acquire friends (people who have "Liked" your page) and exactly how you intend to interact with these people in order to promote the entity that your page represents.

Many people do not think beyond the issue of acquiring "Likes". Do realize, however, that connecting with people is only the beginning. You need to find a target audience that shares an interest in what you are promoting, be it a product, a service, yourself as a musician, magician or whatever. and you then face the real challenge. How are you going to engage the people who have "Liked" you page with social interactions that motivate them to come back to your page regularly?

Your Strategy

Your primary mission must be to acquire a target audience and establish social engagement with this audience.

Here are some guidelines for how you can get started:

  • Suggest your page to friends.
  • Invite contacts, e.g. email contacts.
  • Post updates to your Wall (see Publisher in Definitions). Be clear and open about who you are and provide straight-forward information about your business.
  • Attempt to wrap content about your product or business within a "social" framework so that people are motivated to pass it along to their friends.
  • Use Social Plugins, the Graph API and Facebook Apps to create social experiences and online features that are engaging and personalized (see Chapter : "Advanced Features").
  • Engage your fans in conversations and discussions.
  • Generate a Facebook Ads Campaign and monitor results using Campaign Reporting.
  • Explore Facebook Sponsored Stories (see Chapter "Advanced Features").
  • Offer a useful and valuable free gift. You can "force" people to Like your page before you reveal the details of your free offer by using functions like a Reveal Button (see Resources section).
  • Start Discussions about topics related to your page.
  • Join Groups or start your own Group.
  • Place a Facebook Like button on any relevant website you have.
  • Explore Facebook reporting tools that allow you to see what content and what products your friends find most interesting.
  • Identify and build your target audience using Campaign Reporting and Insights (see Chapter: "Advanced Features").
  • Integrate Facebook with your website.