As promised in the initial post last month, all of us here at Activ8Social will be sharing our knowledge on the basics of setting-up, navigating, and managing Facebook Pages—one of the most effective tools capable of developing your brand online.
 
In this installment of the series, I will show those of you who are unfamiliar with Facebook Pages how to create a new page from scratch and how to move around the main control panels.  Here’s a breakdown of the process step-by-step (you can click on the any screen shots provided for a closer view if necessary).
 
Step 1: Locate “Create a Page” Link

If you have never created a Facebook Page or if you do not currently own the administrative rights to a page, Facebook does not make it 100% intuitive to find the link “Create a Page” link so here’s what you need to do.

Either search for a page (it doesn’t matter which) or visit a page of which you have previously “Become a Fan”. Once have landed on the Facebook Page, you are going to want to scroll down until you see a set of blue links on the bottom of the left column. The top link will say “Remove Me from Fans” and the bottom link will read “Create a Page” which is what you will want to select. For Facebook Pages with heavy content or custom html/applications in the in the left column, please be aware that you may need to scroll far down before seeing the “Create a Page” link circled in red above.
 
Step 2: Review “Create a Page”

Now that you have landed in the right place to begin your Facebook Page take a moment to familiarize yourself with the menus and make sure that you know exactly what type of page you would like to create. For example, are you creating the page for a small business, corporate brand, or your personal brand? Are you a professional athlete, independent musician, young comedian, or politician?

It is important to take the time to consider this step because Facebook will provide you different fields in the “Info” section of your page as well as make different applications available to you (such as the internal Facebook Music app) according to your page type.
 
Step 3: Select “Category”

Once you have determined the type of Facebook Page you are going to create, you will want to select the appropriate category for the page. You are provided three main categories to choose from including:

 
• Local
• Brand, Product, or Organization
• Artist, Band, or Public Figure

As mentioned above, it is critical to choose the category appropriately as your ability to customize the text of your page in the “Info” section will vary according to your selection.  It is also important to note that you CANNOT change the category selected after the page is created nor will Facebook change the category if you contact their customer service.
 
I’m sure we will see a redesign of the “Create a Page” screen and related features sometime during 2010, but for now, you should also be aware that the default selection of “Other Business” is not ideal for your company.  If you simply name your page and move forward, you will end up with a mis-fit looking “Info” section of your company’s official Facebook page that appears like the screen shot below.

 
“Public Transit” doesn’t exactly fit as the header for your company description now does it? So … the moral of the story? Choose wisely and appropriately in this first little step of your creating your new Facebook page.
 
As you may have already noticed, “Athlete” is not specifically listed as one of the high level options. However, it can be found under the “Artist, Band, or Public Figure” category, and for the purpose of this exercise, we will select “Athlete” for our example page.
 
Step 4: Add “Name of Page”

The next step to completing your Facebook Page is to give it a name. Like the category selection, be sure to pick the exact name of your athlete, company, organization, league, musician, etc. as it is not guaranteed you can change in the future. In fact, Facebook staff must approve all requests to modify a page name or profile name.

It is also important to remember that Facebook blocks certain names, brands, and words such as Kobe Bryant. The black listing can range from blocking only exact word to any phrase that contains the word. This however shouldn’t present many problems as few brands, products, or individuals have overlapping names with famous names.
 
For this purpose of this exercise, I am going to name the example page “Johnny Athlete” as seen in the next few screen shots below.
 
Step 5: Select Option to Not Publish Page Publicly

Now that you have enter the page’s name, you will want to be sure to check the box that says “Do not make Page publicly visible at this time. (You will be able to edit and publish later.)”. There is really no compelling reason to not select this option when creating your page because it gives you the complete flexibility to select your profile pic, change info, customize html/fmbl, add applications, and ultimately build your page without fans seeing the history of changes before you settle on an initial build out.

At Activ8Social, we implement a custom strategy to assist each client with establishing and/or enhancing their online brand. Because of the individualized attention we give each page, we always build a page a behind the scenes and therefore select the do not make public option at this stage.
 
Step 6: Edit New Facebook Page

Congratulations! You should now have a brand new Facebook page to call all your own. In the next installment of this series, we will show you all the basic tips you need to know in order to make your page ready for prime time, but for now, the first step is to upload a profile picture!

So … what are you waiting for? Time to get busy adding content to your new page.
 
Additional Tips for Easier Navigation
 
Step 7: Use “Ads and Pages” Bookmark

As soon as you create your first Facebook Page or as soon as you are added to your company’s/client’s page, you will notice a new shortcut appear in the “Bookmarks” tool bar on the bottom of your browser’s screen. You will want to be sure to use this 2-click shortcut in addition to bookmarking the “Pages You Admin” dashboard in your browser for quicker access to your new page.

 
Step 8: Link to Your Pages From Ads Dashboard

If you click the “Ads and Pages” bookmark in the bottom toolbar, you will need to click the Pages link in the left column underneath your campaigns. You should recognize the orange flag icon Facebook uses to denote pages. Once you click this link, you should be taken to the “Pages You Admin” dashboard which should list the page you just create and any other future pages you create or admin.

 
Step 9: Bookmark Pages You Admin

While the shortcut described above is effective, you will definitely want to bookmark the “Pages You Admin” page in your browser’s bookmarks toolbar for 1-click access to your pages. Alternatively, you can always search for your page from anywhere on Facebook (once you start typing the page’s name Facebook should auto-suggest it), but I personally find this tedious and much prefer to use the shortcut in the my browser toolbar.

Please be sure to leave any comments or suggestions on other basic tips related to creating your page that we may have missed here (but don’t forget we will address how to edit and build your page in the next post). Also, be sure to stay on the lookout for the next installment in this series of Facebook Fan Page Tips! Until then, good luck!