In the first installment of our “Facebook Fan Page Tips” series, we showed you how to create a new Page. Now I will walk you through the preliminary steps to help set up your Page before publishing it to the world. I’ll be focusing on the basic settings, but keep in mind that these seemingly simple instructions are absolutely critical to the success of your Page. Remember you have to crawl before you can walk, and we’ll have you sprinting like Usain Bolt in no time.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the process: (Remember you can click on each image for a closer view if necessary)

Step 1: Upload Profile Picture

In case you didn’t realize, the profile picture is hands-down one of the most important parts of a Facebook Page. If you think about it, this is the visual representation of your brand. Along with the Page name, it’s the most commonly viewed element and warrants careful thought and consideration.

Every Page starts with Facebook’s default profile picture in the top left. To change this, simply hover over this question mark image and a link to “Change Picture” will appear. Clicking on this will present you with five options to edit your profile picture. You can either “Upload a Picture”, “Take a Picture” from your webcam, or “Choose from Album”.

What should your profile picture be? Select or take the photo that best represents you or your brand. If your Page is for a business, the company logo probably makes the most sense. But if it’s for a public figure such as a celebrity or athlete, select an image of that individual. Fans associate athletes with their sport or team, so it’s best to use “in uniform” images. Remember, Facebook does not verify which Pages are real or fake with badges like Twitter, and many fans assume a Page is unauthentic if the player is not in uniform. Of course you can always rotate your profile picture, which is recommended to keep the Page fresh. After all, there’s no such thing as a perfect picture.

The second suggestion is to make sure your picture has a high “height to width” ratio. Facebook only enforces a width constraint on images, so the taller the image, the more visibility it commands. Your Page will prominently appear in search results and stand out among similar Pages or imposters.

Finally, make sure to click on the “Edit Thumbnail” link to select the square image that appears alongside every Page update (for example, on fan profiles and their friends’ News Feeds). This is important to clearly display your brand, particularly if you select a rectangular picture since it will default to the top of the image.

Step 2: Add Information

The next step is offer summary information for your Page. Facebook provides a couple of areas to tell fans about yourself or your brand.

First let’s take a look at the “Info” tab. Depending on the type of Page you choose, (e.g. business, brand, athlete, etc.) the available fields will vary. This is why it’s important to choose appropriately. (See our earlier post for more info on this). If you’re not sure how to classify your Page, check out some competitors or similar brands and create a few test Pages to see what fields are offered by different types. There is no limit to how many Pages you can create or administer unlike other platforms like LinkedIn.

If you are creating a Page for an athlete, you will be presented with multiple fields divided into three categories: “Basic Info”, “Detailed Info” and “Contact Info”. This is your chance to tell fans about yourself, including links to sponsors, partners and your other web presences.

Facebook Pages also offer a prominent box in the left column directly below the profile picture to say something about yourself or your brand. Just click anywhere inside the box and begin typing. You are limited to 87 characters so be concise. For our clients, we typically make a reference to this being the “Official” Page of the athlete or brand and include short URL links to other authentic web presences such as Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and official sites. Remember you can always change this information and add more later.

Step 3: Add “Favorite Pages”

Be sure to utilize the “Favorite Pages” feature when setting up your new Page. This allows you to display other Facebook Pages that you want to be associated with. Brands can showcase their products and celebrity endorsers. Athletes can acknowledge a sponsor, support their teammates and organization, raise awareness for a charity, or simply express their affinity for their favorite TV show. “Badging” your Page in this manner is an effective way to generate traffic for themselves and their affiliates through reciprocal linking. It’s another important, yet often overlooked, step in the set up process.

The main reason more Pages don’t leverage this feature is because it’s simply unintuitive. Unlike almost every other setting, you cannot adjust this from your own Page. If you want to add another as a “Favorite”, you must go to that Page and click on the first link in the left column directly below the profile picture titled “Add to My Page’s Favorites”. After clicking, select your Page from the dropdown list and there you have it.

Step 4: Adjust General Settings

Optimize your Page’s performance by clicking the “Edit Page” link and adjusting a variety of controls. For instance, you can control the default landing tab for users who are not yet fans of your Page. You can also choose whether or not to allow fans to share Wall posts, photos, and more; allowing these will enrich your Page and increase its reach across Facebook.

In the “Edit Page” section, the first section you will see is “Settings”. Here’s a list of the different options you are presented with:

• Country Restrictions: Entering one or more countries means that only people located in those countries listed will be able to view your Page. For athletes or public figures looking to enhance visibility, this feature should not be utilized. Also remember if you limit the Page to certain countries, it will not be visible to visitors logged out of Facebook.
• Age Restrictions: Electing an age restriction means that anyone under the specified age will not be able to find your Page in search or on friends’ profiles or even view the content. This was created for alcohol-related companies and other similar products with age restrictions.
• Published Status: Select whether you want to make the Page publicly visible or not. We suggest filling out the basic information and upload some engaging content first. One tip – most people don’t realize that Facebook allows you to hide your Page after publishing.
• Gender Determine the gender displayed when you make a change to your Page. For instance, if you select “Male” for a Page titled “Johnny Athlete” and then edit the “Birthday” section, the following message will appear in your feed: “Johnny Athlete changed his birthday.”

Step 5: Adjust Wall Settings

The “Wall Settings” appear just below the general “Settings”. They are divided into two parts: “View Settings”, which control the way content is viewed by fans, and “Fan Settings”, which controls what types of content fans are able to add to the Page. You’ll want to keep the default settings offered, but here’s some of our thoughts:

• Default View for Wall: Choose whether you want to filter between your content and fans’ content or display them together in one stream. We’ve found that fans tend to post more frequently when their content is grouped alongside yours, but your posts can run the risk of disappearing into the stream of an active Page. Of course, fans will still see your posts just as clearly in their personal News Feeds, which is where the majority of fans receive news and info from Pages. We typically go back and forth between the two options depending on the importance of our posts. If we want to feature a status update to generate maximum fan interaction in the form of “Likes” and “Comments” (which appear in friends’ feeds and spur viral Page growth), we will turn the filter on.
• Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else: Select the first tab you want fans to see when they visit your Page. This is powerful feature that should be utilized to your advantage. If you have a promotion on a custom tab, you can call attention to it. Or you can create a “Welcome” tab with a call-to-action to invite friends and encourage Page growth. We’ll discuss how to go about doing this later in the series. If you don’t have a custom tab to promote, we suggest the “Wall” tab as the best default.
• Posting Ability Determine what types of content you want fans to be allowed to post. We strongly suggest you leave this at default and allow fans to post all four types (photos, videos, links, and wall comments). If you don’t, you’re only limiting your fans’ ability to interact and promote your brand.

Step 6: Adjust Mobile Settings

The “Mobile” section allows you to register your phone or PDA to post text, photos and videos directly to your Page while on the go. At Activ8Social, we find this extremely useful for professional athletes as it allows them to conveniently post updates and pics to fans without ever having to sing into the Page or be near a computer. The ease of simply “text messaging your fans” is the reason Twitter became such a huge hit with athletes and celebrities. By keeping your Page active with frequent updates, you’ll find fans are much more interactive and engaged.

To activate updating via text message, click “Edit Page” below the profile picture on the Page. Beneath “Mobile,” click “Edit,” and follow the link to sign up for Facebook Text Messages in order to select your country and mobile service provider. Then follow the instructions to begin posting status updates to your Page. You can associate multiple phone numbers for a single Page. However, you can only associate one Page or profile to each mobile number. If you associate a mobile number to your Page, that number cannot be associated to your profile or another Page.

When you click “Edit”, you will notice a random email address. This is provided by Facebook to enable you to post status updates or send photos or videos straight to your Page through MMS. Remember that the email subject will be your updated status if your email contains no photo or videos, but it will be used as the caption of your photo or video if one is included.

Please be sure to leave any comments or suggestions on other basic tips related to setting up your Page that we may have missed here (but don’t forget, in our next post we will address how to add applications such as Custom FBML and populate your Page with historical content to hit the ground running).

Be sure to stay on the lookout for the next installment in this series of Facebook Fan Page Tips! Until then, good luck!