The Most Important Thing to Know When Starting Your Facebook Page
If you’ve decided to start a Facebook page for your restaurant, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Rest assured, it’ll be worth it in the end, as a good Facebook page can bring lots of customers through your doors. But in the meantime, you will need to know a few things about Facebook before you get your page started. Some of our tips will help you approach Facebook the right way, some will point you in the right direction, and one will save you a ton of heartache down the road. Without further ado, here is our countdown of three things to keep in mind, ending with the most important thing to know when starting your restaurant’s Facebook page.
1. The Work is Just Getting Started
If it feels like starting your Facebook page up is a big job in itself, we’ve got some bad news for you. The work of getting as much as you can out of Facebook is just beginning.
Sure, the learning curve will level off soon, and it won’t be as frustrating to work on Facebook when you are a pro. But promoting your Facebook page, spreading the word about your restaurant on Social Media, and making sure that you are doing everything you can to get the most out of your Facebook page will take a lot of work. And if you are feeling overwhelmed now, the bad news is that work is just getting started. Don’t despair: again it will be worth it in the end.
2. The More You Do Now, The Better
As you first get started building your Facebook page, you’ll notice that there are lots of different fields, boxes, and pieces of information that you can fill out. Or, you can skip them for now, and decide that you’d rather come back and complete your Facebook page in the future. Whatever you decide, keep in mind that the more you do now, the better.
To be frank, if you aren’t going to put in the work to make your Facebook page complete, there’s not too much reason to start one at all. Leaving fields empty makes you look amateur, and if a potential customer visits your page and isn’t impressed, they probably won’t visit it again. You need to make sure you have a good profile and cover photo, that all of your identifying information is filled out, and that you have links to your website where you should. And if you tackle all of this stuff now, you won’t have to worry about it in the future, and can focus on more important things. Plus, you won’t risk turning away fans with an incomplete and amateur looking profile.
3. You’re Facebook Page’s URL is VERY VERY Important
The two tips above may seem like common sense to some. But even if you consider yourself to be a social media and internet wizard, pay attention to this last one. Because the most important thing that you need to know when starting your Facebook page is a doozy, and there’s very little room for error. So take note: your Facebook page’s URL is incredibly important.
If you are unfamiliar with URL’s, it’s short for “Uniform Resource Locator.” Which is just computer speak for a website’s address. And when you make a Facebook page, you are able to set a custom URL for your business. When fans go to your Facebook page, they will see “www.Facebook.com/[your business’s name],” and you get to decide to put whatever you want in those brackets. Having a recognizable URL is great for visitors that are already on your page, but there are a host of other benefits too. The right URL looks great on a business card or when linked to from your other accounts and pages, and a URL with your business’s name in it will help Google searchers find your business easier. That URL is your signature on the internet, so it’s important that you think of the perfect one.
And on Facebook, it’s important that you get it right the first time. Facebook’s policy is that once you set a URL for your page, you shouldn’t change it. It is possible to change your URL only once after it has been set, and doing so requires a request and isn’t the most straight forward process. Which is why the most important thing that you need to know when starting your Facebook page is that your URL choice matters. A lot. So spend some time thinking about what you want your URL to be. Shoot for professional and related to your business, and make sure there are no typos. Whatever you choose, make sure that you are very happy with that choice before you start making your Facebook page.