We’ve been counting down through our TOP 5 social channels – and you businesses can use these to their advantage. We are excited because today we FINALLY get to discuss our FAVORITE social channel – FACEBOOK. Although some of the younger demographics are passing up Facebook in favor of tools like Instagram and Snapchat, it is clear Facebook still dominates the market.

With 1.09 billion people logging in daily (a 16% increase year-over-year), it’s still the most popular social network around. Not to mention, Facebook owns 77% of all social logins. Think about it, you have the Facebook app, Groups app, Memories for photos, Messenger, Ads Manager and more.  They are a dominating force in the social world. If you want your business’ content to reach consumers, having a presence on Facebook is a given. But to make the most of your Facebook Page — to attract and engage visitors, drive them to your website, and convert them into leads (and, eventually, customers) — you need to optimize your Facebook presence.

5 Tips for Your Facebook Business Page

1. Create a business Page, not a personal profile. First thing’s first: You need to create a business Page — not a personal profile — to represent your brand. Pages look similar to personal profiles, but they include unique tools for businesses, brands, and organizations. Your fans can Like your Page to see updates from you in their News Feeds, which is something they can’t do for personal profiles. Not only will this maximize Facebook’s business potential for you, but it’s actually against Facebook’s Terms of Service to use a personal account to represent something other than that person, like a business. If you’ve already created a profile for your business, you’ll want to convert it into a business Page.
2. Claim your Page’s vanity URL. Once you’ve created your business Page, it’ll get a randomly assigned number and URL, like facebook.com/pages/yourbusiness/123456789. To make your Page more shareable and easier to find, you’ll want to create a recognizable vanity URL . A vanity URL is simply your own customized URL on Facebook.  Perfect for branding. Example: Ours is www.facebook.com/letstalkwelisten.  Go one step further and verify your page.
3. Add a branded cover photo and recognizable profile picture.Facebook’s page design lets you feature a cover photo at the top of your business Page. You’ll want to optimize that cover photo to capture the attention of new visitors. Pick a profile picture that will be easy for visitors to recognize — like your company logo, or a headshot of yourself if you’re a solopreneur or consultant. Be recognizable.When choosing a photo for your profile or cover image, keep in mind that Facebook requires your image to be within certain dimensions for complete optimization. Be sure to test that graphic on mobile devices and desktop to ensure your brand is best represented.
4. Utilize video and interactive content. The folks at Facebook know that people like watching videos on Facebook. Facebook reportedly spent 8 billion dollars to celebrities to use Live video to entice the general public to use it.  The algorithm, or how Facebook ranks content and determines what to show you first, is built to give live video and regular video first.  It’s a great opportunity to be branded, and visually seen. Why? Because although all videos on Facebook autoplay in people’s News Feeds, they’re on mute until the viewer manually turns the volume on. The more visually engaging your video, the more you can entice people to stick around. Getting people to spend more time watching your video will help your video rank higher in the News Feed because to Facebook, signs of user engagement with a video include spending time watching the video, turning on the audio, switching to full-screen mode, or enabling high definition.
5. Leverage Facebook’s targeting tools. Facebook allows you to target certain audiences with specific updates — be it gender, relationship or educational status, age, location, language, or interests, you can segment individual page posts by these criteria.