If you’re a small business owner looking to reach and connect with more customers, social media is a great place to start, and one of the best ways to get started on social media is to make a page. In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know how to create a business page.
To be clear: this post is NOT a full how-to of how to optimize, create content on, or use social media for your business. However, this post is the first in a series that I’ll be making called Getting Your Business on Social Media: The Ultimate Guide, which I’ll be building out over the next few months of posting! As I add more content to this series, you can check back HERE to find a collection of all of the info.
The Benefits of Creating a Business Page
Since you’ve come across this article, you’re probably already aware of some of the benefits of putting your business on social media. However, you might not know why you should create a business page, instead of just promoting your business on your personal page.
One of the biggest benefits of having a business page is that it keeps it separate from your personal account. When people look at your business page, they don’t have to see any of your personal information, aside from what you provide. So, if you don’t want people to see all of the things that you post on your personal profile, a business page allows you to do that.
Business pages also typically have more advanced features and tools that are at your disposal, compared to personal profiles. All of the social media networks we’ll look at in this article have analytics features that can give you valuable insights, such as the days and times that people are most often engaging with your posts, what kind of devices they’re using, and much more.
You can also promote your business’ products, services, and information more clearly with a business page. A business page will put your business’ essential information front and center, making sure that potential customers can see what you offer, and how to contact you easily.
Now, let’s take a look at the practical steps for how you can actually go about creating your page, step-by-step. We’ll look at four of the biggest social media platforms out there: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Facebook has some of the most in-depth tools for businesses, once they create a page. However, you will need a personal account before you can create a business account. This might be a bit confusing if you go to Facebook’s website before creating an account, since they have a button right there that promotes creating a page for a business or brand. However, if you click this option, Facebook will ask you to log in or create an account.
If you don’t have a Facebook Account yet:
Creating a Facebook account is a very simple process. Go to the Facebook webpage, click “Create New Account”, add in your name, email address or phone number, create a secure password, enter your birth date, and your account is created. Tip: If you only want to use Facebook for business purposes, and don’t want to make use of a personal profile, you don’t have to use your real name or birth date.
Facebook will typically send a security code to the email address or phone number you’ve provided as a security measure, which you can copy or re-type into the box. Facebook will then suggest connecting with friends by connecting your contacts, as well as suggest some pages or topics to follow, which you don’t have to do.
If you have a Facebook Account:
Step 1: Once you are logged into your account, look at the menu on the left side of the screen, where you’ll find a “Pages” button.
Step 2: Click “Create New Page”
Step 3: Fill in the name of your business in the “Page name” field. It must be a name that hasn’t been taken by another page yet.
Step 4: Pick up to 3 categories that describe your business from the “Category” field. Optionally, you can add a description of your page here.
Step 5: Click “Create Page” at the bottom left.
Step 6: Your page is up! Now, you have the opportunity to add a profile picture or cover photo. Regardless of whether or not you do this, click “Save” at the bottom left. This will take you to your page, where it will show you several other options for adding information to your page.
Instagram is a great platform to use for visually-appealing products and services, especially if you’re a creative type. The differences between personal and business accounts aren’t as obvious externally, but a professional account gives you a lot more internal tools to play with. Since Instagram is primarily a mobile platform, I’ll be showing the steps in the mobile app. If you don’t have it yet, here are the links to download it: tap HERE if you have an Android phone, and tap HERE if you use Apple.
Step 1: To create a page for your business on Instagram, you’ll first create a new account, just as if you were making a personal page. Enter an email address or mobile phone number, and enter the code that is sent to the number or email to verify your identity.
Step 2: Instead of adding your full name, enter the name of the business, and create a strong password.
Step 3: Enter your birthday. Enter your real birthday, not the start date of the business or a different date, since this could be used for verification purposes later.
Step 4: Instagram will automatically assign you a username, which you can keep, change now, or change later. You’ll most likely want to change this to something easily recognizable for your business, and identical to your other “@” usernames on other platforms if you have them. You can skip the following prompts for connecting to Facebook, adding a profile photo, and following suggested accounts, since you can do all of these things later.
Step 5: Once the account is created, tap on your profile icon in the bottom right corner, which will take you to your profile.
Step 6: Tap the three lines in the top right, which will open more options. Scroll to the bottom of this menu, and select Settings.
Step 7: In this menu, tap Account.
Step 8: Scroll all the way to the bottom of this page, where you will see “Get Professional Account” in blue text.
Step 9: Tap the blue “Switch to professional account” button, and then “Continue” on the following page.
Step 10: Select what type of business you are, by scrolling down the list, or by using the search box. You have the option to show or hide this category on your profile; this option is turned OFF by default. Tap “Done” once you’ve made your selection.
Step 11: Choose whether you are a “Creator” or a “Business”, based on the descriptions provided in the boxes. Tap “Done once you’ve made your selection.
Step 12: You have the option to choose what contact information is displayed on your profile. By default, the email address or phone number you used to create the account will be automatically filled in. You can fill in any other information you want to show, and tap “Next” when you’re done. Or, if you don’t want any of that information to be visible, you can tap “Don’t use my contact info”.
Step 13: You have the option here to connect this Instagram business account to your Facebook business page. However, if this is something you want to do, I would recommend that you don’t use this option. Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can do this more easily through Facebook. So, in this case, always tap “Skip”.
Step 14: You’re done! Instagram shows you some additional options for adding information to your profile, and exploring the tools you have access to with a professional account. You can take a look at any of these by tapping on them, or tapping the “X” in the top right.
If You Have Both Facebook and Instagram Business Pages:
Since Facebook owns Instagram, they have integrated their platforms together, allowing you to manage both of your business pages at the same time. It can be very helpful if you want to post something on both platforms at the same time, or even schedule a post on both platforms so that they go live at a time you choose in the future. Here are the steps to link both pages:
Step 1: Start on your Facebook business page, on your desktop browser, and click on “Settings”
Step 2: Scroll down the menu on the left, about ⅔ of the way down, click “Instagram”
Step 3: Click the blue “Connect Account” button on the right.
Step 4: It will give you the option of whether or not you want to keep your Facebook and Instagram message inboxes separate, or connected. You can enable this now, or later if you’re not sure. Once you decide, click “Continue”
Step 5: A new popup window will open, asking you to log in to your Instagram account. Your browser might prompt you to allow or deny the popup; in this case, make sure to allow it. Log in to your Instagram business account. You might have to “Switch accounts” if the pop up does not default to your business account. After you log in, Instagram will give you the option to save your login info for the future, which you can choose to enable later if you’re not sure.
Step 6: The popup window will close, and the page will load for a few seconds. After this, your accounts should be connected!
LinkedIn is a great platform to create a page on, especially if you are targeting a more professional audience, or are a B2B business. To get started, you will need a personal LinkedIn profile before creating a business page.
If you don’t have a LinkedIn account:
The process is very similar to Facebook’s: go to the signup page, enter in the required information, go through the security checks, skip any steps that you don’t want to complete, and you have a profile. However, unlike Facebook, LinkedIn WILL show the name/profile of the person who created the page, so keep in mind that you won’t be able to create a fake name without someone potentially noticing. This doesn’t mean that you have to use the personal profile, but it is visible.
If you have a LinkedIn account:
Step 1: In the menu at the top of the screen, on the right, click the “Work” icon with 9 squares and an arrow.
Step 2: In the menu that appears on the right, at the very bottom, click “Create a Company Page”
Step 3: Choose what category that you fit in, of the 4 that are displayed. In this case, we’ll choose “Small business”
Step 4: Fill in all of the relevant information about your company that you want to display. Required fields will have a * next to them, others are optional. Tip: For your LinkedIN public URL, try to choose the same name that you will use across any other networks for your @. In this example, since my Instagram and Facebook pages are under “@rickrollinllc”, I’ll replace LinkedIn’s recommended dashes, and make it the same name as my other platforms.
Step 5: At the very bottom of the page, check the box beginning with “I verify…”, and click “Create page”.
Step 6: You’re done, your page is live!
Unlike the rest of the networks we’ve looked at, Twitter doesn’t have a specific feature for setting your account apart as a business account (at least, not until your account is VERY well established, and your company is big enough to be in contact with Twitter staff). However, they do offer some analytics tools, similar to those offered on business pages on other platforms, for all accounts. So, as a result, you do not need a personal account before creating an account for your business.
If you have a Twitter account already…
To create a new account, just log out of your existing account. Click on your profile picture in the bottom left, and click “Log out @your_username”
If you’re now logged out, or if you don’t have a Twitter account yet…
Step 1: Head over to the Twitter website, and click “Sign Up”
Step 2: Fill in the name that you want to display on your business profile in the “Name” field. Note: This does NOT determine your @ username. You can change this later in settings; we’ll show this in Step #.
Step 3: Twitter will ask you to sign up with a phone number by default. You can also choose to use your email address instead by clicking “Use email instead”.
Step 4: Fill in the birth date information. As it says in the description above the fields, go ahead and fill in your own age. You can choose to not have it displayed publicly.
Step 5: Click “Next” in the top right. The next option is a bit confusing, but not super important: it gives you the option to keep track of where you see content from Twitter in other places online. This doesn’t matter too much for a business page. Check or uncheck that box, and click “Next” in the top right.
Step 6: Confirm that the information you gave is correct, and click “Sign up”
Step 7: Twitter will send a code to the phone number or email address that you provided, to confirm your identity. Find that code, enter it into the text field, and click “Next” in the top right.
Step 8: Create a strong password of 8 characters or more, and click “Next” in the top right.
Step 9: You’re done! Twitter will give you the option to upload a profile picture, add a bio, connect your contacts, follow topics of interest or suggested accounts, and turn on notifications from Twitter. You can also skip any of these things and do them later if you want.
Next Steps
Congrats on creating a page (or multiple pages) for your business! You’ve got a whole lot of options in front of you that might be overwhelming: how do I make sure I’ve added all of my information? Are all of my page settings correct? How do I make sure that it all looks good? I’ve got answers for all of these questions as well! Below are the links to separate posts where I cover these topics, and more:
Haven’t made them yet! Check back soon!
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