So you’ve decided you want to set up a Facebook page for your business. Wondering where to start? Maybe you realize halfway through the process that somebody who works for your business has already created a Facebook page and it has quite a following. Or maybe you notice that there is a location page that’s been created where your customers are checking into your business and nobody actually manages the page. Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t worry. I’m going to break down how to establish your Facebook page for these and several other scenarios.

Let’s start with the basics.

Setting up a brand new page

If you want to be an administrator for the page, you will have to have a personal profile set up already. DO NOT set up a personal profile for your business (but if you already did we have you covered). You won’t be able to take advantage of the many options available to a business page, like Facebook Insights, paid ads, boosted posts, etc.

Create Page (Left Navigation Menu)
Select Local Business or Place
Fill in basic business information
Facebook will then walk you through adding your profile picture (small square photo that serves as a small icon for your store when interacting on Facebook), short description, website, etc. to get your page established.

Once your page is created, you can then add a cover photo and more profile information about your business (store hours, long description, price range, parking, email contact if applicable, etc.)

You will also want to create a username immediately. This is how your customers and other business pages will tag you in a post, with the “@” symbol. It will also establish your custom Facebook URL (example: facebook.com/MyGroceryStore). NOTE: You can only change this once and it has to be a username that is not already being used by another person or business. Your Username can be different from your Page Name.

Converting a personal profile to a business page

Did you accidentally set up a brand new Facebook account for your business, thinking that you were supposed to do it the same way you set up your personal account? You already have followers and you’re not sure how to transition this well-established personal page into a business account? Facebook makes it very easy for you to migrate a personal profile to a professional page.

Gaining administrative rights to an established page

If one of your employees has already created a Facebook page that you want to establish as the professional page for your business, you simply have to ask that employee to give you administrator rights to the established page. Again, you will have to have a personal profile in order to be a page administrator.

To add a new administrator to your business page:

Go to Settings in the upper-right corner of your business page
Select the Page Roles option on the left navigation
Type the name or email of the person you would like to add.
- The only way your employee can add you by your name is if you are Facebook friends. Otherwise, they will have to add you by typing the email you use to log in to your personal account.

The selection will default to Editor but you can give the new administrator full access or limited access based on the tiers that Facebook provides.

Claiming location pages

In the process of setting up your new business page, you might notice that a customer has beat you to it. If a customer tries to check in to your location but you don’t have a page, Facebook will set up a location page that will automatically populate with your basic information.

You can claim this page and take one of two actions: 1) merge it with a page you’ve already created absorb the followers from the location page into the new page you’ve already created, or 2) claim the page and use it as your new business page.

If you claim the page as your own business, you will have to verify it. You will verify it with either a phone number or a business document. If you choose the phone number option, the phone number listed on the location page receive a phone call. The automated phone call will give you a code to then verify the page. Or you will have to provide Facebook with a document that proves this is your business by uploading a scan or picture of one of the following: Utility bill/Phone bill, Business license, Business tax file, Certificate of formation, or Articles of incorporation.

Merging multiple locations into one page

If you’ve already created a Facebook page and would prefer to merge any and all location pages into the page you’ve already created, you will need to take a few steps to ensure the pages will merge successfully:

Change the page names for all pages you want to merge to be the same name (page name, not username because usernames can’t be duplicated).
Remove the street address from your profile. You can’t merge two business pages together if they have different addresses.

Banner page or location pages

If your business has multiple locations under one banner, you might be trying to decide if you want to create one main page for that banner or multiple location pages for each individual store. In my next blog post, I will go over the pros and cons of both.