I know a website is essential but do I need a Facebook Business Page too?

When marketing a business we all know that a website is essential and that Facebook is almost a necessity, but did you know that it is against the Facebook Terms to use your personal account to represent something other than yourself e.g. your business.

Unlike your profile, Facebook Business Pages are visible to everyone on the internet by default. You, and every person on Facebook, can connect with these Pages by becoming a fan and then receive their updates in your News Feed and interact with them.

As of March 2017 worldwide there are over 1.86 billion monthly active Facebook users. According to Facebook this is a 17 percent increase year over year.

So setting up a professional Facebook Business Page potentially gives you a great opportunity to promote and market your business to a vast number of people.

Here are a few reasons to set up a Facebook business page:

• Facebook business pages are branded. You are using your company name and logo to increase your brand awareness, and your Facebook Page can showcase your brand personality as people read through your Timeline.
• Every time people like and share your page and/or any of your posts, they could get published to hundreds, if not thousands, of their friends. Every post is an opportunity to get more customers and drive traffic back to your website.
• You can also participate on Facebook as your brand by commenting on other Pages as your Page to increase visibility.
• Having a Facebook page for your business gives you a way to talk to and get direct feedback from your target audience. It will give your business a personal edge because you’ll be able to customise your connections with one-on-one conversations and interactions.
• Facebook pages are excellent places to gather together your customers, prospects, and fans to provide reviews, share opinions, voice concerns and offer feedback.
• Each page has Facebook Insights Insights provide information about your Pages performance, like demographic data about your audience and how people are responding to your posts. You can use this to understand how people are engaging with your Page, view metrics about your Pages performance, learn which posts have the most engagement and see when your audience is on Facebook.
• Boost Posts For a cost, Boosted Posts allow you to promote any of your Facebook posts to a much wider audience.
• Facebook advertising Facebook offers the greatest targeting options ever. It makes you more effective by letting you target users using not only demographic data (location, age range, gender), but also using interests, data and social connections. You can also choose what you’d like people to do when they see your advert. Facebook adverts work on a variety of budgets and can be purchased in a variety of ways.