Facebook

page management
for beginners
Facebook page management for beginners

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 Contents
Executive summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Introduction to Facebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Facebook statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Facebook pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Facebook demographics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Creating a Facebook Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Logging in and using Facebook as the page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Editing your page and settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Changing your profile picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Adding administrators to the page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
To add a new administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Facebook timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The timeline layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The cover photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Composer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Share photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Scheduling Posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Create photo album . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Create offers/events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Interacting with fans and other pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Sharing on Facebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Responding to comments on Facebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Deleting posts on Facebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Reporting and measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
What are insights? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Pages insights help you to. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Understanding page insights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

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Facebook page management for beginners

Executive summary
The following guide provides an introduction to Facebook Page Management
for beginners. Covering a complete introduction to Facebook, its size and
its audience, this guide will provide you with a greater understanding of
the network itself and the key management activities which will have to be
undertaken on a regular basis.
These management activities include everything from logging in, adjusting page
settings and adding admins, to posting status updates and photo albums. This
manual also advises on key ways to monitor the performance of your Facebook
Page and some best practice tips.

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 Introduction to Facebook
Facebook was founded in 2004 with the aim of giving people the power to
share and to make the world more open and connected. Today, Facebook is the
largest of all the social networks.
We have outlined some statistics which provide an insight into the scale of this
social network.

Facebook statistics
• There are currently 1.5 billion monthly active users on Facebook.
• There are currently 38 million Facebook users in the UK alone.
• 1.09 billion people log on to Facebook daily.
• The 25-34 age demographic represents the largest group of users (29.7% of
total users.)
• Every 60 seconds on Facebook: 510 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses
are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded.
• Five new profiles are created every second.
(source: Zeephoria Digital Marketing)

Facebook pages
Pages are used to communicate messages to fans who have ‘liked’ the
organisation. Any business can create a page for free and invite other users to
become a fan of it.
• 49% of consumers like a Facebook page to support a brand
• 30 million businesses now have a Facebook Fan Page.
• 19 million businesses have optimised their pages for mobile use.
• 1.5 million businesses spend money on Facebook ads.
(source: sproutsocial.com)

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Facebook page management for beginners

Facebook demographics
When considering the fundamentals of marketing, before choosing to market
your business on any channel, it is important to consider your target audience.
Therefore, one should be aware of the breakdown of Facebook’s audience
within the UK.

Age Gender

60+ years 13-19 years

50-59 years

Male
20-29 years
Female

40-49 years

30-39 years

13-19 years 11% Female 52%

20-29 years 29% Male 48%
30-39 years 22%
40-49 years 17%
50-59 years 12%
60+ years 10%

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This data illustrates that:
• The majority of Facebook users within the UK fall into the 20 - 29 years’ age
bracket and this is closely followed by the 30 - 39 years’ age bracket.
• Facebook is slightly more popular with women in the UK but this is only a
marginal difference.

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 Creating a Facebook page
1. To create a Facebook Business Page, you’ll firstly need to have
a personal profile.
2. Log in with your personal profile and click on the arrow icon
at the right hand side of the top menu.
3. Select ‘Create Page’
4. Select ‘Local Business or Place’ and complete the relevant details
for your business.

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Facebook page management for beginners

Logging in and using Facebook as the page

1. To log in to Facebook, type www.facebook.com into your browser

2. Go to the top right of the page and enter the email address and password
associated with your personal account followed by ‘Log In.’
When you log in to Facebook you will land on the ‘Home’ page, also known
as your timeline. If you are an admin for the Page (i.e. your business has
assigned you a management role), within the left hand menu you will see the
names of any Facebook Business pages you have the ability to manage. To
navigate onto your business page, simply select the relevant page from this
menu.
When using your business page, the default setting should always be ‘Post as
[business name]’ however to ensure this is correct you can check this setting.
To do this, visit your page settings, select ‘Post Attribution’ and make sure
the Post as [business name] is selected.

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 Editing your page
and settings
1. Navigate to your business page.
2. Within your page, below the main cover image, you will see an option to ‘Edit
Page Info’. Select this option and a pop up menu will appear allowing you
to update information within your page including general details, contact
information, location details and opening hours.
3. You can access Page Settings, from the menu above your page cover image.
Within this section you can control who can comment on your page, tagging
abilities, page moderation and profanity filters, how notifications are
received, page roles and more.

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Facebook page management for beginners

Editing your page’s timeline

If you wish, you can choose to not show posts by others on your
Page’s timeline at all.
To prevent posts by everyone from appearing on your Page’s timeline:
1. Open your page’s settings
2. Within General and Visitor Posts, choose to ‘Disable posts by other people on
the Page’ and save changes.
Within the Page Moderation section, you can also manage the language used
within comments on posts. To prevent certain words or phrases from appearing
within comments on your page posts, you can add these terms to this section
which will block posts or comments containing those words from appearing.

Changing your profile picture

In order to change your profile picture:
1. Hover over the camera icon in the bottom right hand corner of the image
holder where your profile image sits until ‘Change Picture’ appears
2. Select ‘Choose From Photos’, ‘Select Photos’, ‘Take Photo’ or ‘Remove’.
3. Your profile image should be a minimum of 180x180 pixels, which will display
at 160 x 160pixels and the file size should be no bigger than 4MB.

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 Adding administrators to the page
All Page admins can have a different role assigned to them, depending on
what they need to work on. Page admins can have 5 different roles, each with
different abilities. The following table outlines the 5 admin roles (across) and
what they’re able to do (down).

Admin Editor Moderator Advertiser Analyst

Manage Page roles

and settings 

Edit the Page and

add apps  

Create and delete

posts as the Page  

Send messages as
the Page   

Respond to and delete

comments and posts   
to the Page

Remove and ban

people from the Page   

Create ads    

View insights     
See who publishes
as the Page     

To add a new administrator:

Page roles can be determined within the Page Roles section of Facebook
page settings.
1. Type the name/ email address associated with Facebook, of the person you
would like to add in the open field at the top of the page.
2. Select the appropriate admin role for that person from the drop down menu
and click ‘save’ at the bottom of the page.

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Facebook page management for beginners

Facebook timeline
The timeline layout
Facebook timeline includes a number of features which assist with the
management and promotion of the Page’s content.

Admin Panel
The admin panel is located along the top of your Facebook Page and allows Page
Managers to quickly and easily see how the Page is performing.

From your admin panel, you can:

• View notifications (likes, comments and shares in posts)
• Respond to private messages from Page fans.
• View your Page insights which detail the performance of your Page
• Access your activity log to curate content on your Page
• Access your Page’s settings
Please note that non-admins who visit your Page won’t see the admin panel.
It’s only available to your Page’s admins.

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 The cover photo
A cover is the larger photo at the top of your timeline, right above your
profile picture.

Note: Like your profile picture, cover images are public, which means anyone visiting your
Timeline will be able to see them.
A cover photo is used to portray your brand identity and research suggests that
people have a better experience viewing your timeline when they see a cover that
is unique to your company and represents it well. This also helps people learn more
about you.

Cover photo restrictions

The new cover photo can be up to 828px by 315px and is subject to several
restrictions. It must not contain any of the following:
• Price or purchase information, such as discounts or “Download it at our
website” call to actions.
• Contact information including a web address, email, postal address or other
information intended for your Page’s About section.
• References to user actions such as ‘Like’ or ‘Share’ or any other Facebook site
features.
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”.

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Facebook page management for beginners

To add or update a cover photo

• Hover the mouse over the camera icon in the bottom right hand corner of the
cover photo and click ‘Change Cover.’
• Select ‘Choose From Photos’, ‘Select Photos’, ‘Take Photo’ or ‘Remove’.
• Once you choose a photo, you can reposition it by clicking on the image and
dragging it up or down.
• Click Save

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 Composer
The composer tool sits at the top of your timeline on your Facebook page and
makes it easy to post different types of engaging content to your page timeline.

Status updates
• Status updates let your fans know what your business has been up
to lately. Use the status update box to share news and interesting
information with your fans.
• To add a status update, simply type your message in the field
and click ‘Publish.’
• Avoid text speak on Facebook – try to maintain a professional tone
of voice, regardless that this is an informal channel of communication.

To add a link to a status update, for example to a news story on your own website
or on another website, you can simply copy and paste the web link into the status
field after your comment.
Best practice would be to use a link shortener such as Bit.ly, to reduce the length
of the url and paste this shortened URL into the status update. Facebook will
recognize that this is a link and will be triggered to pull in a snippet of information
from the page you have linked to. You can edit this snippet by clicking on the text
and adjusting the page title and intro lines.

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Facebook page management for beginners

Share photos
Photos in status updates generally gain the most interaction. To post an image,
follow these steps:
1. Within the status update box, add your update and click on the camera icon.
2. Browse to where you have saved the appropriate image file from your computer.
3. Once you have completed this, click publish.

Scheduling Posts
The Publish button provides a number of options, accessed by the drop down
menu which appears when the arrow beside ‘Publish’ is selected. You can publish
your post straight away, you can schedule a post to go out at another time or you
can save a draft of your post so that you can go back and edit it at a later date.

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 To create a photo album
1. Within the status update box
select ‘Photo/Video’ from the
menu along the top.
2. Select ‘Create Photo Album’
3. Select the photos you want to
upload from your computer.
4. While your files are uploading:
- Add an album title and
description
- Add captions, tags, and
locations to photos as each
one finishes uploading
5. Once the upload is complete,
click post.

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Facebook page management for beginners

To create an offer/event
To create an offer:
1. From the Status Update Box within your page, select ‘Offer/Event’ from the
top menu.
2. Select the ‘Offer’ option.
3. Select the kind of offer you want to make: ‘In Store’ or ‘Online’.
4. If your offer can be redeemed online, complete the web address/URL where
people can redeem the offer and the type of offer available i.e. percentage off.
5. Include a strong title for your offer and a description of what the offer provides.
6. Upload a photo for your offer.
7. Include an expiration date for your offer as well as a discount code if
necessary and any necessary terms and conditions.
8. As you update your offer details you’ll see a preview of how you offer will look
on the right hand side of your screen.
9. Once complete, click create offer and your offer will be posted to your
Facebook page timeline.

To create an event:
1. From the Status Update Box within your page, select ‘Offer/Event’ from the
top menu.
2. Select the ‘Event’ option.
3. Upload your event image
4. Add an event name, location and start and end dates and times for your event.
5. Add a description of your event and tags to best describe your event
6. Add a ticket URL, if tickets are available to purchase online.
7. Once complete, click publish.

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 Interacting with fans
and other pages
It is important to interact with Page fans and with other Pages on Facebook.

To search for pages and ‘like’ them on Facebook simply:

1. Type a company name into the search box at the top of your page. This will
bring up a number of search results.
2. Select the one you want to become a fan of to land on their Facebook page.
3. Click ‘Like’ underneath the cover image. The company will receive a
notification that you have ‘liked’ their page
You also have the option to ‘watch’ a number of Facebook pages, such as
competitors, which allows you to easily compare the performance of your Page
with similar Pages. If at least 100 people like your Page, you can create a list of
Pages to watch via Facebook Insights. Keep in mind that you need to choose at
least 5 Pages to watch to see insights about them.

To create a list of Pages to watch:

1. Click Insights at the top of your Page
2. Scroll down to Pages to Watch and click Add Pages
3. Search for a
Page you want to
watch or choose
from suggested
Pages and click +
Watch Page
4. After choosing
at least 5 Pages,
click Done.

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Facebook page management for beginners

Sharing on Facebook
To ‘Share’ a post from another Page,
click on ‘Share’ below the post in
question. You will then be able to share
the post on your Page. When sharing,
make sure that you are sharing as
your business page rather than your
personal Facebook account. When
sharing, you also have the option to
add text to the post, before you add it
to your page timeline.

Responding to comments on Facebook

If you would like to respond to a comment posted on your page, or if you want
to respond to a comment on another Page, there are three ways in which to do
so. Below the comment you will see options to ‘Like,’ ‘Reply,’ and ‘Message’ in
blue text.
1. To ‘Like’ a comment click on the button – you will then see a blue
‘thumbs up’ appear. You will notice that the button you originally clicked on
has now changed to ‘Unlike.’ To ‘Unlike’ a comment you will have the option
to click ‘Unlike.’
2. To reply to a comment either on your own or another page, click on ‘Reply’
below the post in question. A field with your profile picture will appear below
it, type the message in this field and press enter on your keyboard.
3. To respond to a comment with a private message, simply click on ‘Message’
below the post in question. A pop up will appear on your screen allowing
you to send a message to the person who has commented on your page in
relation to the particular post on which they have commented.

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 Deleting posts on Facebook
If you want to delete your own post:
1. Navigate to the top right corner of the post where you will see an arrow symbol.
2. Click on the arrow and select ‘Delete from timeline’.
3. Rather than delete the post you also have the option to hide it from your
timeline. To do this, simply select ‘Hide from Timeline’ from the drop down
menu.

If you want to hide a comment by a user:

1. Navigate to the top right corner of the comment where you will see an arrow
symbol.
2. Click on the arrow and select ‘Hide comment’ – this will mean the comment
will no longer be visible on the post.

Pinning a post:
If you have a particular important post which you wish to highlight to anyone who
lands on your Facebook page you can ‘pin’ a post to the top of your timeline. To do
this:
1. Hover over the arrow in the top right hand corner of the post you wish to pin.
2. From the drop down menu select ‘Pin to Top’.
3. Your pinned post will stay at the top of your Page’s Timeline for 7 days. After
that, it’ll return to the date it was published on your Page’s Timeline.

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Facebook page management for beginners

Reporting and measurement

What are insights?
Facebook Insights provides Facebook Page admins with metrics on
the performance of their Page. By understanding and analysing trends within
user growth and demographics, consumption of content, and creation of
content, admins and developers are better equipped to improve their business
with Facebook.
You won’t be able to access Facebook Page Insights if your page has less than 30
likes but you can achieve this quite quickly by simple asking people to like your
page. A couple of hours after getting that 30th like, Insights will be available at the
top of your Facebook Page.

Pages insights helps you to:

• Understand the performance of your Page
• Learn which content resonates with your audience
• Optimise how you publish to your audience so that people will tell their
friends about you.
• Export data at page or post level to Excel.
To see metrics on your Facebook Page, go to the Insights Dashboard in the Admin
Panel. Only Page admins can view insights.

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Understanding page insights
The main sections to Facebook Insights include:
• Overview : Stats on Total Likes, Friends of Fans, People Talking About This &
Total Reach.
• Likes: Stats on total likes, unlikes and where likes came from.
• Reach: How many people you are reaching with your posts, both organic and
paid.
• Page Views: When, where and how many people are viewing your page.
• Actions on page.
• Posts: A summary of how your posts are performing and also when your fans
are online.
• Events: Stats on how any event posts performed including engagement and
tickets purchased.
• Videos: Stats on videos your Page has published or shared including the
number of times videos were viewed for 3 seconds / 10 seconds or more and
your Page’s top videos by views.
• People: Stats on who your fans are in terms of age, gender, location etc.
• Messages

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Tourism Northern Ireland,
Floors 10-12,
Linum Chambers, Bedford Square,
Bedford Street,
Belfast BT2 7ES
Tel: +44 (0) 28 9023 1221
Fax: +44 (0) 28 9024 0960
Email: [email protected]