Do you need to change your Facebook Page name?  Have you been having trouble finding the how you go about changing your Facebook Page name or URL?

Well have no fear, I’ll show you how to exactly how to get this accomplished (even if it looks like you can’t get it done).

First there are two places that you can “name” your Page.  One is the name that appears on your Timeline and that shows up next to every post in the News Feed.

Changing Your Page Name

You may have chosen a name without realizing how this was going to appear.  If your Page is new or if you have less than 200 Likes, you can easily edit your Page name by accessing your Basic Information in your Page Dashboard.

 

Then you go to your Basic Info and you can easily Edit your name.

 

But if you are re-branding or you just want to tweak your Page name and you have more than 200 Likes you may have the opportunity to make a change 1 time.  I say “may” because this option sometimes doesn’t appear even if you haven’t changed your Page name at some point in the past.

You may see a Request Change link next to your Name as shown here.

 

If you don’t see that Request Change link, you are going to have to go to Facebook Help.  Facebook Help is sometimes very difficult to get any response from.  It will be easier to get your name changed if you have a re-brand with a photo of your website or logo to show your rebranding information.

I recommend submitting your request in two places.  The first one is the Help form for Pages here:  https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/164405897002583

 

I find having a screenshot helps to show your new branding so that Facebook can see that you have made a change.

The second place I recommend submitting a request is to Facebook Ads Help.  Hopefully you are using Facebook Ads from time to time to build your Page and you probably don’t want to advertise your Page if the branding isn’t congruent with your website.

The Ads area seems to be a little more responsive to changes when you tell them that you can’t spend any more money with them until your Facebook  Page name is changed (only do this if you are planning on running an ad campaign).  Submit your request here:  https://www.facebook.com/help/contact?id=615344471812117

 

We did this when we changed our Page www.facebook.com/TheBestKeynoteSpeakers and it took about a week to get it done.  But you may need to submit your request a couple of times if you don’t hear back after a week or so.  Hope those suggestions help!  (Please note, I cannot help with Page Name Changes – you must go through Facebook to get your Page name changed)

Changing Your Page URL or Website Address

The other thing you can change (but it sometimes is challenging) is your Facebook Page URL.  Your URL is the easy and short web address (like www.facebook.com/GrandmaMaryShow).

If you haven’t set your Username yet, go do that right now – it makes it much easier to tell people about your Page.  But BE CAREFUL – this is more difficult to get changed.  Once you set it, the URL is taken and can’t be “released” even if you delete the Page.

It can’t have any spaces between the letter and I don’t recommend putting things like periods or underscores between the words.  Then when you set it, capitalize the first letter of each word.  Even if someone types in the URL without the capital letters it will still go to the right place.

 

If you have already set your URL and need to rebrand, you can sometimes request a one-time change as shown  before.

 

If you don’t have this capability, you will have to go through the same process as outline above with Facebook Help.  I think the URL is as big a deal as making sure your you branding is consistent in your Facebook Page name.  But if your name has changed drastically, then you should get that corrected.

Have you had to change your Page name in the past?  How has it gone for you?  Let me know in the comments (remember I can’t help with actual Facebook Changes, you will need to go to Facebook directly for that.

Are you crunched for time?

Could you use a little Facebook automation in your life? Well, help is here.

Facebook allows you to schedule your page posts.

Many people cheered this feature because Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm and other quirks make using third-party tools like HootSuite or SocialOomph for scheduling your posts less desirable than posting manually.

Let’s dig a little deeper and find out some of the nuances of using Facebook scheduled posts.

First, we will give you the steps to schedule your posts and edit them.

#1: How to Schedule Your Posts

Scheduling is easy—just follow these steps:

• Write your post as you normally would. You can attach photos, add links, add YouTube videos, add tags to other pages and events or just include regular text.
  

 

• In the lower-left corner of your post, click on the clock symbol as shown in the screenshot above. You can now add the year, month, day and time you want the post to go out.
  

Notice that you can also backdate your posts to supplement your Timeline if you wish (more on that later).

You can schedule your post up to 6 months in the future (more months are shown, but if you select more than 6 months out, Facebook won’t accept it). You can schedule the minutes at 00-, 10-, 20-, 30-, 40- or 50-minute marks of the hour. So if you need a post to go out specifically at 2:15 pm, you cannot set it.

• You can also add language and location targeting in your scheduled posts, just like you can in your regular posts. Just click on the Public icon and make the necessary adjustments.

• Once you have everything set, just click the blue Schedule button. Voilà! Now just remember to circle back to your posts later after the scheduled time to watch for follow-up comments!

#2: How to Find and Edit Your Scheduled Posts

To see what you have scheduled and make any changes, just go to your activity log by accessing the admin panel at the top of your page (if you don’t see the admin panel, click the red admin panel button in the upper-right corner), then click Edit Page, and Activity Log. You then see all of your scheduled posts.


If you need to edit your scheduled post, the only thing you can change from here is the time, unfortunately. To edit the text, you must cancel the post and redo your scheduling. To cancel or change the time, mouse over the upper-right corner of the post in the activity log.

#3: You Can’t Schedule Everything

You can schedule links, photos, status updates and videos (although I found scheduling a video to be a bit buggy). You can also schedule a YouTube video link, which will attach as it normally does in your posts.

You can’t schedule some of the other types of posts as you can normally do from the publisher, such as photo albums, posting of events, questions, offers and milestones.

#4: You Can Backdate Your Posts

You can schedule things in the past. I’m not sure why you would want to use the backdating feature other than to fill out your Timeline a bit. But if you have a significant event that you want to post about in the past, I recommend a milestone post instead.

The interesting thing about backdating is that the post does go out into people’s news feed immediately and then is shown at the appropriate place on your Timeline.

#5: Scheduled Posts Won’t be Automatically Tweeted

If you have linked your Twitter account to your Facebook page by setting up www.Facebook.com/Twitter so that everything you post on Facebook gets tweeted (yes, we know that it’s not always a great idea but sometimes it isn’t terrible), be aware that your scheduled posts won’t go out to Twitter.

So if you rely on your Facebook page to supplement your tweets and you move to more scheduled posts, you will have to schedule your tweets with a different tool.

#6: Scheduling Posts Can Bring about More Engagement

What can you expect when you schedule posts? It depends on your baseline right now with your Facebook page—how often you are posting, how engaged your audience is, what you are posting and other factors.

One thing that scheduling can do for you is allow you to post more regularly and increase your posting without spending all day on your Facebook page.

Randi Thompson of How to Market Your Horse Business (and an active member of our Social Networking Clubs) tried an experiment where she upped the number of posts by using scheduled posts on two of her pages.

On her How to Market Your Horse Business page, she went from posting 3 times a day to posting every 3 hours and 5 times a day. Then she had another page, Horse and Rider Awareness, where she was not posting regularly at all. She tried scheduling 3 quality posts per day. Here are her results over a 5-day period.

Now of course this is not a comprehensive study. And this could be done without scheduling posts. But the point is that scheduled posts can make things easier for you so you can batch your work, know that things are being posted at the times you want and you can get on with other parts of your business. I encourage you to try some experiments with scheduled posts on your page and see how things work for you.

And again, make sure you circle back to these posts to follow up on comments!

#7: Scheduled Posts are not Identified or “Punished” in Facebook

When you post from a different scheduling tool such as HootSuite or BufferApp, people can see that you’re posting through a different tool. But Facebook’s scheduled posts are seamless.

Using a different tool to post to Facebook is not all bad. Sometimes it’s much better to save yourself a little time and get the post out with the tool you’re using rather than not post at all.

But Facebook has been known to show posts using third-party tools a little less in the news feed or collapse them. As of this writing, I believe third-party tools are faring well in Facebook. But we all know how Facebook changes.

#8: Scheduled Posts May be Coming to Personal Profiles

The option does appear to schedule a Facebook post on personal profiles, which may be a good thing for people who are using their personal profiles to talk about business. But as of this writing, I could not schedule anything into the future, only for today or in the past.

Not everyone will see big changes by scheduling posts. You still have to deliver engaging Facebook content. But what scheduled posts can do is free up some of your time by allowing you to batch your social media posts into blocks and give you more time to focus on your business.

What are your thoughts? Have you been using scheduled posts? What results have you seen? Tell us in the comments section below!

Note: This post originally appeared on Social Media Examiner and is reposted with permission.

Are you using Facebook for business?  Are you doing it “right”?

Frankly I get a little peeved at all the self-righteous do-gooders who tell you that you are doing it “wrong”.   But I definitely know that there are some no-no’s on Facebook.  While there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” approach, there are some good tactics you can use to improve your strategy.

Make sure you aren’t making these mistakes with your Facebook marketing.  You probably won’t die, but your business could suffer – even worse!  :)

1.  Not posting enough

Not posting enough is the deadly sin I see most often. I see Pages that haven’t been updated in months and sometimes years.  Goodness gracious, if you are going to provide a link to your Facebook Page from your website, make sure that Page is active.  If you have decided that Facebook Marketing isn’t working for your business, just take your Page down.

I recommend posting at least once per day.  Some niches and Pages can do better by posting more often – the sweet spot is often somewhere between 2-5 times per day.  Batch your work by scheduling some of your posts out ahead of time.  I have a great product called the Social Media Success Planning Kit (shameless plug) that can help you create your Editorial and Activity Calendar to help you save time.

2.  Not posting enough helpful content.

Your Page is not there for continually blasting out your marketing messages.  Think of the radio stations you might listen to (ok, used to listen to – who listens to radio anymore?) – would you listen to a station that was all ads?  No!  You’d change the channel and never come back.  Your posts should be 20% marketing messages max (I prefer 10%) and 80% education, helpful tips, and fun.

Sometimes it’s hard to find good content.  I have a blog post that can help:  How to Find the Best Content to Share on Social Media.

3.  Not following Facebook’s rules.

Facebook isn’t policing Pages that tightly.  We’ve all seen rule-breakers from the businesses who have set themselves up as a personal profile (think “JoesCoffee Shop wants to friend you” – no no no) to the Page who is violating the Cover photo rules (which have recently changed, see #6 of this post that will help you set up your Facebook Page the right way).

But just because everyone else is doing it and getting away with it doesn’t mean that you should.  If everyone jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge would you do it too?  No.  Familiarize yourself with Facebook’s rules and keep updated on the changes.  You could be in danger of having your Page shut down and Facebook does it without warning.

Especially watch the contest rules because those are often ignored and will put your Page at risk if you ignore them.  Read this post to get the whole scoop:  3 Tips to Help You Run a Facebook Contest the Right Way.

4.  Closing your Page to comments.

Remember that it’s called “social” media.  Let people talk to you!  Don’t close your page to comments because you are worried about “negative” comments.  Most pages do not get negative comments and if you do, consider it valuable feedback and use it as an opportunity to show that you are listening.

Some industries such as healthcare or financial industries may need to close the page to comments to take regulations into consideration.  If that is the case, mention that in your About Page so people know your reasoning.

5.  Deleting Negative comments.

Do not delete negative comments.  Don’t.  Unless you have a troll.  A troll is someone who attacks you (or the members of your community) and does not respond to attempts to take the situation offline.  Oooo I don’t like those nasties.  This doesn’t mean that the person cannot express their opinion, but if they continually attack you, you can delete and ban them.

Have a written policy on your Page to help you and your community understand how to behave on your Page.  Even though Facebook is an open site, your Page is your sandbox and you make the rules there.  On the Social Media Examiner Page, the rules are written on the About Page.

6.  Not responding to posts.

This is almost as bad as not posting in months.  If someone takes the time to ask a question or post a comment on your Facebook Page, respond!  If someone came to your store and asked a question, you wouldn’t just stare at them.  You would respond or acknowledge them in some way.  If it’s spam, delete it.

7.  Not getting your Fans onto your E-mail list.

This is not a deadly sin.  But this will improve your Facebook marketing dramatically.  You need to tie your Fans into your e-mail list so you can connect with them both on e-mail and on Facebook.  Facebook could go away tomorrow and you would still have the ties to all of your Fans.  Your e-mail list is yours.  But how can you use Facebook to get people onto your list?  Here are some ways:

• Have a special tab with a free report or white paper that you offer your fans.  See my Facebook freebie tab.
• Occasionally post a link to your special freebie landing page and invite people to get it.
• Have a fantastic webinar and post about it on Facebook.  I even have a page where people can listen to some of the best of Andrea’s webinars (I pop in occasionally).  Then I post this link from time to time.
• Run a Facebook contest and let people know when they enter they will be added to your e-mail list.

So there you have it!  Don’t make these Facebook mistakes on your page.  What do you think?  Are there more mistakes that I missed?  Some on this list that shouldn’t be here?  Let Grandma know in the comments below.

And don’t worry too much if you’ve made some of these mistakes – we are all getting better.  We are getting older and wiser, right?  Love ya!

 

Are you ready to show your Facebook Page to the world?  Or is it half done?  I see a lot of Pages that aren’t optimized properly and look incomplete.

When people come to your Page for the first time to check out your business, you only have a short time to make a good impression.  You want them to Like you.

If you want to make sure that you are putting your best foot forward with your Page, take a look at this 10-point Checklist.

 #1  Name Your Page

When you first start a Page the most important part is the Name.  Facebook Search is not that robust and if people are searching for your Page, the name will be the most critical piece to help your Page come up in the search.

If you have a brand or official company name, then it is easy – just choose that name.  But if you are just starting out and not sure how you are branding yourself, then it can be more challenging.

 

Think about how someone might be searching for you on Facebook.  If you are a Realtor, or Author, you may choose to brand that part of your business such as “Andrea Vahl – Author”.  Here are a couple other tips:

• Have proper spaces between words.  I’ve seen Pages that are titled “Andreavahlcoaching” for example.  Unless your “brand” name has the spaces removed, don’t remove them yourself.
• Don’t add the .com to the end  I’ve also seen Pages named “Andreavahl.com” which doesn’t make sense unless you are branding your business that way and that is the official name of your business.
• Don’t make the Page name too long.  You have a limit of 70 characters for your Page Name.  But that can be a bit long.  Keywords can be good to use in a Page name since that will help it come up in the Facebook searches better.  But it can look a little strange to have a Page name with too many keywords stuffed into the title such as “Andrea Vahl – Speaker, Author, Coach, Consultant, Improv Comedienne”.
• If your brand has unusual capitalization, you may have to submit a request to Facebook.  Facebook initially requires standard capitalization of words.  So if your name is WidgetPro, you’ll have to submit a request with documentation of your brand name to Facebook Help.

If you need to adjust your Page name, you can do that up until the point where you have 200 Likes by going to Edit Page, Update Info from your Admin Panel.

 

If you have more than 200 Likes, you may be able to Request a change right from your Page.  You are allowed one Request from your Page.  If you don’t have this Request Change link, you will have to go through Facebook Help to request a change and provide documentation of your company name (usually a utility bill or something like that).

 

#2  Choose the best Category and Sub-category

The Facebook Categories that are available to you are not optimal.  You can change your Category easily from your Update Info section.   The Category affects what type of information you are able to display on your Facebook Page.  If you choose Local Business, you will be able to display the hours you are open.

Many businesses will either fall under “Companies and Organizations” or “Brands or Products” but go in and check the options because they do change.  They recently added Websites & Blogs as a Category.

 

The Categories don’t make a big difference in how your Page comes up in Searches but it does affect Local Businesses a little more in the new Facebook Graph Search.  Read more about how to optimize your Page for Graph Search.

#3  Choose “Local Business” as Category if you have a Physical Location

If you don’t have a physical location with set hours, don’t choose Local Business.  When you create a Local Business Page, you will also automatically create a Place where people can check-in.  If you work out of your home, even if you are focused on only local clients, don’t put your home address in!

#4  Do not pick a Topic for your Official Page

Many people put in a “Topic” for their Official Page.  What this does is set up your Page as a “Community Page” about that topic.  For example if you choose your Topic to be Yoga, it will then display your Page as a Community Page about Yoga.  You don’t want your Page to be categorized this way because it doesn’t accurately reflect your business.

 

#5  Optimize your Profile Picture

Your Profile picture is 180 pixels by 180 pixels and then it sizes down to 160 x 160.  If you have an oblong logo, it can look a little strange.  It’s best if you can have something designed that is square if possible to have it show up a little better.  But if that isn’t possible, make sure you are choosing the best look for your profile photo.

You can edit your profile photo by going to Edit Page, Update Info, then Profile Picture.

 

You can also adjust your profile picture by mousing over the profile photo on your Page and clicking the pencil icon then selecting Edit Thumbnail.  Drag the photo around in the thumbnail to adjust what is visible.  You can also click Scale to Fit if your image is oblong.

 

#6  Have an Interesting Cover Photo.

Your Cover photo is going to be critical with the new Facebook News Feed.  You want your cover photo to draw people into your business.  But there are a lot of restrictions around what you can have on your Cover photo.

Update!  The only rule now is the 20% text rule!  Facebook’s Cover Photo terms state that cover photos cannot include:

• Images with more than 20% text
• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it on socialmusic.com”
• Contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section;
• References to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features; or
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”

If you can have a little more information about what your business does such as a tagline, that is ideal.  But it’s a little more challenging with the 20% text rule.  Test out your Cover Photo with this handy post from PostPlanner.

#7  Optimize Your About Section

First, make sure you have an enticing About section on your Timeline since that is the most visible.  You have about 155 characters that appear in the About section under your Cover photo.  Include a link to your website so that people can easily click over to your website (using Facebook to drive traffic to your site is a good thing).

You can have a call to action in your About section, just not in your Cover photo.  So you may want to tell people to go get a free report, get a special coupon, or try a free sample and then give them the site where they can do that.

To edit your About Section, you can go to Edit Page, Update Info and then adjust the “Short Description”.

 

Then make sure your full About Section is optimized.  This page is indexed in Google so make sure it has plenty of keywords.  The layout will vary depending on the Category you have chosen.  Mari Smith does an excellent job of highlighting her products and showcasing what she does on her About section.

 

#8  Check your Permissions

Make sure you know what people are allowed to post on your Page but selecting Manage Permissions under the Edit Page option in the Admin Panel.  I like to keep my page fairly open and haven’t had any problems with people posting strange things.  But I do like to keep the Profanity setting on medium.

And watch out for the pitfalls around restricting access to your Page.  Your Like box may not show up on your website if you have set up age restrictions or country restrictions in place (learn more here:  Why Your Like Box Is Not Showing Up)

 

#9  Optimize your Apps and App Cover Photos

Having a well-branded, interesting Page includes having Apps on your Page.  Now if you are just starting out, you may be overwhelmed by this step and it’s not critical that you immediately install a bunch of Apps.  But it is a good idea to have an App on your Page that helps you build your e-mail list.

If you already have some Apps on your Page, make them more visually appealing  by changing the Cover photo.  Brand the tab cover photos to match your main Cover photo to draw the eye to them.

First you will need to design a tab cover photo that is 111 pixels by 74 pixels.  You can have a call to action in the tabs so you can tell people to “Get a free coupon” or “Sign up now” using text in the photo.

To change the tab cover photo, click the down arrow on the right side of the apps, then mouse over the upper right corner of the tab and click the pencil icon.  Then click Edit Settings.

 

Now you can select Change next to the Custom Tab Image and you will be able to upload your new Custom Tab image.  And you may want t0 give your tab a Custom Tab Name, too!

 

#10  Post to your Page regularly!

Nothing’s worse than a Page that looks like a ghost town.  No new posts for 3 months, no comments, no interaction (and probably a lot of spam posts).  Make sure you are posting regularly – I suggest at least once a day if possible.  You aren’t going to attract people to your business if you don’t use your Page, and if you aren’t going to use it, you might as well delete it or Unpublish it so it’s not sitting around collecting spam.

Need more help?

How about you, is your Page show ready?  Do you want more help on how you can make the most out of your Facebook Marketing and really start to take advantage of Facebook for your business?

Introducing…

A Facebook course designed with the beginner in mind.

If you need extra marketing help but feel overwhemed by figuring out what you need to do, then this course is for you.

We are going to ease you onto the Facebook Marketing super-highway in a step-by-step fashion that will feel good and actually be fun!

I’m already getting great feedback on the course.
“@AndreaVahl You rock! Thanks for a great#Facebook course. Five videos with bonuses. Starting with Growing FB now!”

“The info in here is really great stuff!  So excited”

With this course you get:
5 modules of over 9 hours of video tutorials (broken down into manageable bite-sized chunks)

• Understanding Facebook
• Creating a Killer Facebook Page
• Growing Your Page
• Adding to Your Page and Promoting Your Products
• Introduction to Facebook Advertising
• Over 15 downloadable documents to reinforce and expand the lessons
• 4 supplemental bonuses

And the best part is you also get LIFETIME membership in my special Facebook Private group.

All for only a one-time fee of $97.  Get all the details here:  http://fb-onramp.com

Hope to see you in the group!

 

Do you want more of your content shared on Facebook?

Are you wondering how to make it easy for people to share your site or blog content on Facebook?

Which Facebook widgets are best?

Facebook not too long ago introduced the Facebook Recommendations Bar—which is different from the Facebook Recommendations Box—and the Like Button and the Like Box.

But what are the differences and how do you decide what will work best for you? And then how do you install them?

[Read more...]

Do you have Facebook Graph Search yet?  Are you wondering how you can use it?  If you want my one-word analysis, here it is:  meh.  It’s definitely a big improvement over Facebook’s previous search capability but I’ve tried searching on a lot of different keywords and haven’t come up with the results that I think I should.

I definitely think it benefits local places and restaurants the most as far as businesses go.  It’s also good if you have your keywords directly in the title of your Page.  But it’s not finding relevant Pages based on keywords in the about section.  The other thing it’s really good for is stalking other people.  So this is a good reminder to review your privacy settings and we’ll talk about that more in just a bit.

That all being said, there are a few interesting things you can do with it.  Take a look at these three ways you can use the Graph Search and watch my video tutorial for a live demo on how these things work.

[Read more...]