Getting Started with a Facebook Page For Your Organization – Part 1

by Joanna Pineda Posted on February 17, 2009

facebook After last week’s webinar on “Creating a Social Networking Strategy For Your Organization,” clients and attendees asked me how they should get started with social networking. It can be a daunting task when you consider all the platforms, and the additional work needed to keep the pages populated.  A simple way to get started is to create a Facebook for your organization or company.

In a future post, I’ll share ways that we’ve helped clients create successful Facebook pages that are distinct from their Web sites.  In the meantime, if Matrix Group can help you navigate the social network maze, be sure to drop us a line.

P.S. Here are some posts you might find helpful – Updated 2017:

I hope you find these posts helpful as you set-up and manage your Facebook page. Please do keep commenting and send me suggestions for topics you’d like me to blog about in the future!

129 replies on “Getting Started with a Facebook Page For Your Organization – Part 1”

When I link to my public facebook business page from the facebook badge on my blog, the link goes to my public page the first few times I click on it. However, then the link switches back to the edit (not public) business page. Of course, I don’t want visitors to go to that link!

Why is this happening and what can I do about it?

AB, I’m not sure what you’re trying to do, but if you’re trying to include a link in an update, you might be including some extra characters in the link. Here’s what I recommend:

* When entering an update, click on the Link icon so that you get a URL field to enter the URL
* Instead of http://www.uwlalumni.org/whatsnew.htm%E2%80%9D, you should enter http://www.uwlalumni.org/whatsnew.htm
* Instead of http://foundation.uwlax.edu/giving_form.php?campaign=1%E2%80%9D, you should enter http://foundation.uwlax.edu/giving_form.php

I tried the links that I listed above and they both rendered fine for me. Good luck. I hope this is the answer you were looking for.
Joanna

Ilene, I recommend a couple of things.

* If you haven’t already done so, be sure to get a vanity URL for your Facebook page. Go to http://www.facebook.com/username to get your vanity URL. You need at least 25 fans to get a vanity URL.

* With a vanity URL, you will always be certain that you are linking to the proper URL. For example, when linking to the Matrix Group Facebook page, I know that I should always link to http://www.facebook.com/MatrixGroup

* Know that when clicking on links in Facebook, the URLs are not always reliable. Sometimes, if I click on my profile after having just visited the MatrixGroup Facebook page, I get a long, strange URL that includes the MatrixGroup name, even though I’m in my own profile!

Hope this helps. Good luck.
Joanna

Wow–you’re really prompt in answering! Thanks so much! But how do I get 25 fans in order to get a vanity URL when I don’t have a public URL for my business site to send people to? All I am able to get to is the edit page and I don’t want people to have access to that page. I just seem to be at a complete standstill until I can safely link to my business page.

I am an admin for our FB Business Page. Any information on how to receive notifications for your Page? I get my personal notifications when someone comments on a post or posts something on my personal page, but nothing when someone posts on our Fan Page! I need to keep up to date with new posts for business purposes – how can i do this without scrolling through all the old posts every day?

I tried to create a business page and then had to create a second personal page for myself in order for it to work (which you address above). When I sign on to FB, using my business sign in and password, it takes me to that new, bogus, personal file , and then I have to type in my organization in the search box, in order to pull up my business page to view or edit. Is that normal? Why can’t I pull up my business page directly?

Hi Barb. Here’s how to access your business page. Make sure you are logged in personally using the account that is the admin on the business page. Then click on Account in the top right corner, then select Manage Pages. You will see your business page in the dropdown list; select it to go directly to your business page.

Also, don’t forget that once you have 25 fans, you can request a vanity URL by going to http://www.facebook.com/username for your business page. Once you have the vanity URL, you can quickly go to your business page by going directly to that URL.

Hope this helps. Good luck!
Joanna

Great site here and appreciate what you do in answering questions.

A quick one, I hope. I have followed the protocol for adding hyperlinks to my FaceBook Note posts but they do not seem to be live. They produce the pointer when you hover over them but no link when you click on them.

For example: http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=157391544297787&notes_tab=app_2347471856#!/note.php?note_id=102249403179093

I have searched everywhere and double check the code.

Thanks in advance,

-Tarry

Maybe you should edit the page subject Getting Started with a Facebook Page For Your Organization | The MatriX Files to more suited for your content you write. I enjoyed the blog post all the same.

Hey Joanna
baffled by the instructions about publishing the page. Facebook says this has to be done, and the option should be in Edit Page, but I don’t get this option anywhere. Any ideas? cheers

I use to be able to upload photos in my organisations FACEBOOK page which I manage. Now I cannot find the UPLOAD PHOTOS tab on the Wall. Its gone. How can I upload photos now.

Hi Peni. If your Facebook fan page is now using the format, here’s how to upload photos:
* select Photos from the left menu; you will see a page with all of your albums with cover photos
* select Upload Photos from the top right; there’s a button to do this

Good luck!
Joanna

Great post and so many useful comments and replies Joanna. My question is: i have multiple clients who want Facebook business pages and want me to create and manage them. Will I need to create a pretend personal page for each client that I want to create a business page for?

e.g. John Doe at Greasy Burgers wants a Greasy Burgers Facebook page. Do I create a pretend page for him John Doe on Facebook and then create his Greasy Burgers page and manage it through the fake John Doe account?

I made a buisness page connected to my personal profile, I dont mind becuase im the only one dealing with it. but I already made a shorter url for my personal page and now it wont let me do it for my buissness page bc it say i already have one yet this one takes me to my personal page so I cant put that on a buisness card or anything. And I dont want to start a new one bc I might loose alot of the people who have already liked my page and it would be a hassel to ask them all to like this page now.

hi, i am trying to create a page and an account for my organisation which is a ngo its the volunteers acccount, however i am being asked for personal data. what i would like to know is what name will show up on the page, the business or my name?

Hi,
I live in a community with tons of residents and small shopping centers. I would like to create a page that would allow the residents and businesses to communicate with each other; one that would allow the residents to know what the businesses have to offer. I also have a business that I would like to advertise on the page. Should it be set up as a Business/organization or community? Or, what would you advise? I know that once you make a mistake, you can’t change it, so I would like to know the best way to go about setting it up. Thanks for your help.

1. I have a personal facebook account and set up my business account from there. However, when I try to link my FB page to my website it pulls my personal info, pictures and such, not my business page. How can I fix this?
2. I want my business page to have the like button that requires anyone that gets on it to “like” it before they can view the content. I have viewed countless videos on how to do this, but they all seem to be older and do not apply to the new FB. How do I do this?

Thank you,

I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was curious what all is required to get setup? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?

I’m not very web savvy so I’m not 100% positive. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

I thank you in advance for the sharing of your expertise! I’ve just created a new Facebook page for a non-profit organization. The previous page (a group page with an address that had a slew of numbers instead of their name) they had included a tab for “Files” where I could upload PDF and Word documents for members’ viewing. This new page I created is missing those tabs. I’m not particularly familiar with Facebook pages, but I fear I have created the wrong type of page. Any insight you can give me would be appreciated. We need to be able to offer PDF files for the group’s members.
Thank you,
Gwen

I opened a Facebook page for my son’s Cub Scout organization. Is there a way to allow others to post photos to an album? Also, is there a way to transfer this page to someone else since it is attached to my personal page? What is my best option? Thanks!!

Hi Bianca. Thanks so much for your comment. Yes, you can allow others to post photos by switching to managing the page, then clicking Edit Settings –> Manage Permissions. You’ll see an option to allow others to post photos to the wall.

And if you want someone else to become the admin for your page, make that person an admin, then remove yourself as admin. Facebook pages are great that way. Even though you log in as yourself, your personal profiles get attached as admins to Facebook pages. Which means you can have multiple admins and you can change admin rights as needed. Good luck.

Made a FB profile for a place of worship.Dont need friends,anybody interested should like the page and stay updated.Timeline shows prospective friends,but dont want to see that as no friends need to be contacted.How to remove the details “People You May Know ”
Box on the right of the FB Timeline.Thanks.

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