How to Create Facebook Pages

If you don’t have one already, a Facebook Page is necessary for your school to increase awareness and generate inquiries from Facebook. With over 2.7 billion active users, there’s a very good chance you will reach and connect with parents on Facebook.

Facebook’s machine-learning algorithm takes more than 100,000 factors into account. It uses these factors to determine which posts will appear in your followers’ newsfeeds. How you set up your Page will impact the performance of your media.

Here are 8 steps for setting up an outstanding Facebook Page for your school.

1. Decide Whose Personal Profile to Use

Determine whose Personal Profile to use as a base for your Business Page. You can add Users to your Page once you’ve gone through the initial set up steps, but every Page must be connected to a Personal Profile. I’ve seen schools have issues because their school’s Page was connected to someone who left, so try to choose someone who is expected to be accessible permanently.

2. Initiate Your Page

Once you’re logged into your (or someone else’s) Personal Profile, go to Home. From the homepage, select Create > Page.

From here, you will need to select your Business Name. Usually, schools use the formal name of their school.

Then, you will need to choose a Category for your Page. This will help people find your Page when they Search.

You can choose from six major categories; each has its own subcategories. The category you choose will allow you to have specific features. Choosing the Local Business Category will give you access to all of the Page features, such as:

• Short description
• Website link
• Email address
• Phone
• Address
• Map
• Check-ins
• Ratings & Reviews

You can change your primary category as often as you choose. However, if you change from a Local Business to another category, you will lose your reviews, map and check-ins.

Choosing the Local Business category will allow people to check-in at your location and leave reviews. These features are not available with any other category selection.

3. Add Your School’s Details

If this is your first time to set up a Facebook Page for your school, you’ll be taken through a wizard (an automated guide that walks you through the setup steps) to set up your information.

Note: if you don’t want your Page visible while you’re setting it up, navigate to Manage Page > Settings > Page Visibility > Edit > Check “Page unpublished”. This will ensure only people with a Role will be able to view your Page.

If you selected the Local Business or Place category, you will be able to add detailed information, such as:

• Name
• Username (this will become your custom URL)
• Sub-category (you can select “School”)
• Contact information (phone number, email, website)
• Location (you can opt into additional location details)
• Service area
• Hours
• Logo (180 x 180 pixels)
• Your preferred audience
• A link to your Privacy Policy
• Add extra details to “Impressum”
• Products (this is a good place to enter your school’s offerings)
• Additional information (add your official description, what makes your school special, achievements or anything else you’d like to include here)
• Price range
• Link other accounts (I usually link Instagram)

4. Edit Your Page Settings

Once you’ve completed your Page’s Info section, you’re ready to address the Settings.

Go through each General Setting and adjust according to your preferences.

One main setting to consider is Notifications. This setting will address how you get notifications from your Facebook Page.

Another setting to adjust is Page Roles. Page Roles allows you to add Page Roles based on the type of Permissions you want each person to have.

5. Create a Cover Banner

A cover banner is a graphic at the top of your Page. The cover banner sizing is a little tricky because only a section of the banner will be visible on mobile phones. The overall banner size visible on desktop is 820 x 312 pixels, but the section that will be visible on mobile is 640 x 360 pixels.

For graphics with a logo or text, consider saving the file in PNG format for better resolution.

One very attractive technique is to use the Slideshow feature for your Facebook Page Cover Banner.

Here’s how to set a slideshow up for your Cover Banner:

• Design up to 5 photos or graphics you want to use. Use the sizing listed above (820 x 312, keeping in mind 640 x 360 will be visible on mobile).
• Login to your Facebook Page.
• Click on the Edit icon on the Cover Banner.
• Choose “Edit Slideshow” from the drop-down menu.
• Now you can edit/upload and choose the graphics you want to use.
• Click “Save Changes”.

6. Add a Call-To-Action (CTA) Button

Under your Cover Banner (next to your Logo), you will see an option to set up your Call-To-Action button.

The CTA button is an effective way of helping people take the next step in contacting your school. You can opt to have people:

• Schedule an appointment (select “Book Now”)
• Contact your school (select “Call Now, Contact Us, Send Email, Send Message or Sign Up”)
• Download your app (select “Use App”)
• Watch an informational video or read more about your school (select “Learn More” or Watch Video”)
• Shop for school merchandise on your website (select “Shop Now”)

Here’s how to set up a CTA Button:

• Click + Add a Button
• Select the action you want visitors to take
• Follow the on-screen instructions depending on the action you select.
• Click “Save”.

7. Publish Some Posts

You will want to publish some posts to your Page so people can get an idea of the types of updates you’ll be making. You can choose between:

• Text posts
• Links
• Photos
• Videos

At this point, if you previously set your Page to an Unpublished status, you will want to Publish it so it is visible.

8. Get Inspired

If you need ideas for your Facebook Page, consider checking out these SchneiderB Media articles:

• 7 Ways to Get Likes for Your Facebook Business Page Without Spending Money
• 16 Outstanding Ways to Increase Engagement on Facebook
• Top 18 Favorite Facebook Tools for School Marketers

One tool you can use to derive inspiration for Facebook Pages is the SocialBakers Facebook Statistics Page. This page allows you to search for the most popular Pages by Categories (go to Society > Education) and by country. Since these are the most popular Facebook Pages, you can look to them for ideas for a cover banner, page info, aesthetics and post types.

That’s it! Now you can start engaging and connecting with your target audience on Facebook!

Do you have any insights about setting up a Facebook Page for school marketing purposes? Please share with the rest of the school marketing community in the comments below.