Once you’ve designed the basic structure of your Facebook Page, you want to make sure it reaches the right people.
Click “Edit Page Info” in the white bar near the top, to the left of Settings. This will open up several pieces of information you might not have filled in while creating the page, including a short description of your business, your contact information and your website address.
There are other important elements here, especially your service area.
This is where you can add nearby municipalities you intend to serve with your small business.
Start typing the names of these nearby communities and select them one-by-one.
Once complete, you can fill in your operating hours so that Facebook will inform visitors if you are open or closed when they find your Page.
Messaging is the next piece to configure. Messenger is the popular conversation App that’s tied to Facebook. Think of it as a text messenger.
Under General Settings, do yourself a favor and make sure the “Use the return key to send messages” is off, at least at first.
People often hit the enter key when they want to begin a new paragraph – but when the setting is on, hitting the enter key will send your message.
STARTING A MESSENGER CONVERSATION SETTINGS
This is where you are able to input a message that guests to your page will see when they prepare to send you a note. To the right of “Show a Greeting,” make sure it says “on.”
When a customer decides to reach out to you, they’ll click the Send Message button. This opens up the Messenger dialogue box, where that customer can see a message that you set here under the setting “Starting a Messenger Conversation.”
Facebook will automatically provide a general greeting which you can use, or you can change the greeting to whatever you would like it to say.
Note that you are allowed 160 characters for this greeting.
Below the greeting, there is a selection “Add Personalization.”
Here, you can input the name of the person who is reaching out to your business, either their full name, their last name or their first name. You don't need to know the names themselves - Facebook will populate the automated message with the names of the person messaging you.
After saving the message settings, note the link that is provided. This link will open the Messenger dialogue, and it can be used on your website, brochures or elsewhere.
There is also the option to add a Messenger dialogue box to your website, which would make it simple for potential customers to get in touch with you through Facebook when they are viewing your website.
You can also set up an automated reply for those who send a message to your page.
For example, you may be in the middle of a project when someone reaches out.
You don’t want this potential customer to think they’re being ignored so you can add a message that states: “Thanks for contacting me! I’m probably helping a customer right now, but your message is important to me. Leave a note and I’ll get right back to you.”
Find the right tone and message for your business and then click “Set up automated responses” and follow the prompts.
You can also set up “away messages,” if you want, so that guests sending a message to your page will be informed that you are not available but will get back to them once you are.
In the event there are several people allowed to send messages as your page, you can select the next setting “Show who’s sending messages on behalf of your page” and complete the steps.
