By Dr. Rohi Shetty
“I’m going to open a new Facebook account named ‘Anonymous’
so all the cool quotes will be attributed to me!”
~Clinton Thomas

Your Facebook Profile is your personal account; your Facebook Page is your business account. Ideally, you shouldn’t mix the two because your Facebook friends may not be interested in your writing activities and your readers may not be fascinated by your cat.
I confess I didn’t have a Facebook Page until I was forced to create one last week. (Because you need a Facebook Page to create Messenger chatbots.) That’s when I realized that the unbelievable benefits that writers can gain from a Facebook Page.
The good news is that it’s surprisingly easy to create a Facebook Page. It doesn’t take much time either, and best of all, it is completely free. You can create as many Facebook Pages as you like for different aspects of your business. For example, I plan to create separate pages for my health writing and chatbot marketing.
And here’s the icing on the cake: not only can you edit and update your Facebook Page, you can even delete it, if it doesn’t work out for you.
Create your first Facebook Page within 30 minutes:
Use this 12-step process to set up your first Facebook Page.
Don’t put this off!
Do it right now or block 30 minutes in your calendar to do it today.
- Open the Facebook Create Page site:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
- Choose one among these six categories:
(1) Local Business or Place
(2) Company, Organization, or Institution
(3) Brand or Product
(4) Artist, Band, or Public Figure
(5) Entertainment
(6) Cause or Community
I suggest you choose #3 – Brand or Product. (You can change it later so don’t waste time on this.)
- Next, choose a sub-category from the drop-down list:
For example, I chose Product/Service. (There is no specific sub-category for freelance writing.)
- Finally, write the name of your firm in the sub-sub-category box.
I wrote “Holistic Health Writing Services.” (You can change it later. I’ll tell you how.)
- Click on Get Started and your blank Facebook Page will be automagically created.
- Add a Cover Photo: It is a symbol of your business so you can update it to reflect the changes in your business.
- Add a Profile Picture: It helps people to find your FB Page and to recognize it in posts and comments.
- Add a Short Description: It helps people know about your business or service. Your Page’s short description is displayed near the top of your Facebook Page on both desktop and mobile. More importantly, it appears in search results when people look for you online.
- Complete your profile information: Click on About in the left sidebar and take some time to fill in all the details. This is also where you can change the name and category of your Page.
- Adjust your Page setting: Click on Settings in the top menu bar on your Page, then click Page Info and edit the settings such as visitor posts, age restriction, profanity filter, etc.
- Add a Button to Your Page: Make it easy for people to take action. Choose the button you want to add to your Page such as Book Services, Get in Touch, Learn More, Make a Purchase or Donation, etc. Each of these options has more choices about how and where to contact you.
For example, if you click on Get in Touch, the options are:
- Call now: Enter the phone number to be dialed when people click this button.
- Link to a website or app: What website would you like to send people to when they click this button?
- Send message: People who click this button will start a Facebook message with you.
- Get Quote: Create a form to collect information from people who are interested in your services. This will be sent to you as a message.
- Send an email: What email would you like people to contact when they click this button?
As you can see, “Add a button to your Page” is an exceptionally powerful tool.
- Publish your first post: Add the link to your latest article or post. Then, add a few more posts or links that will be useful or interesting to your readers.
Congratulations!
You have just created your first Facebook Business Page. Invite your family, friends, and readers to “like” your page. Once they do that, Facebook will notify them whenever you post anything on your Page.
Join the conversation.
Have you created your Facebook Page yet?
Paste the link to your Facebook Page in the comments below so that we can check it out.
(21 June 2017)
Rohi Shetty is a doctor, health writer, and editor for hire. Check out his Kindle books at Amazon and connect with him on LinkedIn and his new Facebook Page. His latest passion is building chatbots. Hooyah!
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Welcome back, Aneeta!
Have you scheduled a 30-minute time slot to set up your Facebook Page?
You make it sound so easy, Rohi.
I must work on creating a page.
I must!