Should You Create a Facebook Business Page? (Updated)

For the past several years, millions of businesses have created Facebook Business pages to promote their services and interact with customers online. Some have even abandoned traditional websites in favor of a Facebook Business page. Which begs the question: should your business have a Facebook page?

The answer, of course, depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

Benefits of Having a Facebook Business Page

There are a few benefits to setting up a Facebook Business page. Facebook pages are easy (and free) to set up, easy for customers to find, and can be a good place to interact with the people who want your services. Social media marketing experts will tell you that every fan who “Likes” your Facebook page is potential revenue for your business. It is essential to have another avenue through which to capture leads, and a Facebook Business page is a great additional avenue.

A Breakdown of How Far Your Facebook Posts Will Reach

But most of your fans never see what you post on your page.

Not having your content reach your fans is a significant drawback, especially if you spend a lot of time on marketing to your Facebook audience or if you depend on Facebook to drive traffic to your business.

According to Facebook, the average post on a Facebook business page reaches just 16% of its fans. That means that if you have 1,000 fans, only 160 of them will see what you post on your page. If you want to reach more, it will cost you.

But in our experience, it’s actually worse than that.

Take a look at the Logomaker Facebook page. We have close to 5,000 fans who have Liked our page. We post new content on our page a few times a week (usually links back to the Logomaker blog). Last week we shared this story about whether a small business really needs a logo. Of our 5,000 fans, only 174 saw that post. That’s 3.5%. Not the 16% Facebooks says.

Of course, more people will see our posts over time, so we went back a month to a post on our Facebook page about logo news from September 17 (a month ago today). 641 people saw that post—less than 13% of all our fans. And it took a month to reach them.

We’ve worked for several years to earn the trust of 5,000 fans, and each time we post something we think they might be interested in, Facebook only shares it with 3-13% of them. If we want more people to see what we post, it costs money to “promote” it to them using Facebook Ads.

Don’t get us wrong. We’re not complaining that Facebook charges to provide this service. All businesses are entitled to make money.

We’re simply pointing out that when you use Facebook (or Instagram, Twitter, or any other social network) to promote your business, you give them control over your ability to reach your customers. And it will rarely be free or inexpensive to reach them all.

How To Improve Your Facebook Posting Strategies

Make sure you have your own small business web page that you can own and control.

You may decide, like millions of other small businesses, that you should have a Facebook Business page. Just understand that it isn’t free. Or even inexpensive. And your efforts will only reach a small number of your online fans.

To improve your user’s experience on your page and to reach more fans and grow your existing following, we recommend hiring a social media management company. A social media management company will perform a deep dive into what types your audience reacts to, when your audience is active, and other key demographic information. They will create content calendars and the creative graphics needed to engage a younger audience.

Not sure how to create a Facebook Business page? Here is a quick step-by-step tutorial on how to get one started and — most importantly — how to add your logo to your Facebook Business page.