Social media isn’t top of mind for many field service businesses.  But those that are looking to grow their revenue and upgrade their customer profile would be advised to at least consider having a presence on all of the major social media platforms.  Prospective customers look for signs of legitimacy before selecting a field service company and having a professional-looking profile on social networks is a key sign.

Of course, Facebook is one of the largest and most important online social networks.  At last count, over 1.4 billion people around the world are active on Facebook each month.  If you’re like most of our mHelpDesk customers, you don’t really care about everyone in the world–you care about those people in your service area who could benefit from your products and services.

The great news is that a Facebook page – done well – can help you reach those local customers effectively (even without spending any money on advertising).  Below are 5 things you must do to create a great field service Facebook page.  So navigate to Facebook for Business, click on the “Create Page” button, and then follow these tips:

Classify your business correctly:

You know what type of business you run, but Facebook doesn’t.  In order to show up in relevant searches, you need to explicitly classify your business.  Most field service businesses will select “Local Business or Place” at this point.  This will give you more fields to submit

You will also be asked to pick an official name for your Business Page.  This step is very important and not to be taken lightly–you want for it to be as close to the name of your business as possible.  If that name is already in use by another page, you may not be able to select it.  In that case, consider adding your geography (ie, “XYZ Plumbing” becomes “XYZ Plumbing of Springfield”).  It is very difficult to change your page name and URL after you select it, so choose carefully.

Fill out your profile:

This is where you fill out the additional information about your field service business that will appear in the “About” section on your Facebook page, including the URL of your business’s website, a brief description of your business’s products and services, and a “profile picture”.  The profile picture is a small, square image (180 pixels x 180 pixels) that serves as the icon next to any posts in a newsfeed or other places on Facebook.  For fastest recognition by customers, consider using your logo or an image that reflects your services.  

Pick a great cover photo:

While the profile picture will appear several places on Facebook to identify your business and your page, the cover photo only appears on your page, at the top, and serves as an anchor.  The cover photo is very important because it is large and the main brand impression for customers and prospective customers visiting your page.  There are many different types of images to consider using here, including a photo of techs in the field or a landscape view of your equipment.  Here at mHelpDesk, we’ve chosen to highlight our team in our cover photo:

The size and format of the cover photo is much larger, at 851 pixels x 315 pixels.  You can try out a few images by hovering over the camera icon in the top left of the cover photo section on your page.

Add some content:

At this point you’ve got the skeleton of a good page, but you need actual content to make your page worth visiting!  In the first couple weeks after you launch the page, try to add one post per day.  These can be photos of your team, updates on your service offerings, specials you’re running, or links to articles that are relevant to your field.  After you have some content, you can actively invite customers to visit your page, and new people will start finding you through searches.

Keep up the momentum:

There is nothing worse than a stale, dormant social media profile if you’re looking to increase word of mouth.  So be sure to post updates to your page consistently, at least once or twice per week.  This will reassure new visitors, who see your date stamped posts, that you’re still in operation and are relevant.  So leverage your social momentum to create a Facebook habit!

Future posts will address more advanced Facebook techniques, including how often and what to post, how to use “Facebook Insights” and how to advertise to reach new customers.  In the meantime, if you want to learn more about creating a Facebook page for your business (or improving the one you already have), here are some resources:

Marketing on Facebook Starts with a Page from Facebook

How to Create a Facebook Business Page in 5 Simple Steps from Hubspot

10 Steps to Create a Facebook Page That Gets “Likes” from Forbes