How (And Why!) To Embed A Facebook Post

Facebook has recently given business page users the ability to embed posts into their blog or web site.

It's very easy to do, and it's something that you definitely should do whenever you have a popular post that really gets some traction on Facebook.

I'll talk about the 'Why?' a little later, but first to the 'How?'.

Step-By-Step Guide To Embedding Posts

Step 1: Navigate to the post that you wish to embed and hold your cursor in the top right hand corner so that a little, grey, downwards arrow appears:

Step 2: Click the arrow to make the full menu appear.

Select 'Embed Post' as shown in the image below:

Step 3: Facebook will now give you the code that you need to embed the post.

Step 4: It looks complicated, but don't worry, all you need to do is 'copy and paste' it:

Step 5: You now need to paste this code into your blog or web site. If you're using Blogger you will need to click the HTML toggle button as seen below:

If you use Wordpress, you will need to click on the 'Text' button on the top right hand side of your post:

Step 6: In some cases you may find that you need to centre the post on the page.

If you need to do this just add <center> before the code starts, and </center> at the end (as seen below) and that will sort out the alignment issue:

That's it you're done!

Your embedded post will look like this:

Post by Clixeo.com.

Why You Should Use Embedded Posts

I have seen embedded posts used very effectively by businesses.

Facebook is an excellent place to ask questions - such as 'Which social media outlet works best in your business?' or 'What do you consider to be customer service best practice?'.

Once you get your audience talking, you have got some great content for a blog post.

So embed that post on your blog, incorporate all the great comments that your audience added on Facebook and the two media will feed each other.

People will find your blog and can then add to the debate on Facebook.

People will see the debate on Facebook and check out your blog.

Embedded posts are a superb way of beginning great conversations and then taking that momentum and engagement and bringing it over to your blog or web site.

The Biggest Concerns For All Businesses Using Facebook

One of the biggest concerns that I hear from small business owners when teaching them how to use Facebook is 'What about privacy'.

They're understandably concerned that if they start to market on Facebook, their customers will be able to find their personal profile page with pictures of their children, their wild nights out or their embarrassing hobbies.

As with all things in life, if you take the trouble to learn how to use Facebook properly, the solution to this problem is really simple.

 

Facebook does provide all the controls that you need to use to manage privacy matters fully, and I regularly publish family photos on Facebook, but I lock all my private posts down so that only the people I want to see my content are actually able to view it.

Safe Business Pages Step 1: Don't Use Your Personal Profile

The first step to separating business and personal on Facebook is to set everything up correctly.

That means using your personal profile for family and friends use and your business page for business use.

On a personal profile people have to use 'friend requests' ... you are the gate keeper, nobody can be admitted to your personal profile unless you give them permission.

When you post content on your personal profile, use 'Friends' (not 'Public') as your default post visibility option:

Use lists or 'Custom' to lock down content and don't allow people to 'Follow' you and adjust the privacy settings to be as open or private as you wish:

Safe Business Pages Step 2: Adjust Your Settings

On a business page, anybody can find and 'Like' a page, it is 'public facing' so clearly, you will not use this type of page to publish personal information.

You can still, however, lock down many settings on your business page and you should do so, to get it running the way that you want it:

Safe Business Pages Step 3: Sort Out Your Page Admins

I recommend that every page has at least one additional page admin 'just in case'.

If your personal profile was suspended for any reason, or even deleted in error, if you have a second trusted page admin, you can continue to operate your page whilst sorting out the problem with your own account.

The rule of thumb for giving somebody full admin access is 'would I trust this person with my credit card?'.

If not, don't make them an admin.

The Biggest Facebook Concern - Solved!

I've saved the best until last!

Most businesses worry that because their personal profile is connected to a business page the two are 'linked' in some way.

Well, that's certainly true, but they can be easily unlinked so that there is no connection between a personal profile and business page other than via you as the page admin.

To do this, first go to your business page settings:

Next navigate to the 'Featured' area:

Finally, either add or remove yourself as a featured page owner, as seen below:

In my own business, for reasons of transparency, I am happy to leave my personal profile connected to my business pages.

However, I only do this because my personal profile settings are completely locked down and you will not be able to find my Facebook images and posts in the public domain, so I have assured my privacy that way.

In addition, I only accept as friends people who I know personally, so once again, only people that I know get access to my personal info, and even then, I still protect many posts so that only family or individuals can view them. 

I recommend this approach as I personally feel that it is more transparent for a business, but if this personal/business connection really bothers you, this is how you sever the link.

By only ever posting as yourself or your business page, this way both entities can remain entirely separate.

How To Create Your First Business Page On Facebook

With well over 1 billion users using Facebook, this represents a massive opportunity for all businesses, whatever their size, niche or type.

So how do you get started as a business on Facebook?

Well, the good news is that you really don't need to ship in a team of technical experts ... it's no harder to create a page for your business than it is to create a page for yourself.

Important Alert!

I used to see this problem a lot when I first started using Facebook for marketing in 2009. In the early 'gold rush' days of Facebook, many people used 'cheats' - whether knowingly or not - that are against Facebook's terms and conditions.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms

The key points here are:

• You should only have one personal profile
• That personal profile should use your real name
• You should use Facebook pages for your business, not your personal profile

I see it much less frequently these days, but I have met several people now who built their business on a personal profile only to have it terminated without mercy by Facebook - and losing all their followers in the process!

I think Facebook users are much better informed about the dangers these days ... but just in case, make sure that you do this correctly!

Step-By-Step Guide

Creating your first business page is simple ... and remember, it's also free.

Step 1: Log in to your Facebook account

Step 2: Click on the menu link on the top right hand side of the page, then select the 'create page' option:

Step 3: You will now be presented with the options below. Usually you'll select one of the three highlighted options, whichever is most suitable for your business.

Do not use a brand name unless you own that brand or have paid for official licensing rights.

Take care and advice also if creating a page that is based around a music star, celebrity, TV programme or something similar.

You need to make very clear that you are not acting in any official capacity and also take note that you may be required to remove your site if you misrepresent or pass yourself off as 'official' in any way.

Step 4: Read and accept Facebook's Terms And Conditions for business pages.

These are pretty brief and straightforward, but it's time well spent learning what is and is not permissible.

My view on this is it would be a terrible thing to build up a brilliant community on Facebook only to lose it all because you didn't follow a few simple rules.

Step 5: Make sure that you complete the page information section fully because this is where you can make the most of Facebook as a brilliant SEO power tool.

Tip: You should make sure that (without keyword stuffing!) your keywords are included in the description area.

Depending on your business type, you might even use your geographical location here.

Make sure that you add your web site links to (this is how you drive Facebook web traffic to your main site) and take great care when selecting your unique Facebook web address too.

These are difficult to change but, most importantly, you get to ride on the coat tails of the 2nd most popular web site in the universe, make sure it counts for your SEO purposes!

Step 6: Add your profile picture.

Remember that these are displayed quite small most of the time, so make sure that it works well in your Timeline feed.

For businesses, it's fine to use a professional face picture if you're the 'face' of your business, but logos are fine too.

Step 7: Add your page to your 'Favourites' for future easy access or just 'Skip' for now:

Step 8: Skip ad creation for now!

I don't recommend that you promote your new business page until you have some decent content to share.

At the moment your page looks a little sparse, so keep it quiet for a little while longer.

Step 9: Add a cover image to really make your business page stand out.

This needs to be 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall.

You can use a photograph for this or use a service like TimelineCoverBanner.com.

That's it, you're done!

You have just created your first business page on Facebook.