Facebook Basics (Episode 54)

The Law Enforcement Social Media Podcast: A Podcast for #LESM Professionals

On this episode of the Law Enforcement Social Media Podcast, Marc kicks it old school and teaches you how to create a Facebook Page.

Create page

• Click on Company, Organization or Institution
• Click on Choose Category and select "Government Organization" and then type the name of your police department below in the "company Name" box, then click "get started."
• At this point, you will now set up your page.

About In this section add a description of your agency and website. This helps with the ranking of your page when someone searches for it. Now click "save info" and you will automatically move onto your profile picture. Note: if you do not click the "save info" button and click on profile picture anything you typed will not be saved. Profile Picture You have the option to upload from a computer or from a website. We suggest you upload from a computer because you want to make sure that your picture is properly sized so that it does not get cut off and is displayed properly. A Facebook profile picture must be at least 180 x 180 px. Your photo will appear on the pages as 160 x 160 px. It will display on a smartphone as 140 pixels. The photo thumbnail will appear throughout Facebook at 32 x 32 pixels. This photo will be the photo representing your police department on Facebook. It will appear on your timeline on top of your cover photo. It will appear everywhere on Facebook. Click here for the complete 2016 Social Media Image Sizes cheat sheet. If you are new to Facebook I'm guessing all these numbers are a foreign language to you, don't worry, we have a quick solution for you. There are several free programs on the internet that allow you to create a photo that is automatically formatted for Facebook. We like Canva, which allows you to create photos specifically for Facebook. Canva also allows you to create a Facebook header photo that fits nicely when you upload it to Facebook. Don’t fit it, use Canva or one of the like programs that takes the guess work out of properly sizing up your photos. Add to Favorites By adding your Facebook Page to your favorites it's easily accessible on your favorites on the left-hand side of your Facebook profile page. Preferred Page Audience Everyone will be able to view your page, but in this section, you can pick which city, state, country, zip code where the people you most want to view your page are located. In this section, you can also pick the age of your viewers, their gender, interests, and languages. You don’t want to limit your audience, so I wouldn’t spend too much time here. Click on save and your page is created. You will now be given a quick tour of the various areas of your page. Settings This is where you will make all the necessary changes to make sure your page is set up and properly secured.