A Facebook page can be a great way for towns to share updates and news with the town’s residents. But how do you go about setting up a Facebook page? The good news is that setting up a Facebook page may be easier than you think. Here’s how you can get started.
A Facebook page can be a great way for towns to share updates and news with the town’s residents. But how do you go about setting up city facebook pages? The good news is that setting up a Facebook page may be easier than you think. Here’s how you can get started.
In order to set up a business page, you must first have a personal Facebook account. If you don’t have a Facebook account, you’ll need to set one up. Don’t worry about your personal Facebook account and your city facebook pages getting mixed up. The pages will be completely separate. And there will be an option that will let you post to the new page under your town’s name –not your personal one!
Once you’re logged into your personal Facebook account, navigate to “Create Page” in the upper right hand corner.
Next, you can choose from a number of options that you feel suits your municipality best. You may want to select from the “Community, Organization, or Institution” section, and select Organization from the drop down menu. Next, there will be an option to fill in the “name of your business,” or in your case, the name of your municipality.
Next, Facebook will walk you through a series of questions about your municipality. Fill in the sections with as much detail as possible. You’ll also have the option to upload a profile picture and banner image. Try to find a photo that closely represents your city –such as a logo, local flag, or other local symbol. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect –you can always come back and edit this information later.
Once you have finished creating your municipality page, you will be able to access your city facebook pages by going to the top right hand corner and selecting your page from the drop down menu. From there you can edit, change, or post on the page on the municipality’s behalf. You can also add editors, admins, and other monitors from this location.
Once you’re finished creating your page, you may want to set up groups from time to time from your municipal page. In this case, you have the option to have an open group –or a closed forum that allows only members who have been added to see or contribute content. To help you decide which is best for your municipality, here are some pros and cons of both open and closed groups and forums.
An open group allows anyone to post, contribute, or read content that has been posted or shared. They don’t require a moderator to approve requests for others to join and generally have fewer restrictions. This opens the door to more opinions and potentially a wider perspective as well. Open groups tend to gain members quickly due to the lack of restriction. While this can be good, it can also lead to potential problems –especially if certain members who may be opinionated tend to flock to these groups since there are few restrictions. It can also be easy for things to quickly go out of control. It is also difficult to control the members in an open group, and once problems start to arise –it can be difficult to get a handle on things.
On the other hand, a closed or private group is a group where only certain members can contribute, view, or see the content. A closed group can give the feeling of trust to the members, since the members are only allowed in once they have been approved –and the information isn’t open for all to see. It also can help created a sense of intimacy among the users –and keep things more personal and civil. A closed group also helps to cut down on flame wars. However, closed groups also require a trusted person to monitor and approve membership requests, and generally require more management, and monitoring to keep things running and operating smoothly.
Ready to set up your city facebook pages? If you have any questions about setting up a Facebook page, head over to Facebook for instructions and a video tutorial. For more information on website design for municipalities, visit Town Web Design.
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