[intro] Before you begin this Guide, you need to ensure that you have installed the Social Plugins feature and that you have an existing personal Facebook account you can use to make a Facebook Page to promote your EKM online shop. You will also need to have a domain at your EKM online shop. [/intro]

Created in 2004, the Facebook platform is the biggest social media platform out there and an excellent way of promoting your brand and products both within your physical locality and to potential new customers online. Facebook itself is very insular, so you must have some presence there to advertise yourself to users who perhaps rarely leave Facebook to venture onto other sites without seeing an online recommendation from friends and family first.

A Facebook Page is different from a personal profile; Facebook Pages have been created especially to advertise a business, company, brand, or charity; they can be followed (without a user having to put in a Friend Request) and all of their content is public. This encourages Facebook users to learn about your business, see your products and read reviews from previous customers.

Facebook users cannot see your personal profile via your Facebook Page unless of course, you want them to. Otherwise, when you invite your existing Facebook Friends to like and follow your new Facebook Page, they will get a notification but it will not show whether you are the page owner, or whether you just thought the page would be of interest to them.

[tips]It’s a good idea to prepare your images for your Facebook Page before you begin. You will need a cover image and a profile picture.

Your cover image needs to be 820 pixels wide and 360 pixels tall. It’s highly recommended that you use a photo without text here because this area is responsive, and you risk text or essential information being cropped out when people view your Facebook Page on different devices. You can deal with this quite easily by cropping one of the Design Images from the Homepage of your EKM online shop to size, removing any text and using that as your Facebook page cover photo:

Facebook recommends using .png files for profile pictures and cover photos and if you need a platform to edit your own versions, Canva and Pixlr are both free to use.

Remember, any text that you wanted to add initially to that cover photo can be applied to the relevant fields on your Facebook Page, such as your EKM online shop URL, telephone number and strapline. 

Your profile picture needs to be 180 pixels square: 

Remember that in posts and on Facebook Ads, your profile picture will display as circular:

[/tips]

Linking to the Social Plugins feature

1. To link your Facebook Page to the Social Plugins feature on your EKM online shop, you need your Facebook Page Username. It is visible in the URL when you are viewing your Facebook Page:

2. Copy the Username only (which is everything after ‘Facebook.com/’), and in a separate browser tab. return to the Social Plugins feature within your EKM online shop. Drag the Facebook logo into the lower field: 

3. Then paste in your Facebook Page Username into the field provided:

4. Click the Update button, and this will remove the red warning bar as your Facebook Social Plugin is now correctly configured:

[tips]If you want to manage your Facebook Page from your mobile phone, you will need to install the Pages Manager app and use this separately from the standard Facebook app. [/tips]

[more]

• Features - Social Plugins
• Setting up Facebook and Instagram Shopping
• Populating your Facebook Page

[/more]

[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert or the Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account-specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in the EKM Community. [/contact]