Most Facebook Pages are set up in five minutes and then cause problems for years. The setup below takes about half an hour and avoids the two mistakes that actually cost South African businesses money: losing ownership of the Page, and building it so nobody can contact you from it.

1. Start with Business Manager, not the Page

Go to business.facebook.com and create a Meta Business Manager account for your business first, before creating or claiming the Page. This is the single most important step and the one almost everyone skips.

Business Manager is where ownership lives. A Page created inside your own Business Manager can have admins added and removed freely. A Page created inside an employee's or an agency's Business Manager belongs to them in practice, and recovering it later means an appeal process with Meta that frequently fails.

2. Create the Page as a Page

Create a Page, not a personal profile with your business name. Personal profiles for businesses violate Meta's terms, cannot run ads properly, cannot be transferred, and can be removed without warning. If you already have one, Meta offers a conversion process.

3. Complete every field

Category matters, because it affects how Meta classifies and surfaces you. Choose the most specific one that fits.

Then fill in all of it: business description, physical address or service area, phone number, WhatsApp number, email, website, opening hours and price range. Half-completed pages look abandoned and rank poorly in Facebook's own search.

4. Set the call-to-action button

The button under your cover image is the most valuable real estate on the Page and is routinely left as "Like Page". Change it to something that produces an enquiry. For most South African businesses that means Send WhatsApp Message, which converts better than a contact form.

5. Get the images right

Profile picture 170 by 170 pixels, usually your logo mark rather than a full horizontal logo, which becomes unreadable when cropped to a circle. Cover image 820 by 312 on desktop but cropped considerably on mobile, so keep anything important in the centre.

6. Set messaging expectations

Turn on a greeting message and an away message with your actual hours. Facebook displays your response time publicly, and a slow one discourages enquiries. If you cannot answer quickly, say when you can.

7. Verify the business

In Business Manager under Security Centre, submit verification documents matching your registered name and address, typically a CIPC document. Verification unlocks features and adds credibility.

8. Connect Instagram

Link your Instagram business account inside Business Manager rather than through the Instagram app. Linking there keeps both assets under the same ownership and makes advertising across both straightforward.

The ownership audit worth doing today

Open Business Manager and check who owns your Page, your Instagram account and your ad account. If any of them sit under an agency, a former employee or a personal profile that is not yours, fix it now while the relationship is good. Fixing it during a dispute is a different exercise entirely.

Juicy Designs handles setup as part of social media management in Pretoria. If you are checking on a current supplier, this is how to tell whether they are doing the job.

Frequently asked questions

How do I set up a Facebook business page properly?

Create it as a Page rather than a personal profile, complete every field in Page Info, add your address and service area, set opening hours, choose the right category, add a call-to-action button pointing at WhatsApp or your contact page, and connect it to a Meta Business Manager account that your business owns.

Should the page be linked to my personal Facebook account?

Every Page is administered by personal profiles, which is normal and unavoidable. What matters is that the Page itself sits inside a Meta Business Manager owned by the business, so that admin access can be changed without losing the Page.

What is the most common setup mistake?

Creating the Page under an employee's or agency's Business Manager rather than your own. When they leave, the Page leaves with them, and recovering it from Meta is slow and often unsuccessful.

Do I need a Business Manager if I never advertise?

Yes. It is where ownership lives, and it is what allows you to grant and revoke access. Setting it up later, after a dispute, is considerably harder than setting it up at the start.

How do I verify my business on Facebook?

Through Business Manager under Security Centre, using documents that match your registered business name and address, typically a CIPC registration document or a utility bill. Verification unlocks features and improves credibility.