Picture this.
Imagine you’ve been told to check out a new Builders Merchants.
Other companies in the Trade are raving about how awesome this place is.
Every tool you can imagine.
Top quality service.
Great value.
You’re told the premises is on a specific road.
But that’s the only information you’re given.
So you go to this road to look for them.
You get there.
Only to find this road is 20 miles long.
And you have no door number.
So you start driving.
No sign of it.
The only way you’re going to find them is by driving up and down this 20 mile road at 5mph looking out for it.
You make a start.
Nobody on this road seems to have any idea about this new Builders Merchant.
And you’ve no idea what they look like (brand wise) to try describing the place to anyone.
You’ve been driving for what seems like ages.
With everyone tooting behind you no doubt.
So what would you do in this situation?
You’d give it 10 minutes perhaps, then give up and go home, right?
It’s a total waste of time.
And just stick to using your usual Merchants no doubt.
How frustrating was that.
Well this is exactly the same as potential clients trying to find you on Facebook.
We start hearing great things in the community about you and your company name.
You don’t have a website.
But we hear that we can see examples of your work on your Facebook page.
So we go to Facebook to look you up.
We type in your company name and 100 businesses with that Page Name pop up in the search list.
We’ve no idea what your branding looks like to identify your logo in the profile image as we’ve just been hearing your business name on the grapevine.
So we start going through the list and checking out each page to see if this is you.
We click through the first on the list to find these guys are based in Plymouth.
Nope. We’re in London. Can’t be you.
The next one is Scotland.
Nope. Not you.
The next in South Africa.
What the hell?
How long do you think we are going to try searching for you?
How quickly do you think we are going to give up and start looking at other local companies who are easier to find for what we need?
Much quicker than it took you to give up driving down that road for that Builders Merchant – given this is online.
So why did your search for the Builders Merchant go amiss?
Because you weren’t given the door number (and couldn’t find it online) to locate the specific premises.
They’ve now lost out on business.
Why did we have no luck finding you on Facebook?
Because you set your Page Name but didn’t set your Handle.
You’ve now lost out on business.
To get this right, the first thing we need to understand is what the difference is between the PAGE NAME and the HANDLE…
What is a Facebook Handle?
A Facebook ‘Handle’ as it is called, is basically the public username for your page.
This is how we find YOU, specifically.
Simply put (you know I like things simple) it’s your Facebook web address.
For example.
Our Page Name is Marshmallow. That’s our company name.
Our Facebook Handle is ‘buildyourtrade’.
We couldn’t bag the MARSHMALLOW Handle for our business as it was already gone.
So we opted for our strap line. To match our website address.
Pretty cool.
So our Facebook web address is www.facebook.com/buildyourtrade.
Therefore our HANDLE is buildyourtrade.
Got it?
Where a lot of folks get mixed up is with the Page Name.
Check out this very complex diagram I made for you below:
The Page Name is exactly that.
The name of your page.
And this sits alongside the Profile Image (the round circle).
Interestingly, more than one person can name their page the same thing.
Our page is called MARSHMALLOW because that’s the name of our business.
There are likely lots of other pages on Facebook that are also called MARSHMALLOW.
Theirs are likely more of the sugary kind.
If I tell you to go search MARSHMALLOW on Facebook, there will likely be a million and one other pages pop up before you find ours.
A Page Name is only visible when you are on the page itself or when someone tags you (your Page Name will appear, NOT your Handle. Though you need to type the Handle in to tag them. Confusing, right? Cheers Facebook 👍🏼)
But the HANDLE (or username or web address - it’s all the same thing) is UNIQUE to just you.
Like your home address.
You might be swanky and have a name for your house.
Let’s go with Acorn Cottage.
Well, there may well be a million other ACORN COTTAGE’s out there.
Lots of other people can use it.
Like your Page Name.
But nobody has your unique full address but you.
Like your Handle.
So nobody else has our Handle, buildyourtrade.
Meaning that when we tell a client to go find us on Facebook, we tell them to search buildyourtrade.
This is also what we put on our business card and stationery designs.
We don’t want to be writing www.facebook.com/buildyourtrade on all of our print.
That just takes up way to much valuable space.
So instead we tend to use the Facebook icon then put our Handle, buildyourtrade, next to it.
That’s how clients will find us.
And ONLY us.
Here’s another example.
Let’s say your business is called Archers Carpentry.
Your PAGE NAME will be your business name, Archers Carpentry.
But when you go to set the Handle/username/web address, Archers Carpentry (remember, no spaces in these) wasn’t available.
So instead, you opted for ArchersCarpentryUK.
This is your page Handle.
And THIS is what you will need to tell people to search for, put on your stationery designs, vehicle graphics etc.
Handle? Nailed.
Ok. Now let’s look at what NOT do when naming your page.
1. Do NOT leave your Trade and Construction Facebook Handle unnamed.
Let’s look at what happens when you don’t go in and set the Facebook Handle.
Facebook titles your Handle with the name of the page (so Joe Bloggs Plumbing in this example), separates it all with hyphens and sticks a bunch of numbers at the end.
To make your page name unique – by default.
From the millions of other pages on there.
For anyone to find your page you would need to type in ALL of what you see in the image.
No good.
Nobody is going to sit there and type all that in to search for you.
And can you imagine that web link on your branded vehicle designs?
How awful that would look?
Or worse.
Trying to fit in on your business card designs?
Yikes.
If your Facebook Handle is currently showing a bunch of numbers at the end of your web link here, then you haven’t set the Handle for your Facebook page.
Meaning nobody is going to be able to find you or tag you.
Setting your Facebook Handle should be done the very next second after you set up your Facebook Business page.
The quickest way to do this is to go onto the page you’ve set up and click the Create @username link on the page…
Failing that.
On a computer go to your Page, jump to the left-hand column and click EDIT PAGE INFO.
There you will see an option to set your USERNAME.
Which is the same as your HANDLE.
2. Don’t Use Personal Style Names For Your Trade and Construction Facebook Handle.
I see this one a lot.
Where it is clear a Trade and Construction company couldn’t get the Handle they wanted.
Just like we couldn’t get Marshmallow as it had already been taken.
So instead we see names like…
/ChrisSmith1993 when the business name is Smith Plumbers.
Or /Bruce.SkylineDecorating2001
Let me tell you the problem with doing this.
❌ It looks unprofessional.
❌ You don’t look like a company.
❌ You appear a smaller business than you might be.
❌ You’ve made the business about you, when you may well have a team.
❌ Even if you start out as a one band, this restricts how your brand is perceived as and when you DO start growing.
Don’t get me wrong.
If you are a one-man band and your business name is Chris Smith Plumbing, then absolutely, put your name in the Username.
But when we start introducing words that have nothing to do with your line of work and numbers that represent birthdays and the likes, just to try to be unique, it starts delving into being too personal.
A Handle that sounds like a company in the first instance gives us more confidence in you.
And plenty of room for growth.
Got it?
Great.
3. Don’t Make Your Facebook Username for Your Trades and Construction Business Too Long.
So, your Business Name might already be taken as a Username, as we’ve discussed.
Which means you need to start getting creative on how to name your Handle.
We use our Strap Line. Build Your Trade.
Because it’s short. On brand. And speaks to our Ideal Clients.
But this won’t work for everyone.
Ideally you want your Handle to be as close to your business name or telling us what you do as possible.
Without putting numbers for birthday dates on the end.
Some businesses start looking at locations.
Adding city names within their Handle.
Which can seem like a good idea.
Until we get names like this.
ChristopherBlackwellPlumbingBrightonAndHove.
A designer’s worst nightmare.
Wayyyyy too long in our opinion.
Our advice would be to look at how you can then abbreviate… So that the name is still reflective of your business, says what is you do (so clients can pick you out instantly on Facebook if they’re on the hunt for your service), without it being long.
For example.
You could look at changing ChristopherBlackwellPlumbingBrightonAndHove.
To
CBPlumbingBrighton.
The most important part to keep in (in our opinion) is what you do.
I.e. Plumbing.
But we’ve abbreviated your name and location.
If you’re Nationwide, UK on the end could be the differentiator to get you the Handle you want.
It is a bit of trial and error.
But Facebook will tell you straight off the bat if the name is unavailable or not…
You can see here Facebook is telling us JoeBloggsPlumbing is unavailable.
So, we try something else…
When we then play around with abbreviating, Facebook will then tell us if this name is available, and we can choose to set it or not.
I’d always advise trying to do Facebook settings like this on a computer rather than a phone.
📢 EXTRA INFO.
Facebook won’t let you set phrases such a ‘BestPlumberInLondon’ or ‘BestBuildersLondon’ as Handles.
So if you try setting phrases or descriptive words that are a matter of opinion, and wondering why Facebook isn’t let you have them, that is why.
They’re pretty clever like that.
4. Stop Using Personal Facebook Accounts to Build Trade and Construction Business Pages.
Quick Rundown.
Facebook has 2 different types of page accounts you can set up:
A Personal Page and a Business Page.
A personal page is where you create a profile for yourself.
Photos with friends, family.
Showcasing personal details like where in the world you live and when your birthday is.
A Business Page is like a mini website.
Where you can show photos of your work, a tab for testimonials, details on opening times.
The 2 function very differently.
To keep it simple.
⚠️ Do NOT set up a Personal Facebook Page and try to use it as a Facebook Business Page.
Joe Public will not be able to see what’s on that page as it tends to come with lots of default privacy settings, you won’t be able to set a Handle (meaning finding you will be hard) and you can’t run ads to it in the future.
Use the Business Page Account to set up anything work-related.
Trust me.
5. Don’t Promote Your Trade And Construction Facebook Page Details Until You Have Secured them.
This one can be disastrous.
I’ve had Trade and Construction clients come to me to do a Brand MOT (where we look through everything in their business marketing to see what they need to be doing better).
They’ve shared their Facebook Handle with me so I can look through what they are doing on Social.
When I’ve gone onto their page, I’ve noticed a BIG problem.
This is someone else’s page!
They had set their PAGE NAME. As we know is just the name of the page when you are on it.
But HADN’T gone in and set the Handle (as we discussed the differences right at the start).
The web address had all those numbers on the end of the link.
What was WORST was that they had been driving around with vehicle graphics with the wrong Facebook details on there.
Sending potential clients to someone else’s page!
Nightmare.
This is why it’s so important to get this in place, understand it and get it right from the get go.
BEFORE you start paying for print, vehicle graphics or any other form of marketing where this is going to feature.
5 MISTAKES YOU’RE MAKING WHEN SETTING YOUR TRADE AND CONSTRUCTION FACEBOOK USERNAME RUNDOWN:
1. Do not leave your Facebook Handle unnamed.
2. Don’t use personal style names.
3. Do not make your Facebook Handle too long.
4. Stop Using Personal Facebook Accounts to build business pages.
5. Don’t promote your Facebook Page details until you have secured them.
Need a little more help nailing your Trades Facebook?
Course you do.
First. Let’s work out where you are with Facebook.
Got 3 minutes?
Take our Trades Quiz to discover how you score with Facebook and all things ‘Off The Tools’.
We have heaps of tips, tricks, and hacks for your Trades business in our cheat sheets, videos and ideas waiting for you on the other side… i.e., your results page.
So you can improve your score. And NAIL your Trades business.