One of the easiest tools for free marketing is Facebook (FB).  As an Evangelical Columnist for Patheos, I’ve received coaching on how to utilize a Facebook Page for my writings.  I’ve also found some other good coaches online.  I’m not making a living at it, but I’ve been honored to assist as a couple of congregations develop their FB Pages and online presence as well.

My wife and I chose to launch it as JCIngle, and eventually we launched our nonprofit as JC Ingle, Inc.  To visit our JCIngle Facebook Page CLICK HERE

Because of the recent launch of our nonprofit, we are giving our Facebook Business Page a facelift.  And because Patheos encourages writers to utilize a FB Page, I’m taking the opportunity to offer a little tutorial.

This article is written in longread form, even though it is formatted as an outline.

Contents (ToC)

i. About (tab in the left column)
ii. STORY (right column)
iii. Now for a fun faux pas
iv. Afterword from Mark

If you don’t have a Facebook Page, then you may want to refer to ours, by clicking the links provided.  That way, you can see the setup.  At the very least, you need a Facebook account, to see our page.

First, go to our Home page.  Then to . . .

i. About (tab in the left column)

About/GENERAL

If you are editing your own page, you will see this area at the top of your About page options for editing.  If you are looking at the JCIngle About page, then this information shows up in key locations.

About/GENERAL/Category

These are quick business tags that help when people are searching.  The Category/Edit button offers the option to add three category tags.

First and foremost, JC Ingle Inc. is a Nonprofit Organization.  I’ve also added Marriage Therapist and Religious Organization, hoping to show up in more searches on FB’s nebulous proprietary algorithm.

These three tags show up at the bottom of the About page, for visitors.

About/GENERAL/Name

This is the name of your FB page.  This will show up everywhere, when you post, or with anything you do.  It’s the same way with your personal profile name.

About/GENERAL/Username

Since JCIngle seems to be taken as a Username, we chose jaredandcrystal.  FB makes this into a direct link to our page: @jaredandcrystal.  I can type @jaredandcrystal into any FB post.  A list menu will pop up with us as an option.  I click on it and it puts JCIngle as a hot button directly into my post.

About/CONTACT INFO

The CONTACT INFO is at the top of the section, when a visitor views the About page.

Choose wisely.  What phone number, email, and page do you want to direct people to?  You can also leave some of these elements out.

For each item you want to change, hover to the right of it to see Edit appear

About/CONTACT INFO/Call

I’m already using the blue button on my Home page as a Call Now link to my Google Voice phone number.  The blue button can easily be edited and used for other means, such as email.  Enter your number in this Call section as well.

About/CONTACT INFO/Email

There are different opinions about whether you should share your email, or should not.  Really the choice is yours if you want to set up an email address for business purposes only.

You can also have multiple email accounts transfer emails directly to your primary email address, if you like.  I’m considering doing this because I work with Google (among other platforms) but it only has 15 GB of free space.  On the other hand, Yahoo now has a terabyte of free space, so I may start forwarding all of my emails there and improve my Yahoo mail filing methods.  I’m not sure yet.

About/CONTACT INFO/Website

Webpages plural may prove to be a problem for you.  People like options, but if there are too many options, then chances are they won’t choose any option.

When I began paying attention to web presence rules, I put my links for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ on every one of my pages.  I still miss G+

For awhile, I’ve been putting my Patheos address, YouTube, and the Facebook Page on everything.

Now I’m scaling back to 1-2 pages where people can find out more about Crystal and me.  The truth is, if people are curious about you or what you do, they’ll still find your other social media outlets.

To simplify your decision, it’s good to adopt the mentality that you’re not driving traffic to your website, you’re just getting in front of the traffic that’s already there on the information highway.  Where do you want to direct your traffic for the split second that they see your billboard on the side of that highway?

About/MORE INFO

About/MORE INFO/About

This section can only be 255 characters (not words) so I’m using it to list our official services as they appear on our business cards. I’m including both of our names, then a contact phone number, and the date our marriage was established (not the nonprofit).  Crystal has been my helpmeet long before we had an official business model.

About/MORE INFO/Products

This section seems to be unlimited, as far as space.  I’ve seen coaches use it to spell out coaching services in detail.

Here I offer the specialties of my wife and me.  Then I spell out a description of each in list form. Since there is no way to format, I use special characters and all caps to distinguish between specialties and headings.

For instance:

Rev. Jared V. Ingle: Online Teacher | Writer | Conferences | Supervised Marriage & Family Therapist

Crystal P. Ingle: Homeschool | VIPKID Instructor

ORDAINED MINISTER
Jared has served in formal ministry with the Pentecostal Church of God (PCG) since 1993.

ONLINE TEACHER
Jared serves as an Online Teacher for Messenger College.

WRITER
Jared writes for the Pentecostal-Charismatic Curriculum Commission, a consortium of six denominations. He has been an author since 2010. He’s also a Representative of the PCG . . .

Just click the See More button for our full list.

Afterwards, I leave a contact number for inquiries or bookings.  Take advantage of this space and make it your own, using good old fashioned creativity with a qwerty keyboard.

ii. STORY (right column)

We have chosen a subtitle: about Jared & Crystal.  There are only a few lines visible in the box.  However, this is a section that opens up into an entire page, once someone clicks See More.

You can change the picture at the top of the page.  You can highlight subtitles and use H1 and H2 formats by clicking on the paragraph icon in the left margin while you’re editing, which I’ve done on this page.  You can also insert pictures or video by copying the page address of the video you’d like to show.  However, I’ve been primarily focusing on content changes since the soft launch of JC Ingle, Inc.

This is my basic rationale for the Story section.

Something that catches the eye

You may want to start with a quote, or a couple good lines from the paragraphs that follow, or a motto, etc.  In my case, I’ve chosen:

Making some space to weave the threads of our journey together . . . 

It may or may not be effective, but then I continue to explain why I would think it is important.

History/Story

I offer a couple of introductory paragraphs about us.  After all this is the Story section.  Then I tie it back into the theme stated above as a segue into introducing our nonprofit.  I conclude this section with an invitation to share stories.

Description of people and services

I basically describe what Crystal and I offer, one after the other, in brief paragraph form.  I want people to see our credentials and make a decision.

However, here’s the curve ball

It’s not about you.  It’s about them.  It’s not about me or Crystal.  Everyone only reveals what they want to about themselves anyway.  That’s the blessing and the curse of anyone’s web presence.

Maybe we understand this more than others.  I don’t know.  However, the leadership model that Jesus taught is an upside down pyramid, or something like that, according to the world’s standards.

How can we minister to and serve you?

We really want to make these types of sections points of light.  We are driven by the everlasting consequences that our engagement with others may have.

That is why we consider our web presence to be more than something that simply adds value.  It is Christian outreach.

iii. Now for a fun faux pas

I’m still not sure how everything works on Facebook.  During all of the updates I’ve implemented, I’ve started noticing some interesting things happening on my timelines (both personal and FB Page).  Notifications were going off right and left.  People were liking this and that on my pages.  Then I found out why.

On our JCIngle Facebook Page, some items were published to the timeline automatically by FB:

• Now it’s easier to call JCIngle
• JCIngle updated their phone number
• JC Ingle updated their website address

That’s 3 unintentional posts, complete with our page picture, and hot buttons to click for each.

Then, I accidentally launched the JCIngle nonprofit on my own timeline . . .

About/Work and Education

I added JCIngle (our FB Page) as an employment page, while I was updating my personal information.  Little did I know it had posted to my personal timeline.

I can’t hardly get people to chase the links I want them to chase, but with a few accidental posts, I’ve been in front of more traffic than with a lot of my other efforts during this JC Ingle, Inc. soft launch.

Thank you Facebook for the random posts and algorithms . . . go figure!

iv. Afterword from Mark

I’ve been preaching from Mark lately, talking about how his writings are different.  He’s more like an action reporter, catching glimpses of what Christ is doing, even more than what Jesus is saying.  He has fewer chapters and fewer sermons than the other Gospel writers.  He doesn’t even offer a birth story.  Jesus is an adult Rabbi on a mission.

It’s almost like Mark is taking 2 minute Facebook Live videos of Jesus interacting here and there.

By the way, at least 2 minutes of video on FB Live helps rank you higher with their algorithm.  We’ve tried a couple fun experiments.  They really like their FB Live videos more than other types of videos that you upload, for some reason.

I believe Mark encapsulates the busy ministry of Jesus and The Twelve in a couple sentences.

And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”  For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.  And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. – Mark 6.31-32, ESV

They were so caught up in ministry, that Jesus had to take time to minister to them.  Thats Mark’s Gospel, and that’s what it’s like when we fall in line with Christ, participating in His work each day.

May we never lose our love of ministering, and the exhilaration of being in step with our Lord.

As I look back over the likes and comments I received when my posts were accidentally published, I wonder if I’m accidentally practicing what I’m preaching . . .

May we remain so closely in step with Jesus that we really don’t have time to stop and wonder who’s watching.