4 Facebook Features Every Page Admin Should Know

As a Facebook page administrator, you should always be looking for ways to improve the performance of your page or find easier ways to update the page.

Here are six Facebook page features and related tips that every “power user” should know about.

Use a Video or a Slideshow as a Cover Photo

The cover photo of your page is a good way to make a strong first impression because it’s the first thing people will see when they visit your Facebook page. But it doesn't have to be a basic image.

When you hover your cursor over your cover photo and select Change Cover, you'll see options in a dropdown list that allow you to choose videos or slideshows. Videos and slideshows bring an animated effect to your cover photo, which is a great way to tell your story.

Check out Lifewire's Facebook page for an example of a cover video. Cover videos can be 20 to 90 seconds long and should ideally be a size of 820 by 462 pixels.

Pin Important Posts to the Top of the Page's Timeline

If you made an important announcement on your Facebook page, you can make sure that anyone who comes to your page sees it first by pinning it to the top of the page timeline. This way, you can continue posting according to your regular schedule without worrying about the pinned post being pushed down your timeline.

To pin a post, just select the three dots in the top right corner of any post and select Pin to Top of Page from the dropdown list.

That pinned post will remain at the top of your timeline for seven days, or until you pin another post.

Ask Your Fans Questions With Polls and Surveys

A simple way to engage your fans and grow your fan base is to ask them what they think about topics related to your page. You can use the built-in poll feature to create quick, inline poll posts or the third-party Surveys app to create more elaborate, customized surveys.

Find out how to ask your Facebook page fans questions using polls and surveys.

Schedule Your Posts Directly Within Facebook

Did you know that Facebook has its own, built-in post scheduling feature? This means that you can schedule posts without the use of third-party tools like Buffer or HootSuite.

To schedule a post, just select the down arrow on the Share Now button beneath the field on the post composer. Select Schedule from the dropdown list, then select the calendar icon to select the date and type a corresponding time into the time field beside it.

Select the blue Schedule button when you're done.

You can also schedule posts in the past by selecting Backdate from the Share Now + down arrow button. You'll be able to select the year, month and day so that your post appears in the past on your page timeline. You also have the option to hide it from your News Feed.

The Advantages of Facebook Scheduling

You can schedule in the future, as well as backdate a post in the past. If you backdate a post, the post will appear immediately on the appropriate place on the page’s timeline.
You can schedule status updates, photos, videos, events and milestones.
The scheduling feature is free and native to Facebook.

The Disadvantages of Facebook Scheduling

You can only schedule six months into the future.
Facebook scheduling is only available for Facebook page admins to use on their pages; it's not available for individual Facebook profiles.
You can't share a post from another page onto your own page through scheduling.
You can't schedule a post for another page other than your own.
Scheduled posts need to be created at least 10 minutes from the time you're posting.
You can only schedule posts in intervals of ten minutes.
Once you schedule a post, you can't modify or edit the content. You can only edit the time it will be posted.
It is difficult to find the Activity Log where all scheduled posts remain. To find the Activity Log, select Settings at the top of your page and choose Activity Log in the left column at the bottom.