We know that many small business owners are facing some frustrating setbacks when it comes to using Facebook to market their business.

To help them, we’re answering the top 5 frequently asked Facebook marketing questions we hear from small businesses.

If you’re facing some challenges too, we hope these answers can help!

1. “How can we, as a business, “Like” another business’s Facebook Page?”

Liking another small business’s Facebook Page is a great way to build relationships and show support for other businesses in your area. It’s also a great way to stay up-to-date with what other businesses have going on, and it can help you identify partnership opportunities as well.

But as you may have already discovered, Liking another business’s Page as your business, not yourself, can be a little tricky.

To Like another Page as your business, click on the More button that’s located directly under the Page, and then select Like As Your Page. Click the dropdown feature to select which Page you want to Like this business Page.

2. “It seems like only some of my Facebook fans see my posts. Why does Facebook do this? Is there anything we can do about it?”

Facebook recognizes that each user has hundreds of connections to friends, family, and businesses on Facebook who are all regularly sharing content. In an effort to avoid overwhelming individuals with Facebook News Feed content that they believe people might skip anyway, Facebook introduced the News Feed Algorithm (formerly known as EdgeRank), to deliver the right content to the right people.

What that basically means is that just because you post something to your fans does not mean they will all see it. In fact, organic reach for brand Pages is estimated to be less than two percent. This may sound unfair, but the News Feed Algorithm actually makes your (and your fans’) experience on Facebook more enjoyable.

One thing you can do to increase your chances of being seen in the News Feed is to use video. Facebook has placed a huge emphasis on video content, especially video using the Facebook Live livestreaming feature. Facebook gives video content priority.

That being said, there are things you can do to make sure your message gets in front of the right people. Here are a few resources to help you do it:

3. “Is it possible to see who is actually ‘checking in’ at our business on Facebook?”

Check-ins are important to getting your business found on Facebook. When a user checks in to a business or includes the business as a location in a Facebook post, their friends will see that activity in the News Feed or on the business’ Page. The more people checking in, the more opportunities you’ll have to be discovered by other Facebook users.

Unfortunately, you can’t see who is actually checking in at your business.

What Facebook will show you on your business Page is the number of people who are checking in over time. While this might not be exactly what you’re looking for, it is helpful to see which days, weeks, or months you’re seeing the most people checking in. It will also give you some insight into how your Facebook activities coincide with these numbers.

To access checkin data, go into your  Page and click Insights at the top of your Admin Panel.

Under “Local,” you will find a section called “People Nearby.” Click on Check-ins to see how many people have checked in to your location in the last 30 days.

4. “I don’t understand engagement rate. Some posts receive a ton of clicks, but Facebook tells me that not as many people ‘saw it.’ Why does this happen?”

The Engagement Rate Metric makes understanding the success of a post quicker than ever. Facebook calculates the official engagement rate as follows:

Engagement Rate = Number of Clicks, Likes, Shares, and Comments/Number of people who saw the post (Reach).

The outcome illustrates the portion of your audience that is engaged with your content, consequently indicating the quality and success of your posts. Facebook will use this data to determine how many fans see future content you share on the site.

For example, if one post is reaching a significant amount of people, but not producing much engagement, the News Feed Algorithm marks the post as low quality. Too many low quality posts hurt your chances of appearing in your fans News Feed in the future.

Bottom Line: When you focus on providing content that’s relevant, interesting, and entertaining for your target audience, you should see engagement rate go up. While you will also want to test different types of content (photos, videos, links, text-only, etc.), what’s most important is that your audience is paying attention and engaging (Liking, using Facebook Reactions, commenting, sharing) the stuff you put out.

5. “Is it possible to merge multiple Facebook Pages? I have two pages that I want to combine, but I’m worried about losing all the work I’ve done so far.”

For a lot of small businesses, getting started on Facebook isn’t always a clean process. As a result, many small businesses unintentionally end up managing multiple pages.

If you’re an admin for multiple pages, Facebook has a pretty simple solution. Go to the top of the page you want to keep and click Settings. (Make sure you are using Facebook as yourself, not your business.)

Select “Merge Pages” and click “Request to merge duplicate Pages.”

Facebook will combine all of your Likes and check-ins, but will permanently remove all of the other content (posts, photos, and username) from the page you merge. The page that you want to keep will not change, except the addition of new Likes and check-ins.

If you are not already the admin for both pages, you will have to first verify that the page belongs to your business by requesting to claim the page on Facebook. Once you do that, you should be able to merge with your existing Facebook Page.

Still need to convert your Facebook Profile to a Facebook Page? Here’s help.

Have additional social media questions?

Check out our marketing resources page for social media tips and best practices. You’ll find blog posts, videos, infographics, Slideshares, and more. If you have other social media questions or want to learn more about any of the questions answered above, post them in the comments below!