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Last week, on the Fourth of July, I was feeling rather patriotic, so I decided to binge watch the HBO classic Band of Brothers. The critically acclaimed mini-series takes place in Europe during World War II, recounting Major Richard Winters’ leadership of Easy Company from a grueling boot camp to the invasion of Normandy and on to the end of the war. The series is a touching tribute to these brave soldiers, and in my humble opinion, it deserves all seven of the Emmys it won.

But if there’s one thing I’ll remember about this show, it’s a scene that’s only three minutes long: Major Winters orders an ambush on Axis soldiers who are resting in an embankment across a field from them. But before his soldiers can charge, he tosses a smoke grenade and bolts across the field alone. He wanted the Axis to target him before they could target his men.

Major Winters was willing to sacrifice his own life to preserve his company’s, and his courage and selflessness remind military leaders everywhere that you should serve others before you serve yourself. If you lead a team at work, this scene will also resonate with you — your job is to help your people succeed and achieve their goals.

But being a great leader isn’t something you can easily pick up and just start doing. Like any other skill, you have to work on it. So before you start channeling your inner Major Winters, here are eight management skills you need to learn to lead a team toward success.

The 8 Essential Management Skills You Need to Lead a Successful Team

1. You make your people feel safe at work.

Major Winters was an easy leader to follow because he always trekked into danger first, fought for his men, and did everything he could to protect them. He absorbed most of the risk so his men had a better chance of survival. And they respected and revered him for it.

Great leaders are always willing to protect their people, even if it means sacrificing their own interests, comfort, and a good metric or two. They want their people to feel safe at work. They want them to always know that they won’t get chewed out or lose their job if they fail. Their people know they can grow from these failures. And this results in a higher level of trust and cooperation.

When a leader risks and sacrifices herself to protect and improve her people, they’re willing to move mountains for her. Why? Because they know she’s already doing the same for them.

2. You can change your mind.

Even the smartest people get things wrong. But what seperates a good leader from a great one is the ability to admit that they’re wrong and change course in light of new information. Unfortunately, a lot of leaders won’t change their minds, even if it’s the right choice, because they don’t want to seem weak. Others have too much pride to admit that they’ve made a mistake. They’d rather pull rank and remind their subordinates that they’re in charge.

But admitting you were wrong requires a lot more strength than sticking to something that hurts your team or company, just because you’ve invested a lot of time and effort into it. For instance, Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, a company that provides open-source software products, decided to go to market without integrating a newly acquired product into one of their new technologies in 2008. He didn’t want to spend three months rewriting code and making it open source. But he soon discovered that he had made a huge mistake: Red Hat’s associates and customers didn’t like using the product. And the only move the company could make was to rewrite the code. It would push them a year behind schedule.

The delay angered and frustrated his employees, and most of them thought Whitehurst wasn’t competent enough to run the business. But instead of blaming the issue on external factors, Whitehurst blamed himself. He owned up to his mistake and told the company why he made his decision. They then understood the rationale behind his decision. Not long after, many of his employees told him how much they appreciated his honesty and that he changed his mind about their go-to-market strategy. And that’s what ultimately earned him back their trust and support.

3. You understand the importance of team bonding.

Sometimes, team outings can feel like a forced way to bond — kind of like the annual Christmas get-together with your cousins growing up — but after a slightly awkward beginning of the night, you’re having a great time. And by the end of the night, you don’t really want to go home.

Solving an escape room or participating in a scavenger hunt can contribute to this fun, but most of it stems from bonding with your team on a personal level and learning about each others’ personal stories.

Sharing stories and having positive social experiences is the best way for a leader to develop trust with their team. Both of these things trigger the release of oxytocin, the hormone that helps us empathize with people, and it prompts us to help, relate, and care about others in the same way we do for our families. In other words, it’s the best way connect.

Having genuine conversations about what you and your team are passionate about, your lifestyle, and career motivations will break down barriers and build your team’s trust with each other and you, their leader. And this personal trust is what you need from your team to passionately support your overall mission and purpose.

4. You’re empathetic.

Every good leader should be able to be empathetic, right? Well, according to two Canadian neuroscientists, the higher you climb the corporate ladder, the harder it is to feel empathetic.

The part of your brain that triggers empathy is the mirror system. And whenever you see a person do something, it activates the thoughts and intentions that spark when you do the same exact thing. This helps you understand what motivates that person’s actions. But when you hold power over others, like in most leadership roles, the mirror system isn’t very stimulated, making it harder to place yourself inside other people’s shoes.

To stay on the same level as your team, consider trying a management technique called perspective-taking. If your colleague says something that frustrates you, take a step back and ask yourself why they took that position. How do they feel? Where is this perspective coming from? If you were in their role before, try to remember what it was like doing their job. Think back to your biggest fears and challenges. What made you feel threatened or insecure? Ultimately, perspective-taking will allow you to understand the root cause of your team’s problems and help solve for them.

5. You challenge your team.

During the 1988-89 NHL hockey season, Brett Hull led the St. Louis Blues with 41 goals scored. And after the season ended, he walked into his exit meeting with his head coach, Brian Sutter, expecting nothing but praise. But Coach Sutter didn’t give him any praise at all. In fact, he told Hull he needed to get better. Hull had the potential to be one of the greatest hockey players to ever live, but he could only be a Hall of Famer if he improved his work ethic. The next season, Hull arrived to St. Louis in the best shape of his life. And he almost doubled the number of goals he scored, with 72. The season after that he scored 86 goals. Hull was eventually inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame, and it’s all thanks to a coach who pushed him to train and perform at his best.

Like Brett Hull, everyone on your team can level up. Even your top performers. And to help them enhance their work ethic and skill set, push them to reach their potential and let them handle their own projects. They’ll be grateful for your guidance at the end of the day.

6. You don’t let your emotions influence your decision making.

Great leaders do what’s right, even if it causes a great deal of emotional pain. If they need to let someone go, even if they personally like them, they let them go. When they need to give constructive criticism to someone, even if they don’t want to hurt their feelings, they tell them what they need to improve on. The easy way out never pays off in the long term, and great leaders can blast through any anxiety or discomfort to do what’s best for their team.

7. You’re transparent.

Great leaders trust their people, especially with information. They know their team can sense problems in the organization. And since humans have a psychological bias that makes them more scared of ambiguity than risk, they make sure to provide as much information as possible about the issue and clearly communicate that they’re doing everything they can to resolve it.

Keeping things under wraps will only make their team feel anxious and unsafe — if they know something’s wrong, and they know their leader hasn’t disclosed all the information, they’ll ruminate about the worst possible outcome. And this is likely to scare the leader’s team and make them lose trust in him.

8. You acknowledge and appreciate your top performers.

As a leader, you must know how to make your team feel valued. It’s one of the most important emotional needs to meet. If you don’t, your team will feel unhappy at work — failing to recognize employees is one of the most common causes of employee dissatisfaction. To make them feel important to the team, happier, and incentivize them to keep improving, recognize and reward your employees for their accomplishments. You can does this in front of their peers, one on one, or even on Slack. This is also a way to inspire other members of your team to improve and earn recognition too.

With over 100 million daily active users, Snapchat provides the opportunity to reach a massive audience. Snapchat is also the most popular social media platform for teens ages 13-17 — a hard demographic to reach through more traditional marketing efforts.

But how can your business best engage with Snapchat users? Sure, you can buy Snapchat ad space, but that won’t allow your message to spread organically. To get the most out of Snapchat, you might want to check out Geofilters. A national Geofilter can typically be seen by 40 to 60% of the daily Snapchat audience — that’s 40,000 to 60,000 people. Local Geofilters have impressive scope, as well. Bell Media ran a Geofilter campaign for five hours at The Quad at the University of Alabama, and reached over 19,000 people.

A Geofilter is a location-based overlay you can find by swiping right on your Snapchat photo. It’s a particularly useful tool for promoting your business. If you create your own Geofilter, anyone on Snapchat in your chosen location can use that filter on their Snapchat images and videos — which means you’ll attract a large audience without much effort at all.

To clarify what a Geofilter is, here’s a picture of a Starbucks’ Geofilter, which I can only find from my current location (near a Starbucks in Boston):

A Geofilter can help you alert foot traffic of your business’s nearby proximity. It can also spread brand awareness to users both in and outside your chosen location, as users can send a Geofilter to anyone regardless of their location.

There are two types of Geofilters you can create — personal or business. For our purposes, we’ll focus on creating a custom business Geofilter to supplement your marketing strategy. However, you’ll follow similar steps if you’re creating a Geofilter for personal use, like a wedding or birthday party — the only step you’ll change will be the last one, where you’ll select personal instead of business.

Disclaimer: You must abide by Snapchat Submission Guidelines when creating a custom Geofilter. Read these before submitting your filter.

How to Create a Snapchat Geofilter:

Creating a Snapchat Geofilter takes almost no time at all — the only challenging aspect is the design itself. Take a look at the 12 steps you need to follow to create a Geofilter for business or personal use.

1. First, go to Snapchat’s Create a Filter or Lens product page and click “Create Filter”.

2. You have a few options for design. You can use a Snapchat pre-made template, create a custom filter using the Snapchat design tools, or “Upload” your pre-designed filter from elsewhere. For our purposes, I’ll upload my design.

3. Canva provides pre-made Snapchat Geofilter templates for easy design, so I chose to use Canva. However, you could also use Photoshop, Illustrator, or virtually any other design tool, particularly if you’ve got something specific in mind.

4. You can use Canva templates to create filters for conferences, national holidays, birthday parties, weddings, or any other event. I created one for “HubSpot’s Sponsored Weekend Market” (yes, this is fake … ). I chose a template and simply filled out the text boxes.

5. When you’re happy with your Canva design, click “Download”.

6. You need to download your filter as a PNG.

7. Your PNG image size must be 1080 x 2340 — you can resize the downloaded image in Preview, Photoshop, or another tool.

8. Now, back on Snapchat’s Create a Snapchat Filter page, click “Upload” and import your PNG file. You can add color, text, or other elements from within the Snapchat page, or click “Next”.

9. Choose the dates you want your Geofilter to appear, or select “Run indefinitely”. Then, click “Next”.

10. Choose the area you want your Geofilter to appear — your location cannot be more than 50,000 square feet. Then, select “Checkout”.

11. Here, you’ll specify if your filter is for business or personal use. If you select “Business”, you’ll need to include a filter name and a business name.

12. When you’re satisfied with all your filter specifics, including dates, location, and design, input your payment information and click “Submit”.

Snapchat Geofilters are one of your cheapest social media paid marketing options, so it’s worth giving it a try if it fits with your target audience. If you’re still a little hesitant, take a look at our complete Snapchat Marketing guide for further inspiration.

With more than 2.20 billion monthly active users, Facebook is a major player in the world of social networking. Businesses looking to market using Facebook have one major tool at their disposal: the Facebook Page.

Facebook Pages were specifically engineered for businesses. They provide a public home on Facebook for a business, and they allow businesses to publish content and receive comments and feedback from fans and customers.

Facebook Pages are a simple tool, but they allow for many interesting business opportunities. There are some companies out there who really take advantage of the cool stuff you can do on a Facebook business Page to connect, engage with, and delight fans, as well as drive traffic to specific parts of their website.

So, we combed through the web to find 21 Pages to inspire your own Facebook marketing. Seriously, these pages are awesome and well-liked.

21 of the Best Facebook Business Page Examples Online Today

1. L.L. Bean

Page Likes: 956k

Here’s an example of a Facebook Page that focuses on the customer. The content they post is interesting and super relevant for their target audience: cool photos, videos, and tips for outdoor adventurers. They also include tabs dedicated to their events, open job opportunities, and to each of their most recent grand openings.

2. Intrepid Travel

Page Likes: 525k

Travel agency Intrepid Travel has put together a great Facebook Page — complete with a special tab that shows trip and tour reviews, and one that lets users search and book trips without having to leave their Facebook Page. Talk about a great user experience.

They also consistently post compelling videos that’ll have you itching to pack a bag and hit the road. Check out this food tour of China they posted to give potential tourists the nudge they need to book an adventure:

3. Shopify

Page Likes: 3.3m

Shopify, an ecommerce website platform, is a prolific multimedia publisher, evidenced by its Facebook page. While its photos section consists of branded infographics that share data from the industry, its video section is full of how-to clips you’d normally see in article form.

The company’s case study series, “My First Sale,” is what really helps the page shine, though. Check out just one of Shopify’s case studies from its Facebook page below.

4. Threadless

Page Likes: 915k

Threadless has tons of great images on their Page. Most notably, their cover photo features different T-shirt designs, which they always credit to the designer in the original posting. They also carry over important functionality from their website, including a “Shop” tab where you can begin browsing for a particular product.

All in all, Threadless does a great job of creating a fantastic user experience that doesn’t require the user to leave Facebook. Plus, they have a badge in their “About” section signifying that they respond to inquiries quickly — which is great for showing fans and followers that they’re listening.

5. WIRED

Page Likes: 2.9m

For a magazine, WIRED is almost all video now. But combined with its mesmerizing images and hyper-analytical articles, this publisher has turned its Facebook page into the ultimate hub for hot takes on the latest science and technology.

It doesn’t even matter what medium you consume WIRED in now — it’s all just solid content to have on your News Feed. And for as prolific and diverse as WIRED is, its Facebook Business Page balances all of it quite nicely.

The company also broadcasts from Facebook Live every month. Check out some of its live-video library below.

6. Nutella

Page Likes: 32.1m

The folks at Nutella have the unique challenge of having to find an infinite number of ways to feature a single product so their social media content stays fresh and interesting. The key to their success? A wide variety of interesting visual content.

They’ve taken full advantage of the rise of video on Facebook: As of 2018, videos on Facebook have 135% more organic reach on users’ News Feeds than the average photo. Much of their video content is centered around creative (and delicious) ways to work the infamous hazelnut spread into different recipes, such as these incredible Nutella pancake cupcakes:

The company also shares a ton of great images that generate a huge amount of engagement, like this clever emoji-inspired post:

7. Zappos.com

Page Likes: 2.4m

Zappos.com is known for great customer service, and they keep that reputation going on their Facebook Page. For example, they have a badge in their “About” section that says they typically respond to customers’ inquiries within the hour. That’s fast.

They also have a small section of their Page dedicated to visitor posts, which features customers’ posts about Zappos’ great customer service on and off Facebook.

Not to mention, they’re committed to responding to comments — and they aren’t afraid to have fun with it:

Customer service aside, Zappos has also fully taken advantage of Facebook’s call-to-action button feature by placing a “Shop Now” button at the top of their Facebook Page.

(Check out this episode of The Growth Show to learn more about how Zappos built a lovable company culture.)

8. Ceros

Page Likes: 15k

Ceros specializes in interactive content creation. And if the company’s retro cover photo doesn’t intrigue you, its unique “samples” will.

Along the side of its Facebook page, Ceros promotes a sample ebook, nanosite, and infographic that visitors can view in their entirety right from Facebook. And true to the Ceros brand, each sample is interactive. Talk about transparency from a customer’s first touch with the business.

What’s a nanosite, you ask? According to Ceros, it’s an opportunity to show your customers various pieces of your work in the form of a miniature website. Here’s what Ceros’s nanosite looks like on Facebook (each tile is clickable from inside the page).

9. iGoMoon

Page Likes: 500

First things first: iGoMoon, a small web development agency based in Stockholm, Sweden, has an illustrated cover photo that is so fun to look at. As a result, the company gives visitors an early glimpse into its versatility and attention to detail.

As you can see from the image above, the company also features a call-to-action (CTA) below the cover photo for users to “Recommend” the business on their own Facebook profiles. With how important word-of-mouth is to gaining customers’ trust, this is a valuable feature of iGoMoon’s Business Page.

While the Facebook Page’s photo section is rich with employee photos showing off the company’s culture, iGoMoon’s video section plays host to an ongoing industry series called, “Månresan: Life as a Bootstrapper.” This agency definitely knows its buyer persona. Check it out below.

10. National Hockey League

Page Likes: 4.5m

The NHL rocks Facebook. Their Page prioritizes the things they know users care about most when visiting Facebook: photos and videos, live streaming (which they include during the season and remove in the offseason), and contests that give them the chance to win tickets.

Not only that, they’re constantly putting out relevant news stories and compelling visual content that get high levels of engagement from their fans. For example, NHL and GoPro have been partnered up since 2015 to bring hockey fans unique perspectives from games, and these videos can be found in the “Video” tab on the NHL’s Facebook Page.

11. Tough Mudder

Page Likes: 4.2m

Tough Mudder, an organization that runs hardcore obstacle course events focused on teamwork and camaraderie, leans on social media sites like Facebook to help recruit and pump up participants.

They do a great job of keeping their Facebook content fresh and up-to-date, which is especially important for an events company. Not to mention, each event they run has its own Facebook Event — which shows up in an “Events” feed on their Page — so participants can connect, ask questions, and share event-specific photos with the community.

Speaking of community … the folks that run the Facebook Page always find clever ways to keep the Tough Mudder family connected and engaged using fun hashtags like #HeadbandMonday:

12. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Page Likes: 2.2m

St. Jude’s is a volunteer- and donation-driven organization, and they do a fantastic job engaging their volunteer and donor bases on Facebook. Their posts and photos are highly engaging, often featuring the personal stories of patients who were helped thanks to the generosity of people like their Facebook Fans.

Their Page also offers tabs that allow you to donate, browse careers, look at photos, and more — right from the Facebook Page.

13. Starbucks

Page Likes: 37.2m

Starbucks was an early social media adopter, and it comes through in the polish and features of their Facebook Page. The “International” tab leads you to their local Facebook Pages, so non-English-speaking fans can easily navigate to their country’s Starbucks Page.

Beyond that, Starbucks uses its Page to showcase their rich visual content, run contests for seasonal products, highlight job openings, and interact with followers, like they do with the quiz below:

They also offer a slick store locator application:

14. MAS Digital

Page Likes: 6k

MAS Digital is a Guatemalan marketing agency with an explosive Facebook Business Page. Part of this impression comes from the company’s stylish cover video (you can’t tell from the image above, but the cover photo is actually a video).

One of this Page’s premiere features, shown below, is its “Services” section, offering branded tiles that briefly describe MAS Digital’s four lines of business. From the animated cover video to the warm color scheme, this Business Page swung for the fences.

15. Adobe

Page Likes: 1.2m

Adobe is a computer software company that could post all about software and technology all the time … but they do a great job of catering their content to Facebook users, who tend to log on to socialize, read or watch fun content, or read the news. Here’s an example of a cool video that would be interesting to their design-focused target audience:

Adobe also has a special Notes section that outlines the rules of the Facebook Page — and thus setting expectations for their fans. Granted, it hasn’t been updated since 2010 … but it’s still a great thing to have.

16. Burt’s Bees

Page Likes: 3.3m

Your customers can be your best sources for market research. The Burt’s Bees Facebook Page uses a poll tab to ask questions about flavor preferences, product names, and so on. Customers have the option to vote, see results, and/or share their opinion on their own Facebook Pages. They also have a “Coupons” tab that gives customers opportunities to save money.

17. EasyLunchboxes

Page Likes: 276k

With all that space in the cover photo, why not pair colorful visuals with a strong value statement? That’s exactly what EasyLunchboxes does. They put it all out there as soon as a user lands on their Facebook Page.

In addition to posting fun pictures, videos, and tips like “lunch box hacks,” the Page also includes tabs that let users ask questions, sign up for their newsletter, follow their blog, and even get recipe and meal ideas. Overall, the Page is on-brand and clearly displays the utility of the product.

18. Gold’s Gym

Page Likes: 764k

For a company that’s been around for over 50 years, Gold’s Gym has shown they can keep up with the times on their Facebook Page. Their “Gold’s Gym Challenge” is a Facebook group promoted in the “Community” section of their Business Page, which lets users join the group, see other members, and join the discussion without leaving Facebook.

They also have a handy gym locator app that leads folks straight to their “Find Your Gym” webpage (unlike Starbucks’ locator app, which is right within Facebook) so that prospective members can easily see whether there’s a location nearby.

Lastly, Gold’s Gym keeps engagement high by posting lots of content, much of which features members’ inspirational fitness journeys.

19. Stella & Dot

Page Likes: 528k

As a company based on creating flexible entrepreneurial opportunities for women, Stella & Dot relies on platforms like Facebook to help grow their business via word-of-mouth marketing. They are a great example of an organization that’s successfully built a community on Facebook.

They use it to share styling tips with their social community, show how their pieces are designed and made, and post videos on how to wear their jewelry. All of their visual content is vibrantly colored and beautifully shot.

They’ve also taken advantage of Facebook Live by posting live videos of trunk shows, which can help prospective trunk show hosts learn how to do one — or just bring entertainment to anyone watching.

(Read this article for more awesome Facebook Live use cases.)

20. Mabel’s Labels

Page Likes: 189k

Like Zappos, Mabel’s Labels — creators of high-quality labels for the stuff kids lose — has also taken advantage of Facebook’s call-to-action (CTA) button feature with their “Shop Now” CTA, linking to their homepage.

In terms of content, they’ve mastered the art of posting the perfect balance of engaging videos, photos, and GIFs that align with the interests of their target audience: moms. For example, check out this relatable ecard they posted to reassure moms everywhere that they know just how real the struggle can be:

Mabel’s Labels has also taken advantage of Facebook Live with videos like the one below, which they pinned to their Facebook Page to make it more easily visible for a longer period of time.

21. UNICEF

Page Likes: 7.4m

UNICEF’s Facebook Page is all about teaching Facebook users who they are and giving them options to take action. The opportunity for users to get involved right from the Page ranges from the “Donate” call-to-action button at the top of their Page that takes you to their official donation website, to their “Actions” tab that lets you share a relevant update with your Facebook friends via a Facebook app called ActionSprout.

It also lets you sign up for their email newsletter right from a form that appears on the page.

UNICEF is known for creating powerful content like videos to spread awareness and positive messages about current events. One example? The video they shared to Facebook about the Syrian refugee crisis. (See #3 in this blog post to watch the video.)

Use these awesome Page examples as inspiration to finally create a Facebook Page for your business, or as motivation to improve your existing page. You don’t have to do everything. Instead, focus on the core needs of your fans and customers.

Want to see how HubSpot uses Facebook? Check out HubSpot’s Facebook Page here.