When to use it
Local businesses, community groups, sports clubs, churches, schools, market traders. Facebook is still where many local audiences are, and a page code on a noticeboard or shop door reaches people who would never type the name into a search box.
The example code on this page points at getqrstudio.app, because we do not encode third party accounts here. Yours will follow the pattern above.
How it behaves on phones
iPhone: the Camera app shows a banner naming facebook.com. Tapping it opens the Facebook app on your page if installed, through the universal link, or Safari if not.
Android: most Android scanners open the link and Android routes it to the Facebook app. Without the app, Chrome shows the mobile web page.
Common mistake
Encoding fb://page/123456 or another app scheme. It works only when the app is installed and fails without any message otherwise. The https link opens the app when it can and the browser when it cannot.
Gotchas
Username or ID. A page username such as pagename is readable and short. The numeric ID, used as https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012345678901, is longer but permanent. If you might rename the page, either encode the ID or use a dynamic code that redirects to the current username.
Login walls. Facebook shows logged out visitors the page but interrupts with sign in prompts. People with the app never see them.
Groups and events. Group links are https://www.facebook.com/groups/groupname. Events use a long numeric ID and end on a date. Both work, but a printed code should point at something that will exist next year.
Size. https://www.facebook.com/pagename is 33 characters and fits version 3 at level M, 29 modules wide. The profile.php form with a 15 digit ID is about 55 characters and needs version 4.
Tracking parameters. Links copied from the app carry ?mibextid= and similar. Strip everything after the question mark unless it is the id= you need.
Try it in QR Studio
QR Studio has a Facebook type that takes a page username or full URL, trims the tracking, and builds the link, with the option to add the Facebook logo inside the safe area.
Print advice
Level M, Q with a logo. A noticeboard flyer read from arm’s length wants 3 cm; a shop door sticker read from the pavement wants 8 cm or more. Print the page name in text beside the code, and consider adding “Find us on Facebook” so people know what the code does before they scan.
Try it yourself
See how large a logo the code can carry at level Q before the finder patterns are at risk.