Facebook allows you to create a page to promote your business. This allows other Facebook users to ‘Like’ your company and receive updates from you without becoming a fully fledged friend.
It’s quick and easy to ‘Like’ a business on Facebook. One click of a button and it’s done, no ‘friend requests’ and ‘friend confirmations’ to deal with. It’s immediate.
However, there are still many companies, (some quite well-known) that are using a personal Facebook profile as opposed to a Facebook business page to promote their company. This can have its problems.
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Here are just 5 of them:
1. You are breaking the rules
You may have set up a personal Facebook profile using the name of your business or your business branding. If you also have another Facebook page for your own personal use, we’re afraid you’re in contravention of Facebook rules and one or both accounts could be suspended. Section 4 of Facebook’s terms clearly states that you shouldn’t have two separate Facebook accounts and you should never use a personal Facebook profile for commercial gain. We’ve seen businesses have their accounts suspended altogether over this malpractice.
2. Your business won’t be seen
Facebook business pages can be optimised for search engines like Google, but personal Facebook profiles cannot. Surely you would like as many potential customers as possible to find your company online wouldn’t you? Using a personal page to promote your company is hindering your chances.
3. No-one will ‘Like’ your business
It will be much more difficult to gain ‘friends’ as a business if you’re using a personal Facebook profile because regardless of privacy settings (which confuse most Facebook users anyway), people will be reluctant to share personal information with a company – no matter how good that company is. A Facebook business page allows people to ‘Like’ your company without any privacy risks because your company cannot access their personal information.
4. Your business could run out of Friends
Although it’s not easy to verify, many commentators say that Facebook will only allow a personal profile a maximum of 5,000 friends. But your Facebook business page can be ‘Liked’ by a limitless number of people. Why limit your opportunities?
5. Your business will be one dimensional
Whilst you can only have ONE personal Facebook profile (if you’re obeying the rules) you can create more than one Facebook business page. So if your company has several sub-brands or specialities, you could consider creating a dedicated Facebook business page for those too.
Convinced? And there’s more where that all came from.
It’s not rocket science. Facebook personal profiles are for people and Facebook business pages are for businesses. Of course you can still reflect your business in your personal Facebook updates, but it’s simply not designed to enable a company to maximise the many benefits that social media offers today.
UPDATE: FACEBOOK HAS NOW DEVELOPED A TOOL THAT WILL NOW ALLOW ALL BUSINESSES THAT MADE THE MISTAKE OF SETTING UP A PERSONAL RATHER THAN A (BUSINESS) PAGE PROFILE TO MIGRATE ONE TO THE OTHER.
Click here for more: https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate
thats is all fantastic advice, but no one gives a hoot. i am sick and tired of people using MLM sevices, phone services, hairdressers, make up sales etc. on thier FB page . facebook gives you the option to report someone that is using their personal page to promote a business but so what, their pages still seem to be appearing on pages with the same usernames.
I’m with Dan.