One of the biggest mistakes I see people make on Facebook is using a personal profile for their business instead of setting up a business page. This is a HUGE no-no!
It is vitally important that you always keep your personal profile separate from your business page. Yet many people still don’t know the difference between the two or the reasons why they should be kept separate. Here are three reasons why it’s so important.
#1: Facebook Says So!
The number one reason to create a business page for your business or brand rather than just using your personal profile is because it’s against Facebook’s policy to use a personal profile to promote your business.
Your personal profile is strictly for staying in touch with friends and relatives and sharing your personal life with them. It is not for promoting your business or brand.
Facebook is quite firm on this and if it is found out that you are using your personal profile for your business or brand, they will shut your profile down and you won’t get it back. No ifs, ands, or buts.
#2: Privacy
Privacy is an issue these days. With access to everything you could possibly think of at your fingertips online, why would you want to expose your personal life to your customers, clients, and followers?
It is important when running a business to keep your personal life private from the general public. It may not seem like a big deal to you at the moment but as your business grows bigger and your customer base grows larger, do you really want total strangers knowing where your kids go to school, where you go with your family, or even how you like to let loose on your time off?
Not only is revealing this type of information to your customers and clients extremely unprofessional, it can be downright dangerous. Never volunteer personal information to anyone online. Do some research on phishing and social engineering to educate yourself on all the ways people get and use your information and I think you’ll begin to understand why it’s important to keep your private life private and separate from your business at all times.
#3: Promoting Your Business
Another big reason to set up a business page rather than use your personal profile is the benefits to your business.
Friends or Likes: Personal profiles have huge limitations when it comes to ‘friends’. On a personal profile, you can only have a max of 5,000 friends and although that sounds like a lot, it’s not that much when it comes to being a business.
Business pages can have an unlimited number of ‘likes’ and ‘followers’, which means you can constantly be expanding your business or brand’s reach.
If you use your personal profile as a business page (Just a reminder: BIG no-no!) and you max out your 5,000 friend allowance, you will find yourself creating a business page and trying to get all those ‘friends’ to now ‘like’ your business page. Some will make it over to your business page but I can assure you that you will lose the majority of your following. It is extremely difficult to get people to abandon a personal profile for a business page once they’ve gotten nice and cozy with you.
Advertising: There is absolutely no way to promote a post or advertise from a personal profile. This means that if you set up your business using a personal profile, you will have done all that work for nothing.
Not only will it be difficult to get your ‘friends’ to cross over and ‘like’ your new business page but you will not be able to promote posts that you’ve written on your personal page. You will be starting from scratch and working frustratingly hard to build up the new business page, which is unfortunately a huge waste of time for you.
In addition to being able to promote and advertise on your business page, business pages give you a lot of tools to help improve your brand’s reach which will help in every aspect of your business growth.
So, when setting up your business on Facebook, take the time to do it right the first time. It will save you a lot of frustration and time and it will create a more professional image for you and your business.
For help setting up your Facebook business page, Facebook has resources here: https://www.facebook.com/business/pages/set-up or you can purchase a copy of my book, Making Your Business A Social Media Superstar, by clicking here.
