Don't use your Profile as a Business Page

We see people all over our timeline liking business pages on Facebook – yet there are still companies out there who are either unaware of the advantages of having a page, or who think it will be easier to just run it from their personal profiles. This is where they, unfortunately, go wrong with their social media strategies.

Facebook’s number one rule when it comes to business is that you may not use your personal timeline as a business page. In fact, if Facebook happens to come across this, they may suspend or even delete your profile. To some it may sound controlling – but trust us, they are doing you a favour by being so strict.

If Facebook users come across your page or are interested in your business, they want to like the page so that they can be kept up-to-date with any news about your company or any new products and services. People do not want to have to send a friend request and then still see your personal posts amidst any business ones. You will lose your audience very quickly this way – which is the exact opposite of what you’re trying to achieve. 

Facebook Page vs Personal Profile for Business 

Besides the fact, as mentioned above, that you aren’t allowed to use your personal profile as a business page, why would you want to? A Facebook page is very basic to set up as it mainly involves filling in details about your company. There are so many advantages to using a proper Facebook business page; with features you can use that aren’t made available on your profile.

Let’s take a look at some of the main differences: 

There is no personal information being shared with a business page. Even if you have a social media manager, that person may be ill or on leave and you’ll have posts that need to go up. This is why you’ll need more than one page admin. If you’re working from your personal profile, it means that other colleagues will have access to everything on your Facebook. Switch to using a page where you can have multiple admins and editors. Another advantage is that people who like your business page won’t be seeing your personal posts and know what you got up to on the weekend. 

The number of Facebook fans has no limit. According to articles we have read, Facebook apparently has a 5 000 friend limit for your profile. It seems to be a realistic number as there can’t be many people who have that many friends. This limit could work as a disadvantage if you’re using your profile to promote your business. Facebook pages for businesses can have any number of likes, which means you can expand brand awareness over a much larger audience. 

You can't target your market with a personal profile. An amazing feature of Facebook pages is the advertising. You can choose to advertise a particular product or service of yours, or even create an ad that promotes your Facebook page so that you can get more people to see and like it. While you’re creating your ads, you can also choose your specific target market, such as countries, gender, age, interests and much more. Needless to say, this feature is not available for your personal profile. 

Facebook pages have an "Insights" feature. This is probably one of the most useful features of having a business page rather than a profile for your company. “Insights” does exactly what it says: it gives you insights or analytics as to how your page is performing. They give you the option to choose a date range in order to view the progress of your page likes, your post reach, page visits as well as your page demographics. When you’re aware of who your audience are, it’s much easier to target them with your posts.

In the end, perhaps setting up a Facebook page does require more effort than just posting something about your business on your personal timeline. However, not only could your entire profile and all of its content and photos be removed permanently by Facebook themselves, you also won’t be giving your business the exposure it deserves. With a business page, people will constantly see your company’s logo, rather than your profile photo, which will make it stick and they will remember your brand.

If brand awareness, interaction and feedback is what you want for your business, set up a Facebook page for it now and get started. Don’t have the time to manage a social media page? Online Innovations manages social media profiles for a host of different companies. Contact us now for a quote.