Facebook Business Page or Personal Profile?

Are you stuck and not sure if you should be using your Personal Profile or a Facebook Page to promote your business?

Technically there is a very black and white answer to this, which is found in Facebook’s Terms of Service (Section 4.4)

You should be using a Facebook Page and not your Personal Profile. But with everything black and white there is plenty of room for some ‘grey’ in between, more on that shortly.

My view is, if you have a business you must have a Business Page and if you don’t have one yet, there is no better time than the present to set it up.

Here’s a very brief ‘how to’ to help you create your Page. If you already have a page that’s awesome, skip down to BUT I AM MY BUSINESS – although you might find the Cover Image Template handy, so check it out on the way down.

1. Decide on the name of your Page

One of the questions I get asked a lot is should I use my business name or my own name to set the page up?

Which you choose is really up to you, but I’d suggest you make the decision based on where you see your business in the future. Will the business eventually be more than just you, could you want to sell the business in the future? There is no right or wrong, it’s what feels right for you.

You may need to add a word or shorten your business name depending on availability, Facebook is a global platform which means there are often multiple businesses with the same name. If your business name has a lot of competition then using your own name may be a better option.

2. Get Your Images

The 2 images you need to set up your profile are :

2.1 The Cover Image

This is a great way to convey your message visually and can be a picture with words. Don’t be shy, consider using a picture of yourself as part of this image. This is particularly beneficial if you are using your business name as it personalises your page. The overall size of this image is 851px x 315px however there are other things to consider including mobile sizing. Please see the images below.

Below is a screenshot on a computer of Nudge Marketing's Facebook Cover Image. If you look at the template about you will see it in the background, hopefully this will help you with designing your image. 

To the right is a screen capture from a mobile showing the same cover image – as you can see the image is cropped on both the left and right side. It's worth considering this, given the large number of users that use their mobile to browse Facebook these days.

2.2 Your Profile Picture

This could be either your business logo or name, a picture of you, or a combination of the 2. Again consider using a picture of you to personalise your page. The size you need for this image is 180px x 180px.

3. Write Out Your About Us

Succinctly describe what you do, use keywords and write in a tone your prospects will relate to.

4. Create Your Page

I have included a couple of images below to get you started, then it’s just a matter of following the bouncing ball.

But I Am My Business

This is where the grey area comes into play.

If your business is you (ie you are a coach, professional, ‘guru’, therapist, artist, radio presenter etc) then I’d recommend you use both your Facebook Page and Personal Profile. Before you hit the panic button let me assure you this isn’t as hard as it sounds, it doesn’t mean twice as much work and as long as you are sensible you won't stray outside Facebook's Terms of Service and find yourself in hot water. 

What it does mean is having a strategy in place to benefit you and keep your list of friends happy. The last thing you want to do is be reported to Facebook and get your profile shut down – and yes I know people this has happened to. Facebook are ruthless when it comes to keeping their Users happy so you need to stay within their Terms of Service.

Which category does your personal profile list fit into?

If it’s 1 and you want to keep it this way then the rest of this post really isn’t for you. Unless of course, you are looking for new ways to grow your business and are open to new ideas.

How To Create Groups Within Your Personal Profile

There is a way you can set your friends list up into groups to control who sees what posts and pictures you share. This is something I’d suggest you do irrespective of which category you fall into. Some examples of groups might be family, close friends, clients, business colleagues, prospects, countries or states they live, groups they came from etc, etc – this list is really only as limited as your list of friends. Word of warning though, don’t make it so convoluted that you can’t maintain or use it. 

The reason for setting these groups up is so you can choose who see’s what – it's the only way currently available to be able to target specific people on your friends list. 

Rather than try to describe how to do this in words, I have taken a step by step series of screenshots.

Below is a screenshot showing you how to add friends to the groups you have created. Please note your friends can belong to more than one group.

Now you've got your groups set up, you can share or publish posts to specific groups. The image below shows you how to do this.

So What Do You Post Where?

Anything to do with your business or brand should be posted on your Page first.

Why?

Because once it’s on Facebook you can share it as you choose, to your profile or in a group you run or belong to. Posting it to your Page first gives you the ability to:

• use other Facebook Tools to monitor how the post is performing (Insights),
• schedule the post to be published at a set time on a specified date,
• boost the post by paying a set amount to show the post to a targeted audience, and
• comply with Facebook’s Terms of Service and keep your Personal Profile save.

I’m not suggesting you share absolutely every single post from your page to your personal profile, but there will be one’s that are right – it might be a blog post you’ve written that will benefit your friends or an inspirational quote or image. You know your list and you will know what to share.

This is where you can use the groups of friends you’ve set up. If you’ve got something that’s personal and only for your close friends and family you’d select that group, or if it’s more business oriented that your close friends and family wouldn’t be interested in then you’d select your business group. Or if it's something you want ALL of your friends to see, you leave the button as PUBLIC. 

Make sense?

You Never Have Total Control

One thing to remember when you’re posting anything on Facebook, it is a public platform and when people comment on your post or share it, it opens it up to their profile and if their privacy settings are set to public that means anyone can see it. I’m not saying never post again, but I am suggesting you are mindful of what you post.

More and more people are using Social Media platforms for research – potential employers, potential clients, future partners… this is another reason to be mindful and take care with what you post and share. I often use the Mum test before I hit the publish button, by asking myself “Would I be happy if Mum saw this?”. If you’re not sure about a future post, try it.

Moving Forward With Facebook

Facebook offers all Businesses – large and small – an interactive platform to connect with their prospects, fans and clients. With over 1.5 Billion Users there are plenty of opportunities to be had when you use Facebook Page’s to promote your business and your Personal Profile to showcase the odd post.

If you need some inspiration about what to post you will find another one of my posts really helpful. Click Here to read 10 Types of Posts to Use on Facebook.