Yes! There is a difference between a Facebook profile and a Facebook Fan Page.
Facebook profiles are for people.
Fan Pages are for businesses.
I cringe every time I see someone set up a profile in their business name. Here’s why:
People vs. business
Profiles are intended for people, not businesses. It’s actually against the Facebook terms to use a profile for a business. If the Facebook gods find your profile set up like this, it’s possible they may delete the entire profile. So much for all your hard work getting friends!
SEO
Your Facebook Fan Page can be a part of your Search Engine Optimization strategy. Why is that, you ask? It’s because Fan pages are indexed by search engines. Profiles are not.
If you’re like most business owners, you want as many people as possible to find you online. If you set up a profile in your business name, you’re not maximizing your exposure. Sure, your Facebook friends will be able to see your page, but new people won’t find you all that easily.
Fans vs. Friends
Fan Pages can have an unlimited number of fans. Profiles can only have 5,000 friends. If you’re trying to build your business, why limit yourself? It only makes sense to choose the option that allows you to have more people get on your bandwagon.
One profile – many Fan Pages
You can have multiple fan pages, but only one personal profile. This is important for people who want to promote different businesses or groups. I have my personal profile and fan pages for PetsitUSA, The Pet Food List, and Austin Pet First Aid, which are businesses I own. I also have one for Wishbones for Pets – a pet sitter charity I operate with the founder Janet Depathy, of Under My Wings.
Keep in mind that you can still connect with people on a business level through your personal profile. I use my profile to keep in touch with family and friends, but I also connect with quite a few people due to business reasons. Since people like to know the person behind the business, this is a good way to interact with them. It’s also one way for me to create my personal brand. Note: Before using your profile in this way, get clear on the type of content you want to post on your profile. (More on that in an upcoming blog post.)
Set up a Facebook Fan Page or go to Facebook.com to set up your Profile.
Update (March 31, 2011): Facebook recently made it possible to convert a personal profile to a business page. See this post for more info: How to Convert a Facebook Profile to a Business Page.
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Hi Therese, Thank you for this helpful post and forum; it is impressive that you have answered all of the questions posted.
I am still confused about the difference between a Fan page and a Business page. I just want to have a Facebook page for my dog (and think that you might be the perfect person to advise given your expertise in the pet area!).
I started what I thought was a Fan page, and it is easy to manage since I can do so through my personal FB profile. When asked to categorize, FB gave me the ‘pet’ option, so I thought that this avenue of FB was the correct way to go. But, on my dog’s page, I can’t interact with people who make comments. I can’t tag anyone either. I think I may have set up a Business page because on the page I have info about promoting posts and analytics (not really interested in either). It is difficult to interact with other pet pages because I can’t like or comment on them…and the only people who follow my dog’s page are my friends or friends of friends. I have found it very easy to make connections with other pet owners on Instagram and Twitter, but I feel so lost on Facebook!
What do you suggest for a pet page? If you suggest a Fan page, is it easy to convert a Business page? If you suggest a public profile, is it easy to convert a Business page to this? I do like the ability to manage my dog’s page through my own account. I’d like to post photos, links to blog posts, and comment/like other pet pages. Please help!
Hi Beth, there are two main types of accounts on Facebook – a profile and a page. Profiles are for people and when you have one of these, you’re able to “friend” other people, write on their timeline, send messages back and forth etc. People (with profiles) are able to like your page and leave comments on your timeline. You can only interact with them on your timeline or if they send you a message through your page. If you’re using Facebook as a page, you cannot ‘friend’ someone with a personal profile. If you’re seeing info about promoting posts and analytics, you have a page, which is what you want. If you set up a profile in your dog’s name, Facebook may shut it down. So, it sounds like you may have a page, but it’s set up to post as you rather than your page. If that’s it, it’s easy to fix. Do this:
Go to your page
Click on ‘Settings’
Click on ‘Post Attributions’
Make sure the first button is checked on the options on the right, “Post as [your page name]”
Let me know if that works.
Hi Christine,
They don’t always enforce them, but Facebook does have very strict rules regarding using profiles for business purposes. I suspect the reason your personal page was deactivated is because you had your rescue name in there.
I’m not able to forward your message to anybody at Facebook. But you can contact them through an online form:
https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/260749603972907
I don’t know how long it will take them to get back to you, but that’s really your only recourse.
LIVES are at stake – PLEASE read – respond to [email removed] b/c I AM LOST HERE!
I cant get on my FB page – The message say “it looks like I am using an organizational FB page for a PERSONAL PAGE”-
I HAVE A FB PAGE FOR MY RESCUE – CRITTER CAFE RESCUE.https://www.facebook.com/CRITTER.CAFE.RESCUE
MY PERSONAL FB page – for ME – ChristineLea – is just that – MY PERSONAL PAGE.https://www.facebook.com/christine.lea.969
I have MY RESCUE NAMED WITHIN MY NAME at my personal page for one reason – it is a COPMMON NAME – and I’d like friends and family to REALIZE it is ME – MY PERSONAL PAGE – and they associate me WITH MY RESCUE.
Please allow me bk on my FB page.
LAST time you did this I lost all of my FB notes – IMPORTANT in helping the animals we adopt out – and so much research time went into my notes AGAIN as well.
YOU DID THIS TO ME ALREADY and I lost over 1,500 friends – ONE OF WHOM COMMITTED SUICIDE – but I did not know sonce you switched my page over and i could not get on without agreeing to switch it over.
PLEASE.
FORWARD THIS TO APPROPRIATE FB “controllers” and leave my personal page alone.
It is just that **MY PRSONAL PAGE**
I operate a fan page for my company and for some reason, the page notifications have started appearing with my personal notifications. When I log in now and click on the globe icon at the top, it’s a mix of personal and page notifications. My company fan page is very active and the page likes and comments are overwhelming my personal notifications. Why are these suddenly merged, and how do I separate them?
Hi Sandi, I’m not sure why they would be mixed together. I’ve not heard of that happening before. However, what I would do is to turn off the notifications for the page, and set up an account with http://www.hyperalerts.no/. I like it way better than the Facebook alerts. You can set it up to send you notifications as they happen, hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly. It also lets you set up alerts for pages that you are not an admin for, in case you want to keep up with a competitor’s website too! It’s a pretty cool little app.
How would you handle this situation…FB profile was started with a company page. then another business page was started as a new account..so they have 2 company pages and 1 profile. The profile with business page has more followers but the newer page is ranked in search listings. My thoughts are to close the new one since it has fewer followers..any feedback
Hi there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay. I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look
forward to new updates.
Therese, I’m confused. I have a new business with a spiffy new website. We’ve added the social media buttons to the home page. So, I see a button for Facebook, et al., and also a “like” button. I see that when I click on the FB button, it opens a link to the website that appears on my personal FB page.
But what does the “like” button on my website do? I can see a count of how many have liked the website. Does this info appear on the likers’ FB page?
Finally, I also have a business FB page for my business (separate from my personal profile FB page.) If folks like my FB business page, what does that do? Does that info appear on their FB pages as well?
Confused by social media,
MBRobb
Thanks! I will attempt your suggestion before I start from scratch. Don’t want to loose all of our likes.
Is it possible to have a Business page without a profile page?
It is possible, but I try to encourage everyone to have at least 2 admins.
Won’t that just switch the admin from the one profile page to another? We don’t want the pages to be connected. We just want the face of the Business page without all of the personal perspectives/comments on the profile pages. For example we have a Big Rig Truck Division. We have “Big Rig 1” as our profile page and “Big Rig” as our Business page. We don’t want to deal with all the personal and political comments on the “Big Rig 1” profile page. Thanks for the earlier answer.
Hello, Our business only wants to manage a business/fan page for two divisions. However a profile was set up for each division but we want to keep the business page. How can we keep the business page and delete the profile page?
Go to your business page and set someone up with admin rights. This will be a person who has a personal profile in their name (not a business name). That will enable the admin to login to their own personal profile, and then manage the page from there. It’s a good idea to have at least 2 admins for each page. That way, in case one person’s profile is deleted, hacked, or inaccessible for whatever reason, someone else will still have access to the page. After you have at least one person set as an admin for the pages, you can delete the profile. Make sense?
hi guys,
I have one query on this topic. We all know if we have profile page then we can create so many fan page. but is it possible in reverse? I wants to solve this as early as possible. can anyone help me on this? Thanks in advance
If I understand you right, you want to have a page with a personal profile attached, correct? If that’s the case, set up a personal profile in your name (NOT the business name). Then like the page. After that, login to your page and set the personal profile as an admin for the page. Then, whenever you login to your personal profile, you will be able to work on the page as well.
Hope that helps.
I just recently took over the job of posting to FB for my company. It looks like we have a profile page AND a fan page. Based on the above comments, it seems I need to be using our Fan Page strictly for our business. Does that mean I can delete our personal Profile Page? It looks as though the previous person has been posting to both pages, and I want to make sure it’s ok to delete the Personal Page and still retain the Fan Page. Thanks!
Hi Deb, good question. If the profile is in your business name it definitely does need to be deleted. HOWEVER…and this is CRUCIAL. BEFORE deleting your profile, you will need to make someone an admin, that would be someone with a legitimate personal profile. By legitimate, I mean a person who has a personal profile in their own name. And be sure that person is set as a manager. If you delete the business profile without setting someone as a manager, you will most likely lose the page.
hi,
i just converted my personal facebook page into a business page, but now i do not have a personal page. my business is my name daniel levin and when i try to set up a personal page, it needs a cell phone number where they can text message a code to, when i give my cell, they tell me it is already in use forkj another page, my business page. is there any way to set up a business page and a personal page. can you help me please?????
Somewhere along the way I set up a personal Facebook account with my home email address and a second account with my business email address. I have people and info in both that I don’t want to lose. I believe I should get rid of one but I don’t use it for personal communication. I really only want Facebook for business and if my friends and relatives come along that’s ok.
What are your recommendations for consolidating and how do I do it without losing those friends and family that are already connected to my personal account or vice versa?
Just like Alex above Facebook won’t let my fan page like other fan pages. I have clicked to use my fan page button but the “like” button won’t even show up on the fan page i want to like in order to click on it. I’m I doing something wrong?
Be sure you’re trying to like a page rather than a profile. Even if you’re using facebook as your page you will be able to view profiles. It could be that the pages you’re trying to like are actually profiles. Normally the like button doesn’t show up if you have not already liked a page.
I’m having a similar issue as Joe with my husband’s business page. He tries to “like” my fb business page and other non-profile pages but no “like” button appears. My husband has yet to have the ability to like any businesses.
After I received about 250 likes, I stopped receiving notices from Facebook regarding someone ‘Like”ing my page. What’s up with that?
And, can i setup sub-pages of my main facebook page for other divisions of my company? instead of management several facebook fan pages?
thanks for the help
I’m not sure why FB would have stopped sending you the notices. Take a look at your notification settings and make sure they’re the way you want them. If they are, change them, click save, and then change them back. Sometimes resetting things like that can fix whatever glitch may be causing the problem. Another option though is to use HyperAlerts. http://www.hyperalerts.no/ I don’t even bother with the FB alerts because HyperAlerts is so superior. You’ll have options that FB doesn’t have.
Its been rumored that facebook is planning to force “Business” profile pages to be changed into Fan Pages… Can anyone confirm if this is true and if there is a time frame.
Hi Robert, I’ve heard from a few different people lately that Facebook is cracking down on profiles that are used for businesses. I’m not hearing that they are converting them to pages though. What I am hearing is that more and more profiles used for businesses are simply being deleted.
It’s important to remember that the Facebook TOS has always stated that profiles are for people only. So, if you’re using a profile for a business, you’re really living Facebook life on the edge. They may never delete your page, but if they do, it could really be detrimental to your business.
Hi, I’ve setup 4 pages (from my personal profile). How do I change the email notifications to an email address from that specific company, instead of them all coming to my personal email?
You can’t, but you can turn off the notifications and use http://www.hyperalerts.no/ to notify you at whatever email you choose. You’ll have to set up a separate account for each email you want to receive notifications. I like it much better than the FB notifications though because you can get the alerts within minutes, or a digest every hour, day, week or month.
My business page wont let me like other fb pages why?
Are you using Facebook as your page? If not, login to your account, go to your page, and click the link that says “Use Facebook as (your page name)”
Hi,
I followed Therese’s advice for my husband’s business page but his page still cannot like other fb pages. I hope someone in this community can help because no one we’ve talked to could figure this out.
Thanks!
Lora,
It may be that the business page your husband is trying to “like” are not in fact actual pages, but rather personal accounts posing as a business. I’ve come across this several times. There are a few ways to find out if this is the case. You can log into your personal account and look up the “business”, and view their timeline. If it says “Add Friend” or “Friends” than it is a personal profile. Also, when searching for people and places with the search box at the top of facebook, it will separate possible matches into People, Places, and Pages. You can check there to see if the page you’re trying to like is in fact a page or person.
Facebook currently does not allow pages to like personal profiles. Because of people using their profiles as business I’m unable to connect with them as a business from my page. Unfortunately people don’t realize the limitations and problems with using a profile verses a page. This post was really good at outlining the difference and benefits.
I hope this answers your question 🙂
I have a facebook group page for my business, Emerging Art Scene, with 1300+ friends. A college group set up a fan page for Emerging Art Scene with about 130 friends. I need to delete one of the groups, and need to decide which, before I start inviting more.
Also, I have a larger following (3600) on my personal profile, and 900 friend requests, 700 subscribers. I have used the personal profile to brand myself in my field, however, I don’t want to convert it to a business page. I read that I would lose past photos and posts, and limit my feeds and ability to comment on others walls. People seem to like to see the person behind the business.
Therese,
Your blogs AWESOME! BTW: how would i know if i’m looking at a fan page vs. a personal page?
If it’s a page you’re going to see a like button at the top of the page (if you haven’t already clicked it). If you’ve already clicked the like button you’re going to see a Create a Page button in the upper right corner.
If you visit a profile you’ll see buttons at the top to Add Friend, Subscribe, or Message. If you’re already friends you’ll still see the same buttons but the friend button will just say Friends.
so if i’m setting up a business, say a new homebuilder’s business, would i set up the actual homebuilding company’s page under ‘company, organization or institution’ and then set up multiple communities (different communities at various locations which are entities themselves) under ‘local business or place’ for each separate community? do you think it unwise to do the latter if a community eventually sells out and you either quite using that page or close it?
I’d set up a page for each location if you have enough manpower to manage each page. That way you’re setting up a place where people can interact about that exact location rather than the entire brand.
So happy to have come across this thread and thanks for being so generous with your expertise. I recently changed my business name from San Mateo Rolfing to simply my name, Kathy McConnell. I set up a page for my business under my name and later discovered that facebook had automatically set up a page called San Mateo Rolfing. Now I want to blend the two so that I don’t have to do double work. Is there any way to combine two business pages?
Are you talking about the one with the suit box image in the upper left corner of the page? If so, you can’t do anything with those. They automatically generate content based on the page’s topic.
Hi Therese,
How do you determine (or does FB determine for you) which 5 photos will shop up along the top of your Profile Page?
Thanks so much!!!
Lisa
You have to tag them appropriately. If you want to set up a consulting call, let me know. I’d be happy to help with this & other FB questions.
So if someday I am no longer associated with this company I will just remove myself as an Admin for this page?
Thanks so much Therese!
Lisa
When first creating a Business Page it asks that you check one of the radio buttons ..
I already have a Facebook account
I do not have a Facebook account
(GRRR… I am just starting and already confused)
Yes, I DO have a Personal Profile but I am now just going to start on our company’s FB page, Do I say Yes or No?
I know that I will be the Admin but I don’t even know how to answer THIS question … Yikes!
Thanks!
Lisa
The best way to do it is to login to your personal account, then scroll to the very bottom of the page and click on “create a page.” You’ll then be an admin for that page and can set other admins if you wish.
Do you need special software to implement the new iframe format or is it just new “coding”? Any recommendations on where to educate myself on the iframes techno?
Thanks Therese, Lydia’s adorable btw!
Hi Therese
I just checked out Lydia’s page, below…
http://www.facebook.com/lydia.canine.cancer.survivor#!/lydia.canine.cancer.survivor?sk=app_4949752878
and I am curious … what kind of page is that that you’ve created and listed in your left navigation bar? I like it. Is it an iframe on your page?
Thanks!
Lisa
Thanks for the compliment! It’s actually an fbml tab. FBML has been phased out though, with iframes being the new format.
I hear you, and I also see 100’s of people setting up business profiles rather than pages everyday. To be honest, it’s easier to add friends than it is to get ‘likes’. I’m trying to find examples of where facebook has closed/disabled a business profile for breaking the T&C’s but haven’t found a single case. How can we preach that you should use facebook in the right-way if facebook doesn’t act on people breaking the rules???
For me it’s pretty easy to recommend people use profiles & pages appropriately. I know of a few profiles that have been deleted because they were set up for businesses rather than people. So, even though Facebook doesn’t routinely enforce the rules, the fact that they do enforce them (even if it’s randomly) tells me it’s not worth the risk.
That’s great to know – if I could get recorded/documented or a case study where this has happened it would really help my cause in ‘educating’ people about the right way. I have a business presentation coming up in September and would look to use any case study there. Thanks for replying 🙂
I haven’t kept screenshots or any record of the ones I’m aware of. Sorry.
Hi Therese,
I’m having trouble connecting my blog to my fan page. Every time I try to connect it to my fan page, I’m told that I have to sign in to my profile page.
It worked fine for Twitter…when I post on my fan page, it posts on my twitter account.
The problem is that when I post on my blog, the post shows up on my profile page, not my fan page. How do I fix this?
Thanks!
Kathleen
You might want to use something like networked blogs or another blog feed app.
If I created a personal profile page using my business name and then I created a fan page while logged into that “personal profile” page, can I delete the personal profile page, so long as there is another admin created on the “new” fan page?
thanks
As long as you have at least one other admin on the page, you shouldn’t have any problems. You don’t ‘create an admin on the page’ though. You’ll set up a personal profile and like the page. Then, the current admin of the page will set the new profile as an admin. Be sure the other admin is trustworthy! You don’t want them to delete the page or deny you access.
Hi Therese!
I am so loving this blog … very helpful!
We have just a few employees at our company that I would like to set up as admins on our upcoming Facebook page. And when they post I would like for their pictures to show up on the posts, to make it more personal looking … I know FB has it set up so that only your one profile pic shows up on each posting of a business page but i was wondering if i could have each of the post-participating employees change the profile pic to one of the multiple profile pics I’ll set up to choose from and then RIGHT after they have posted they can change it right back to the LOGO profile pic.
Do you see that working or problematic in anyway?
Thank for your time!
Lisa
If they’re posting as the page, then everyone will have the same image. Otherwise, they can post as themselves and their own image will show up.
Makes perfect sense. Thank you!!
My other question is, if I “LIKE” my company business page, would the admins be able to see my personal profile information?
Therese, first of all THANK YOU for your time and guidance.
I have a couple of quick questions. If the company I work for already has a business page and they want to add me as admin, would the other admins be able to see my personal profile? They are currently not added as friends on my personal profile because I prefer to keep my personal life and professional life separate. Please let me know. Thanks!
When an admin goes to the admin area of the page, they’ll be able to see who the other admins are. However, they will not be able to see anything on your profile that you have limited to only friends.
And no, to answer your next question, if you like a page it does not allow admins to see your profile info that you have limited to only friends.
Make sense?
Therese,
I hope this isn’t redundant, I read this thread and several others regarding pages and profiles, but I’m missing something. I am going to set up a facebook account for my dad’s business, he’s a chiropractor, I will set it up as pages however he still wants to be able to contact friends, business associates as many are on facebook.
You mentioned you can have a profile and pages but I am so paranoid about starting as I don’t want account deleted before I start can you have friends and fans at the same time. Thank you for your time. Carol
Hi Carole, if your dad wants to be able to interact with other people, he will need a Facebook profile. Profiles let you interact with people on your profile or theirs. Pages allow you to interact with people only on your business page. What you probably want to do is set your dad up with a personal profile first. Then, when you’re logged into his personal profile account you can set up his business page.
See if this helps…
Profiles allow you to have friends, When you are friends with someone, you can post on their profile wall and they can post on yours.
People who have profiles can “LIke” a business page. They are then fans of that business page and can post on the business page wall.
A business page can “Like” other business pages, but cannot become friends with people.
A business page can post on the walls of business pages they have liked.
Hi Therese
What a fantastic thread ! Just read the entire conversation and found a wealth of information. I am starting a FB page for our company and you have given me so much insight into the Profile vs. Page topic….
With regard to the last comment ….
… how can I optimize this in SEO? There wasn’t a Facebook category for ‘Animal’ or ‘Dog’ that I could find, so I placed it under “People / Public Figure”. How will people (dog-lovers looking for this relevant content) find her via the Internet?
My question is WHERE when setting up my PAGE do I select the Facebook category? (stupid question I am sure)
Thanks!
Lisa
Hi Lisa, I’m glad you’ve found some good stuff here!
As for the Facebook category. You can either do that at the very beginning in the setup process. Or, if your page (not personal profile) is already set up, you’ll see a link at the very top of your page, right under your page name, that says Edit Info. Click on that and it’ll take you to an edit page where you’ll see the category dropdown boxes at the top of the page.
Hi Therese,
I launched (just today) a business page on FB for my dog, Poppy. (Sounds strange, but its intent is to be a site to share dog-friendly events, places, and things). My question is, how can I optimize this in SEO? There wasn’t a Facebook category for ‘Animal’ or ‘Dog’ that I could find, so I placed it under “People / Public Figure”. How will people (dog-lovers looking for this relevant content) find her via the Internet?
I think the public figure category is probably the best one. That’s what I have for my dog’s page – http://www.facebook.com/lydia.canine.cancer.survivor. (I’m allowed a little shameless plug now and then 😉
Just remember to post good content, get your link out there on other websites, etc. then people will find it. SEO is never a quick job with a beginning and an ending. It’s an ongoing process.
oh I am so glad I found this thread but my head is still hurting. I started out with a profile keeping in touch with Family and Friends. Then I realized I could set up a business page. I followed the instructions and now have my personal profile and my business page “amsoil at stokesabode.com”. I think I have done everything correct up to this point? Now I want to set up a landing page for the business page like I have seen done by other businesses but cannot locate the correct how to guide. Everytime I try to add a static page from my business page it tells me I have to switch to my profile to continue, if I do I see no way of adding the landing page (welcome page) to my business page. Can you pls guide or point me to the correct procedure? It appears FB has went away from FBML and now allows standard html or css to make the landing page. any assit is appreciated.
Regards
norm
I understand that head hurting thing 😉
You’re right about FBML. New landing pages need to use iframes or you can use one of the custom landing page apps (there are quite a few). If you want to add an iframe app and do the coding yourself, Hyper Arts has a good tutorial: http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/adding-iframe-application-to-facebook-fan-page/
Therese,
I am trying to set up a fan page. I recently, unknowingly set up a user profile using the name of my business then made a fan page with the same name. Reading through some of these posts i see that people that have slipped through facebooks cracks, are simply directing people to there fan page. When you click the business name into a search it comes up twice once as a person and once as the business fan page. I only want the fan page. Would I be best completely deleting everything I set up staying off Facebook for 14 days for it to completely delete and then starting from scratch and attempt to just set up the fan page? Is that even possible? I noticed the use facebook as icon and have been going back and forth between the two pages but I only want the fan page I don’t want to have to deal with a personal page. Once i do have just a fan page can I still like other businesses and how do I do this if so? I have a personal account besides the one I attempted to set up for the business but I don’t want any ties between the two. Thanks for your help it would be greatly appreciated.
What I would probably do is change the username for your profile so that it’s in your name. To do this go to accounts/username and you can change it there. You can only change it once though, so make sure you type it correctly!
When you have a fan page you can like other pages and post on them. Just click the “use Facebook as [biz page]” link. Then, when you like another page, it’ll be your page that does the liking, not you. When you use FB as your biz page you cannot interact with personal profiles. For this reason, I would keep the personal profile (in your name) and set the privacy settings on lock down. That way you have the profile if you want it.
And, if you do have a profile & page, people will not know they’re connected unless you indicate it in some way.
Call me wind because I am abousletly blown away.
Therese, after finding many pages on google,,, some VERY old pages/info… I stumbled upon your page here and I just wanted to say thank you! I have both a photography and a travelogue I’m setting up and it’s great to know that I can promote both through FB. Your information has answered all of my questions and I thank you very much for your time and expertise with this subject. Now… if I can ‘only’ get my personal FB page to be viewed by non FB members, that would be great. But it’s not a priority right now. Again, many many many thanks to you :).
Hi Don, I’m glad I could help! 🙂 If you want everything on your profile to be visible by everyone, you just need to go into your privacy settings and tweak them. Just know that people who post on your profile may have their settings set such that they won’t show up to just anybody.
Yeah… I have my settings set for public… I go to personal page address, which is ‘supposed’ to be http://www.facebook.com/DonMichUP , but when I go to that address without without signing in to FB, I get a not found error. So… I don’t know?
Double check your settings. I’m guessing there’s something in there that’s making it not show up when not logged in.
Is there a way to share photos from a personal page to a business page? I would like to click ‘share’ and then have it go to the business page but instead it puts it back on to the personal page again. Right now, I click the photo, click share, click download and save it to my desktop which is so tedious. Why can’t you share information from personal to business page, business to personal page without having to upload it on both sites if they are under the same username and password. I don’t get it!
I’m not sure why Facebook doesn’t allow that. The way they change things it could be that you’ll be able to do it at some point.
If you login to your personal profile and set your business page up through that login, yes, everything will be separate even though they share the same login.
Personal profiles and business pages do work a little differently:
Personal profiles can friend other people (personal profiles) or like pages.
If you have a profile you can post on profiles of people you are friends with or pages you have liked.
Pages can like other pages and post on other pages.
Pages cannot become friends with people (personal profiles) and cannot post on profiles.
You can send updates to your page fans, but they will show up in the updates tab rather than your profile inbox.
I hope that helps.
i’m wanting to set up a business facebook page but not too sure which way is best. On business pages is there a place to send messages? If I set one up through my personal page, how do I get to the business page from my personal page and are my comments separate. .
Teresa, I have internet marketing company and I need to set up page for my client’s business and I need to maintain it. I do not want tolink it to my personal profile and my personal email addreess,a s tomorrow They might decide not to work any more with me. I do have another e mail addreess that I ma using when working for them. But that is only for e mail purposes, not for Facebook as on Facebook I have my personal account with my personal e mail address. I heard something about havening developper account and also doing username, but I think user name needs to be connected to my personal profile. I do not know much about developper account, so maybe that should be the way to go. Please advise.
Thank you. MBS
Developer accounts are for people who are developing apps for Facebook. What you might want to do is to set up the page through your personal account. Then, make someone at the company an admin of the page. That way if they decide not to use your services any longer, all they’ll need to do is remove you as an admin and they’ll still be able to manage the page.
HI Therese, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to everyone on here. You’ve been so helpful and I’m thankful I’ve found this page! I have few lengthy questions though that weren’t answered directly in previous posts, if you don’t mind…
I recently started a Facebook Business Page for a client of mine who is a well-known public figure… My client did NOT have an existing PERSONAL profile account because she never uses Facebook and has no interest in using it for personal reasons, but I still created the Business Page for her. I had to enter an email address, create a password, and put in a birthday to verify the account holder was old enough, but that was it. Anyway, after I made the Page look pretty with photos, etc., I imported a .csv file of her 3,000 contacts (which was the same as her constant contacts mailing list), and an Facebook invitation was sent to them to “like” her page I believe. Everything was going fine for me/us, until shortly after sending that out… I clicked a link (while signed in as her since I am authorized to) that said something like, “Convert to User Profile.” I now have to toggle back and forth… I know you referenced this in previous replies and it does sound somewhat beneficial, but the problem is that my client doesn’t want to use Facebook for personal reasons (like for family or friends) and definitely doesn’t want to be connecting to fans on that “personal” level either. Is there a way to only delete that personal profile portion?
Now that she has this personal profile page I understand she can have “friends” which maybe could be good? But like I said she wasn’t looking for that… And we keep getting notifications saying that “Jane Doe” has accepted/confirmed your friend request. I didn’t send out anything from her personal account – only the initial invitation (when she only had a Business Page) though… Do you know why this is happening? For now, so that her “personal” profile does not look so personal, per her preference, I have made her “personal” profile name the same as her Business Page name, but have changed privacy preferences for it. The only thing people can see on her “personal” profile is one wall post that I ddi that provides the link to her Business Page on Facebook so people will go there instead (no one can post back on her wall) and people can also see the website section, which also lists the link to her Business Page so people will go there instead. There is no user profile picture uploaded and no other photo albums. If you know of any way to cancel that portion out please let me know 🙂
Some other notes: When I am logged into MY own personal Facebook account that has all MY college friends etc, just as a regular viewer would be – not work related at all… and I search for my client’s “personal” account name… It is NOT listed in the search results. This is a good thing, but again, I find it strange some people are still “confirming” friend requests from her and finding that “personal” profile, because in the Facebook Help Section, it says the personal account will not be visible to fans. Those few people that are now her personal “friends” are also “liking” her business page so that’s good – but still odd.
Next, if I have to keep this “personal” profile portion… I do have the “always post as my business page name” box checked… So if I am in the personal section, I take it posts will automatically go on my Business Page. Only problem is, it seems when I try to do something while in her “Business Page” section, it often prompts me and says I must switch to “X’s Personal User Profile” to continue… For example, I was installing the “Clobby” chat application on her Business Page so she can talk to fans professionally, and it seems to have connected it to her “personal page”. When she talks to people in the chat room, is it going to appear to them as if they are talking to her “personal account” — the one that has no user profile pic and has limited privacy / is not pretty looking? I’m fearing it will because after installing, I went back to the Clobby Chat website I had just been on, and at the bottom, it said “X has just connected to Clobby”… and it was definitely referring to her personal account, not her Business Page, because there was the generic head image icon by her name (she has no Personal user profile pic), like I said.
Lastly, If I can’t delete the Personal portion only, I’m debating shutting down the whole account and re-creating the Business Page from scratch (and that time around would NOT link to personal profile). This would require a new invite to her 3,000 contacts though, and I don’t think the previous URL that was sent in the first invite would work any longer. What are your thoughts on that? I don’t want to create any more problems than I already have 🙂
SO so, sorry for this long post, but am so confused and very short on time due to outside companies’ deadlines for promoting her page (with Facebook Ads). Any help is greatly appreciated. Feel free to email me directly since this is so long if you prefer, but I’ll leave it up to you.
THANK YOU AGAIN!!!
Therese,
Thank you sooooo much!
i just made tis change from my business personal page to a fan page 24 hours ago and now it is not appearing anywhere. It can be searched but not clicked/ viewed or edited. I see the likes have been transferred but if someone tries to go to it they get the “the requested page cannot be found message”
I have sent facebook about 8 or 9 bug messages with screenshots but no reply!. Have you heard of this before and how can i get it back?
I know Facebook was having problems with the profile to page feature and had disabled it. They do have an appeal page, where you can ask to have your page restored to a profile. Be sure to read the info before submitting your appeal though: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact_us.php?id=189265951117017
I set up a business page while in my personal page; but I have no idea if it is a fan page, or profile page. I want a fan page so that I can let other people know about it a visit it. I have tried to go directly to the page (facebook.com/monadnock-sports-news) but it just brings you to my personal page…..How the H@%% do I fix this?
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Monadnock-Sports-News/212454092098138#!/pages/Monadnock-Sports-News/212454092098138?sk=wall
The link you sent me goes to a page, not a profile. Whenever you see the Like button, that’s going to be a page. (Be sure to Like your own page,)
Although facebook.com/monadnock-sports-news is in the URL for your page, that is not the entire URL. The actual URL is what you posted above. However, after you get 25 fans you can create a custom URL for your page. At that time you can choose to set it to facebook.com/monadnock-sports-news if you’d like. To set up a custom URL, go to http://www.facebook.com/username – but again, you will only be able to do this after you have 25 fans.
Oh, I failed to mention that I tried to start over and create another business page. Now I have two CozzeCouture pages. Can I delete one of them?
Hi Again,
Can you tell me what am I doing wrong? I am trying to post a link to my blog and fb page on my Etsy shop profile as well as link with other shop owners. Whenever I post a link and check to make sure it’s valid, I am finding that the page is visible to others in edit mode. Therefore, the link: http://facebook.com/CozzeCouture is not a valid site. HELP!
Thanks
Hi Cozze, I don’t see your Facebook page, but I’m guessing you just don’t have the correct URL. If you don’t have 25 fans, you need to use the ugly URL, not one with your name in it.
You can definitely delete one of your pages.
Therese – i’ve been following this entire thread and all I can say (and I’m a writer so words usually flow freely) is THANK YOU.
The confusion between profile and page – when/how to appear as one vs the other — i now understand that you need to click TWO PLACES to make this distinction happen.
So while I have your ear, uh, eyes (!): is there a way to get a discussion more visible on my page rather than hidden behind the ‘discussion’ button? I’m trying to jazz up the page by encouraging to engage in discussion around posted articles and writerly issues. I’m finally ‘getting’ the value of this page; just very slow to give it the necessary time/energy!
Thanks SO MUCH again for your knowledge and far beyond, to your willingness to lead us newbies through the maze. YOU ROCK 🙂
Therese, I just wanted to say that you have been EXTREMELY helpful! And you explain so explicitly that it all makes sense. You should work for FB, lol.
Anyway, thank you so much for you wonderful assistance. I LOVE this blog! 🙂
Hi Mona, thanks 🙂 I’m glad the explanations helped!
Hi,
Can someone tell me how to “like” a business page using my business profile? For some reason, my personal name shows up as “Jane Doe likes this”. It’s driving me crazy…help!!!
Thanks
You need to switch to your business page. To do this, click on “Use Facebook as (your business name)” If you’re on your business page, you’ll see it in the upper right corner of your page.
Hi, I have a personal page I use with friends and family and created a fan page for my students at school. I emailed this out or “invited” students to be fans and now they are “friends” under my personal page. How do you separate this? I want to get students to use the fan page to check information and get other “fans” engaged but I do not want them to be able to surf through my own personal page. Does that make sense?
Yup, that makes sense.
First, know that you do not have to accept people to be your friend just because they send a friend request. If a student sends a friend request, just email & say your profile is for family only and direct them to the page and ask them to like that.
If you don’t have that many students who are friends, what I would do is to send each one of them a link to your page and ask them to like your page. Also let them know that you are going to use your facebook page for family only (don’t need to mention friends or they may wonder why they can’t be your friend!). Then tell them politely that you will be deleting all non-family members as friends.
Thanks for helping us all to understand, Therese. I have a couple more questions. If one sets up a personal profile and sets it to private, will it affect the business page it’s linked to?
The other question is how do business page owners show a personal photo of themselves when responding to comments in their business page when the business page uses the company’s logo for the AV? Does that make sense how I phrased it? Haha, I’m starting to confuse myself!
HI Mona, if you set your personal profile to private it will not affect your business page.
If you want to post on your business page as yourself, here’s how:
Go to your page
Click the edit page button
Click “your settings” (on the upper left)
UN check the first box – the one that says “Always comment and post on your page as (your page name) even when using Facebook as (your name)”
You can change that back and forth as you see fit.
There is an option on the right hand side of my fan page that says “use Facebook as…” and lists the name of my fan page. What exactly does this mean? Would my posts on my profile and elsewhere identify me according to my fan page rather than my name? I can’t seem to find an answer, and with Facebook there’s not always a way to back out of things. So I don’t want to click on it until I know what it is. Can you advise?
That’s one of the newest features Facebook has implemented, and it’s pretty cool actually. If you click “Use facebook as (your business page)” you will be posting AS your page. This means your page can click the “like” button on other pages. You can also post comments on those pages and it’ll show up as a post from your page, not you.
Another cool thing about clicking “use as (business page)” is that you will then see up in the upper left notifications letting you know how many new fans you have and how many posts you have. They show up in the same place where your email notifications/new friend requests show up when you’re using Facebook as you.
You can then click “use as dannye” to go back to using Facebook as you.
I was a little wary about clicking it at first too, but now I click all the time.
I am so confused. I have a personal profile page. I was setting up my business fan page, and when it asked if I already had a profile page, I said yes and put in my login info. My Fan page is out there, but I can’t do anything to it. I can’t Edit the page in any way. It doesn’t seem to be linked to my profile. I don’t have a page button on my profile, and if I go into settings it says I don’t have any pages. Very confused.Any suggestions?
I’m not sure exactly what’s going on with your page without seeing it, But, when you login to your Facebook account, and go to “Home” do you see an Ads & Pages link to the left? If so, click on that, then click on Pages, and your page should be in there.
I accidentally created a facebook page and FAN page all in one log-in. Now I want to connect our twitter to the fan page and it’s only connecting to the “personal” page. Help?
This topic and comments have really helped me sort out the whole fan page – business page thing. But here’s my question: can a fanpage still have “friends” who can post if they want (once they’re accepted, of course)? I’d like to get others in our company to contribute content (sales guys, selected customers, etc), but might need to vett their comments before (or after) they post them. Is this possible?
Fan pages don’t give you the option of approving anybody or moderating their comments. If someone wants to be a fan, they just click the like button and they’re in.
As far as comments are concerned, the only thing you can do is to delete or hide a comment after it’s been posted, or you can ban a fan if you need to. If you need to vet comments, your only real option is to approve them before they’re posted (you’d have to do this via email).
I’m so glad I found this. I’ve read some of the policies on FB and still am doubtful. I’ve asked people who’ve been on FB and they don’t know.
I’ve set up a Business Page. I’ve read other folks’ questions here and your responses. I thought for the longest time that I couldn’t set up a Personal profile and a Business Page. And from your answers to others, Therese, I now know that I can.
But if I set up a Personal profile and link it (how is that done, is there a box to check?) to my Business page, will I then have to start logging into the Personal page first in order to post and work out of my Business page? Or will I be able to access my Business page directly without having to log into my Personal profile?
Also, will my posts or other activities on my Business page display my Personal profile info? I think I understood you said no previously. Sorry, don’t mean to be redundant.
If someone searches or googles my name, which page will be displayed, my Personal profile or Business page?
I’d be so appreciative if I can get the answers to these questions I’ve had…like forever! I hope I didn’t ask too many.
You can set yourself up (your personal profile) as an admin of the page. To do this, click on edit page / manage admins and set the admins from there. If you post as your page, then your posts will show up as your page, not you. When you’re in the edit area, click on settings on the top left. That’s where you can set it so that you always post on your page as your page, even if you’re logged into facebook as you (your personal profile).
If you have a separate login for your business page, but also have your personal profile set up as an admin, you use either login to get to the page. However, while you will be able to get to your personal profile and business page when you login to your profile, you will not be able to get to your profile when you login with the business page login.
If someone searches for your name, they will find your personal profile, assuming you’re using your real name in your profile 🙂
If you have liked your fan page, if you post something on your fan page it will show up on your home page along with any other posts from other pages you have liked. However, your posts on your page will not appear on the walls of your personal profile friends unless they too have liked your business page.
I also have a similar question to the above, but an not really understanding your answer. Someone at my organization set up a regular Facebook profile page for the the organization. Then someone else set up a Fan page and they are linked (or seem to be.) We want to delete the regular profile page, but keep the Fan page only. I’m not understanding from the directions above how to do this – and I don’t want to accidentally delete (or deactivate the Fan page!)
thanx for your help
This is assuming you have your fan page set up through the profile page:
1. Have someone in the company set up a personal profile in their own name – not the business name.
2. Set the new profile that you created (in step 1) as an admin for the page.
3. Remove the old profile as admin (the one you mentioned in your question)
3. Delete your old profile (the one you mentioned in your question)
The key is to make sure you set someone as an admin before you remove the old profile an admin for the page.
Sorry to seem to stupid, but I still don’t get it. When I search out other companies such as facebook.com/cnn or facebook.com/bedbathandbeyond, it goes right to their “like” page.
Our’s however, goes to facebook.com/pages/our_fan_page_name/a_bunch_of_numbers
Why doesn’t ours go directly to our fan page name, and how can I correct this?
I really appreciate your help!
Nope, you don’t sound stupid 🙂
You need to set up a username for your page. If you have at least 25 fans, you can set up your username at http://www.facebook.com/username.
I did, and received a FB notification saying that I could direct people to facebook.com/our_name. But when I try to search us out (like I did with the other companies just by typing it in the url) I get the following FB message:
This content is currently unavailable
The page you requested cannot be displayed right now. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page.
We have over 6,500 people who have liked us, so we are there, I can get into our page, I just can’t directly get to it and I’m not sure why. Also, I (this really was stupid) in my utter frustration accidentally changed my user name…and I shouldn’t have – now it says it’s unavailable. How can I either get it back, or is there some time period when it becomes available again?
We’re a business and set up our PROFILE page first, then added the FAN page. We direct everyone to the FAN page but continue to receive friend requests. Meanwhile our FAN count continues to rise. But I’ve noticed that at no time do more than 1,000 of our nearly 4,000 friends LIKE our FAN page. Is there a limit to the number of our FRIENDS that can LIKE our FAN page??
I’m not sure if there’s a limit to how many people can like a page at one time. I do know that if you send out too many friend requests, or too many messages to friends you may lose the privilege for a while.
I’m not sure why only 25% of your friends are liking you page. It may just be that they don’t feel the need since you have a profile. That would make sense to me especially if your profile is in your business name. And, if it is, please consider setting up a profile in a person’s name and setting that person as the admin. Then do away with the profile that’s in your business name (after letting folks know they should move over to your fan page). I know of people who have had profiles shut down because they were in a business name.
Therese,
I have several questions that I would like to ask you! Everyone is right, there is FINALLY someone who knows a little bit about Business Pages. I originally had our business set up as a personal page and deleted it because no one could see our page unless they had a facebook account and could log in. I want “non-facebook users” to be able to see our page if I provide a link (which I think I can do that with a business page, but am not 100% sure since I am still trying to figure out how to set it up!). As of right now, I do not have our business page linked to a personal profile. I can if that is the best option, but if I don’t have to then that would be great. What are the advantages/disadvantages to linking it to a personal page? Also, everytime I log in to facebook, the first think I see is like an Edit Page “thing.” I can clike view page and then it takes me to my page. The only option I have in the top right corner are: create your profile, settings, logout…that’s it! I don’t like the business page so far because it doesn’t seem very easy to get around in. I can still add photos and find us on facebook, but (just for example), when I click on settings, there is NO way to get back to my page, I can’t click on anything. I really just need some HELP!!
Thanks,
KBJ
Hi KBJ, you’re 100% correct – a fan page is viewable by anyone, whether or not they’re logged into Facebook.
See my comment to Jane Law about having your page attached to your profile.
When you just have the page as a stand alone, it’s not going to give you as many options to get around in. Some things about FB are very wonky, and this is one of them. Like you said, they don’t make it easy for you to get to your page once you’ve gone into some of the setup features. But, you can get back to it by clicking the Facebook logo in the upper left corner – then click on Pages – then you should see the URL to your page there. The other alternative is to bookmark your wall.
I do suggest you set up a profile in your name. If you’re concerned about people knowing you’re connected to the page, don’t worry. Unless you say “this page is owned by X” people won’t know.
How do I get other fan pages to link with my facebook fan page?
That’s something the owners of the other pages need to do. The best thing you can do to entice them to like your page or share it is to make it a vibrant, interesting page. Give people great content – foster communication between fans – ask questions they feel compelled to answer – etc.
Hi Therese
I thought your Fan page had to be linked to your profile? What are the pros and cons of having them linked or not?
It doesn’t have to be, but you’ll have more options available to you if it is. If you just have a stand alone page, you won’t be able to friend people, suggest your page to friends, or interact with people as you. Some people are fine with that, but others want to use a business page as well as their personal profile (in their own name) as ways to build their online presence.
Thanks for this post re: facebook profiles vs. fan pages, it was very helpful!
Finally an article about a fan page with a recent date on it!
I recently created a fan page for a business, but I do not have any options to invite people to join. I’ve read articles about this in 2010 that indicate there is a “share” button or “invite friends” button, but I do not have any of those options – just some links about how to advertise.
Any thoughs? Is there something I am overlooking?
Did you create the fan page through your personal profile, or is it a stand alone page? If you have a page that’s not connected to a personal profile you won’t be able to suggest it to friends. Only people can suggest pages to friends.
If you do have your page connected to a personal profile, you need to use Facebook as yourself, not your page. Then you can click the suggest to friends like in the upper right corner of the page
A big problem that I have with the facebook page is exactly that one. When I try to connect other pages like mailchimp, tout, salesforce, highrise, (or any other software designed for business) it connects to my personal profile and not to the page so I don’t use my facebook page as much and I don’t take full advantage of my options. If I had a facebook profile of my business and then a facebook page on it it would be better.
Hi, thanks for the info. I got here via a marketing blog at Reviews by Jessewave.
I have a couple of questions about the personal/fanpage divisions. I’m a writer; I have a personal profile only, and I use it to announce new books, activities like interviews, and, occasionally, link to a good review. I don’t sell anything directly, so I’m not sure if this is considered ‘business” or not.
The fan page idea sounds good, but I just clicked on your link and one big “plus” is controlling costs by only paying if someone clicks on your link. Now, as you probably know, most writers don’t even make 5 figure income from writing and a ‘pay when click’ sounds like an expensive proposition if the page brings in lots of viewers. Am I reading this wrong? Is the fan page free, like the personal profile, or are we talking about hidden expense
Hi Lee, fan pages are indeed free. You can pay for social ads on Facebook, but the pages themselves are free. Since you’re a writer, I’d probably set a page up as a public figure. If you go here, http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/?act=30084637#!/pages/create.php you’ll see the options you have for a page.
As a writer I’m guessing you want as many people to find you as possible. A page is going to be found by more people as it’s all public, unlike the personal profile.
THANK YOU!
I feel like Dr. McCoy sometimes.. “I’m a writer, not a press agent!”
lol you’re welcome!
Hi Therese,
10x for your post that clearifies the aspect of the personal profile and business pages. There are some terms in Facebook terminolagy as fan page and business page as I see from your post they are identical. Is that right?
I read the comment of Angela and her idea to create a special business profile that will manage the business / fan page. I know that according the FB policy it is forbidden to have more than one profile. The idea of the business profile is to use your corporative identity by clicking on some business partners like buttons.
The question is: Is it possible a business page to like other business pages?
Hi Apostol, you’re correct. A business page and a fan page are the same thing – just different words.
It is against the TOS to have more than one profile, and if Facebook finds out you do, they may delete one of them. I always advise clients to set their page up connected to their own personal profile.
And yes, pages can like other pages. If you have already switched over to the new layout, the first thing you’ll do is click on the “Use Facebook as” link. Then, when you l like a page, it’ll show up under the Likes section on the left hand column of your page.
I hope that helps.
Thanks Therese! You just made my day……………. 😮
Hi Therese:
I’m hoping you can clarify something for me. I have a fan page set up for my blog and website and then I have my personal profile page. I’m thoroughly confused about what I can put on my personal profile page in relationship to my blog or if I’m allowed to or not.
Example: Can I post a link on my personal profile page about an article and a video (news) that is on my blog or is this a no-no? I have more friends on my personal page than I do likes on my fan page. I just don’t know what the limits are. I will often write an article on my blog about a dog rescued along with a video that appeared on the local news. I post it on fan page, but again, I’m wondering if I can also post it on my personal profile page?
Is it me, or why is nothing ever clear as to what is o.k. and what’s not o.k. in social media?
Nope, it’s not just you. A lot of people are wondering how to use social media 🙂
You can definitely post your videos & blog posts to your personal profile – no problem. The main thing for people to be concerned about is that profiles are used for people, and pages are used for businesses. It sounds like you’re doing that, so post away!
But you can’t integrate the facebook PAGE to mailchimp, tout, salesforce, highrise, etc!
This is a great post. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with my multiple profiles and fan pages. I set up multiple profiles for different businesses before I knew about Fan Pages.
I’ve got about 1000 friends on my business profile and only 200 on my personal profile. I would like to combine them but my concern is that because I am a supporter of various online business I generally “like” their pages and this is expected. I don’t want my personal friends and family to start getting page suggestions from these businesses just because I’m a mutual friend.
Any suggestions on how I could maintain both a personal and professional persona on a single profile. I really would like to combine everything.
Angela
Hi Angela,
My suggestion is that, if you are using a profile for your biz, to set up a page instead. While you may be sailing along fine right now with a profile for your business, if Facebook finds it they’re likely to delete it, without warning. I have heard from a number of people who have had this happen, so I know it does happen.
Having said that, there’s nothing wrong with having a personal profile in your name, and inviting clients to become friends. It lends a bit more personalization and lets clients/customers get to know the person behind the business.
Our non-profit set up a FB friend page a few years back; we are inching dangerously close to the 5,000 friend limit, so I created a new fan page.
What is the best way to “delete” the original friend page? Is it even possible or do I just need to block it? I’ve been sending updates to encourage current friends to switch over to our new fan page, but I’m still getting new friend requests on our “old” page. I wasn’t sure if it can be deleted w/o screwing up our new fan page.
Thank you 🙂
The first thing I suggest is that you set your old profile so that nobody can post to your wall. Then post a message on the wall giving people the URL to the new fan page. Ask them to become a fan of the page and tell them you will be shutting the personal profile down. I would also change the security settings on the old one so that people won’t be able to find it.
Before you delete the old profile be sure you a way to manage the new page. You’ll either need someone set as an admin or a login specifically for the page. (I highly suggest having a person set as an admin though.)
I was hoping to find how I can designate my business Fb page in place of my personal page when allowing FB to link another page (ones I use to list my business). Seems silly that they would not allow us to do so. Why would I want my personal profile linked with a bussiness listing when I have a Business FB just for that?
I would appreciate any help on to do that.
(sites like Thumtack, Yelp ect…)
Hi Diana, I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking. Can you explain in a bit more detail?
Hi – I hope someone can help me. A former employee started a FB page for my company ( I am not sure if it is a fan page or a profile page…it says ‘Local Business’). The page is there if I search for it (it is Drive Solutions, Inc.), but I can not access it. I don’t know the username and password and I think it is attached to my ex employees email address. Is there a way for me to claim my business’s page?
Lesley, do you have access to the email your former employee used to set up the page? If so, you should be able to use it to login. If she was the only admin on the page, and you can’t access her email, then you’re probably not going to have much luck in getting it back. I just did a search though, and if I’m looking at the right page, you only have one fan. If that’s the case, and if you can’t get the page back, I’d suggest starting a new page. Eventually if that one doesn’t have any activity I’m fairly certain Facebook will delete it.
Hi, Therese,
Great article.
Can we introduce your article to our group? (around 300 Real Estate Agents)?
Of course, we will mention your name on the article.
We just created new facebook app – the most powerful facebook application ever. (I believe) http://www.facebook.com/imageya and teaching how to use facebook page for their business.
Sure, feel free to share, and please include the link to the actual blog post. Good luck with the new app.
Thank you so much Therese !!
thank you for the information. if a business was set up as a personal page is there a way to easily change this to a fan page and keep all the current information? i would appreciate any help possible. we realized we had issues once we hit our 5000 limit and need to figure out what to do.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to move everything over to a page. What I suggest is that you set up your business page then ask everyone to move over there. I’d also be sure you have your new page tied to a personal profile that’s in a person’s name. Don’t use the existing profile to set up the business page. The reason I say this is because with your profile (which is for your business) you’re running the risk of having it shut down. If you set up a new page connected to your current profile, and if that that profile gets shut down because it’s actually a business, then you’ll be locked out of your new business page (unless you have a person as a admin). Make sense?
Up til now the discussion seems to be business page/fan page VS setting up a personal profile as a business which is against FB policy. My decision is Business page vs Fan page. I am a bit of a privacy freak, and don’t really want general public making the connection with my personal life and my small business. The fan page has me as an administrator and the business page wants my profile and has limitations if I don’t… Which one will allow me to keep my personal real friends separate from people who like my product and frequent my business?
Thank you and I enjoyed reading all of the posts!
Hi K, you will definitely have more options if you have a personal profile. Two things to remember – 1. You don’t have to put any more personal info out there than you are comfortable with. and 2. If you have a personal profile you can set the privacy settings so tight that it’s highly unlikely anybody will find you.
Also, when you set up a business page, there’s no way for anybody to know who the owner of that page is unless you put it on the page somewhere.
I hope that helps.
I created a facebook fan page for my small business 8 months ago and while it is a very nice presence that allows me to alert any people that like my page via wall posts and publish updates like a micro blog, the problem I have with it is there is very little in ability to pro-actively market my page (other than taking out facebook ads- which are expensive).
The fan page is very one way and does not permit me to use that account to message people, even if they are a fan of my page! I can’t even tag people in photos. So I can only comment on things people write on my page and can only post a wall update but not a message to a user.
So the problem I have with this is it will take quite a long time to grow organically unless you are a big-time business with brand recognition OR you take out facebook ads OR you send off messages with your personal account inviting people to the fan page. While having a ‘profile’ for a business is not correct, I am really thinking about doing it because I can’t do much with a fan page in way of interaction/discovery/pro-active outbound marketing. It is very limited to inbound marketing.
Thoughts people? Also- do you really think Facebook will ‘crack down’ on all the people with thousands of friends that have a business name instead of profile? I doubt that seriously! Please let me know your thoughts, thanks!.
I feel it’s too risky to set a business up on a profile. I know of a number of people who have set up a profile in their business name and then had it shut down by Facebook. I’m not sure if the Facebook has humans who go out looking for such profiles or if they have an automated way of tracking them down. As time goes on I suspect Facebook may find a way to enforce the rules even more than they do now.
I think your best bet is to keep working on your business page. You can certainly use your personal page to cross post items from your page, that way anyone who is your friend will have the option of checking out your page as well.
I promote a live music showcase once a month and i can’t remember how long ago U decided to setup a profile for it in FB. This profile was for the show, and not part of my own individual profile. Then someone suggest I setup a Fan page, which is now called a Like Page.
Aside from understanding you have to have a profile to link a fan pge to has someone else found this to be a problem:
I have a mailing list to send show updates. While I include a link for people to Like my FB page in my newsletters, there’s no easy way for me to find people through my fan page and suggest they like it, unless they are friends of my profile. I don’t want to maintain a profile and a fan page. But it looks like the only way I can easily suggest my Fan page is if they are my Friends of my profile which seems circular and redundant.
Ideally, I would be able to find people by email address, as you do in your Profile so you can suggest they Like your Page.
Anyone have thoughts on this?
I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking. If people already like your fan page, there’s no need to go through your list and ask them to become fans. If you have a personal profile and want those people to become fans, you can send the invites (although some people do get annoyed by those) or you can post something on your wall now and then letting them know about your fan page.
You definitely want to put a link to your fan page everywhere you can think of – on your promo posters, newsletters, in the sig line of your email, business cards, etc.
found this a bit too late.
i started on fb as personal individual account. started to upload pictures of things that i sell. as part of my personal acc. and decided to turn it into all business ( still on the personal acc). been going for more than a year now. now i get warning from fb
We noticed that the profile held under this email address is being used to maintain a Facebook presence for a brand, business, group, or organization. Facebook profiles are intended to represent individuals only, and it is a violation of our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to use profiles to represent any other entities.
To avoid being disabled in the future, please make the necessary changes to comply with our policy.
If this account is used solely to maintain a Page, please add your separate, personal profile as an admin for that Page, and delete the account under this email address. If this is a shared account created to permit multiple employees to maintain a Page, please keep in mind that Pages may have multiple admins. Page admins’ personal information is not published to fans, just as admins do not gain access to fans’ personal information.
i don’t mind starting over from the beginning (uploading pictures, inviting friends, loosing all the likes and the comments etc) thou i realize that there’s many things i cant do on business page compare to what i can usually do with my personal acc such as msg and tagging.
my question is, they suggested me to delete my current account. can i keep my current account for personal use and gaming, mayb i change the profile name into my business admin. then i create a business page using the same email address? i mean i don’t want to make a new email address to register again. i just want to clarify coz i dont want to put so much time and effort to find out that fb delete my acc later on. Im so confused, pls help. thanks in advance
Just to be safe, I’d probably do what they say – delete the account and start over. However, I would set up a new account and delete the current one after you have everything switched over to the new one. You may need to use a different email address, but it’s easy to set up new ones. And, nobody needs to know that email address but you anyway, so it’s really just for your use.
When you set up your new page, with your personal profile as an admin, you’ll still be able to tag people if they are friends on your personal account.
Okay, this is what I’m concerned with for the company I work for. The new empolyer created a personal FB page. He wanted the LIKE button and asked me to figure it out. Well, I found the community page and couldn’t find the business one. Then he wanted his personal page to allow him to place the company as his employer so I thought it was perhaps because it wasn’t listed as a business. So… I found the way to create a business page. That still didn’t work & he created another page when he clicked the employer link on his personal page. Follow me??? I tried changing the email to the personal website to basically delete it, but it is tied together with the community and business page!!! Now what?! We still can’t get our employer to come up on our personal page and now we have too many pages and I’m afraid they will shut us down. It certainly isn’t because we are trying to not follow the FB rules. I had no idea it was more individually based than for business. Any ideas!
TO clarify better:
1st there was a personal page set up as a business;
2nd then a community page was set up so we would have the Like button
3rd a business page was set up so that it would show up as a business therefore be linked on our personal pages as our employer
4th FB linked them all together
5th I’d like to keep the business one and perhaps the community one will serve as the way to communicate with our residents and their families?
I’ll try to answer and hopefully it’ll help.
You don’t have any control over the community pages.
If I read your post correctly, you want to be able to click on the business name on your personal profile and go to your business page. Like on my profile: http://www.facebook.com/kopiwoda ( If you click on Austin Pet First Aid and it takes you to my business page.) Right?
If that’s what you’re trying to do, take a look at this blog post: How to Add Official Facebook Page to Your Profile Employer Link.
If that’s not what you’re trying to do, please let me know and I’ll try to help you figure it out.
Thanks, you’ve definitely made it clearer. I need to get more familiar with Facebook. I’ll do some testing with some friends to see what is what. Thanks for your help!
I’m confused as to what others see on FB. I recently created a personal page with my business information not fully understanding the difference (and I still do not). I then created a business page. I’d like my personal page to have minimal information about me personally but then link to my business FB page — does this make good sense? I never did see a publish button so I cannot tell if my pages are out there. Also, do you know how I get the vanity URL for the business name? I found a link that needs a confirmation number that I have but it will not accept it and I get stuck in a loop.
Your personal page is just that – for you, personally. Think of it as your home. Your home is where you invite your friends and family. On your personal page you can list where you went to school, where you work, etc. but it’s not your office. It’s like sitting at your kitchen table talking about where you work. Your family & friends where you work, which is in an office away from home.
Your page is like that office away from home, where you do business. And, other than the HR person (Facebook) people who come to your office won’t know where you live (your personal profile) unless you tell them.
What you can do is to set your personal profile security settings tight enough that people won’t be able to find it. And, as long as you set your business page up after logging into your personal profile, you will sign into your personal profile, and be able to access your business page as well.
As far as your page being public or not, you do need to publish it. When you go to your page, you may see a message like this at the top: “This Page has not been published. To make this Page public, publish this Page.” You can click the ‘publish’ to make the page public. If you’re still unsure if the page is public, click ‘Edit Page’ then ‘Manage Permissions’ and you’ll see how to make it public.
Does that make sense?
Hey There!
This could be a stupid question but is there anyway to change your personal profile into a business profile without having to start all over again?
Nope, that’s not a stupid question, but you cannot change a personal profile to a business page. I suggest setting up your business page and then telling all of your profile friends about it. Ask them to go to the business page and click the like button.
That’s a standard Facebook feature. Whenever you are an admin on a page, your posts are from the page, not you. You could have someone else set as an admin so you can un admin yourself when you want to post as yourself, and then set as admin again later. That seems like a huge hassle to me though.
You can write a post on your profile and tag the page. However, that won’t go out to each of your fans – they’ll just see your post when they come to the page.
If your goal is to get who like your page to know you’re the person behind it, be sure to put your name and contact info on one of your tabs – the info tab or an FBML page. You can always sign your posts as well.
Why doesnt facebook allow you to post on a fan page wall as “yourself” i am the admin for 2 fan pages.. so when i created a wall post.. when i go to comment to it.. it comments with the gravitar of the fanpage.. not as my self… any work arounds???
If you login to your page, you can set your profile as the admin. Here’s how:
1. Login to your page
2. Click on Edit Page
3. In the column under the green ‘promote your page’ button, you’ll see Admins. Click the Add link and you’ll see the various ways you can set someone as an admin.
Thanks for the advice. Worked like a charm.
Great! Thanks for stopping by again!
Somehow I created a “Page” without it being connected to my personal profile. Now my “Page” wants me to created a profile before accessing certain features. Is there a way to connect it to my existing personal profile?
I appreciate any help you can provide.
Thanks!
jb
Two additional questions I thought of since earlier:
2] Can I get the individual comments and reviews that people post on our business account to be emailed to me the same way as I have set up my personal account to email me for all contacts/notifications?
3] Can I save/archive the list of people that “like” our business page in case the business account becomes inaccessible? This subject was touched upon in comments here and stated that it is not possible to archive the “like” contact list, but not sure if it’s true.
Hi again, Casey, in answer to your questions…
#2 Facebook doesn’t have a notification for page comments (I hope they will soon!)
#3 Unfortunately that’s not available either. I haven’t found any software that will backup pages. Backupify and SocialSafe backup personal profiles, but I haven’t found anything that will backup pages. I love Backupify, btw!
If I find out a way to do either of these I will definitely post them!
Thanks so much for all of the info on FB business accounts vs personal profile accounts. I haven’t been able to figure out a way to “send a message” to people in FB from our business account page. I want the personal FB “message” that I send to an individual customer to show as coming from the company rather than from my personal profile page. Is this possible?
Unfortunately Facebook doesn’t allow that. You can send updates from your page, but it doesn’t go into the person’s inbox. It goes in the updates box.
To send an update:
1. Login to your page
2. Click on Edit Page
3. In the column under the green ‘promote your page’ button, there’s a “promote your page link” (not the green button, this is farther down)
4. Click Send an Update and go from there.
I just created a business page for a school district. It was perfect, until I accidentatlly clicked on the profile button and ended up creating a profile too. Now I have all these people wanting to be “friends”. If I allow them, will their posts on their wall also appear on my business page? We only want to have the announcements from the school appear on our wall. Is there any way to delete the profile?
Virginia, you can set the privacy settings so it makes the profile pretty much invisible. However, to answer your question, the only posts that will show up on your wall are posts that people put there. When your friends post on their own wall, they will not show up on your business page.
Thanks for clearing this up, I’ve gone and made a profile rather than a page for my business. The problem, as George points out is a page can’t solicit for fans or likes like a profile can for friends.
We have a database of thousands of clients who would welcome a friend invitation, but might never find us as a page.
I think I will stick with the profile for now but create a page as I plateau and use socialsafe to back up my friends.
Cheers
I don’t think George fully understands the value of SEO. If you do a profile for your business rather than a page, it’s not going to be found by search engines. Sure, you can invite your friends to it, but you won’t get the benefit of the natural SEO you’ll get by getting your page indexed by the search engines.
Therese, with small businesses, there is a tremendous power of being affirmatively active in FB, and this means Liking and Commenting on posts on a newsfeed and writing on walls. I’m doing socmedia for a wine shop, the wine shop has a profile with 1140 friends and a corresponding page has only 350 fans, both were established at the same time. The profile is getting about 5 friend requests per day while the page barely gets 2 fans per week. The reason is that wine shop’s profile can Like and Comment on posts in others profiles, write on walls, and thus get exposure and impressions of our clickable profile pic. Don’t you think the reason why FB doesn’t let page admins Comment, Like, and Wall Write as the page is so FB can sell ads to generate Likes for the page? …so that there is exposure on people’s newsfeeds/walls as a clickable link even if it is off to the right?
We couldn’t care less about where google ranks the FB page/profile. What we do care about is connecting with friends of the wine shop and interacting with them where they hang out, like on their wall and on other similar establishments that have a profile where we can Comment, Like, and Wall Write, so we can maximize the potent force of our clickable profile pic driving people back to our profile and Friend Requesting us – which by the way generates even more exposure as multiple friend requests are ganged together and posted in the news feeds of all of our friends thereby demonstrating the positive incremental activity week after week. As I see it, the reduced interactive functionality of pages (can’t Comment/Like/WallWrite) are a sucker’s play so FB can establish a value proposition for their own FB ads. IMO, starting out with a page is a mistake, I am 100% with george fanta on this, please don’t cringe at me. :^)
Hi Vinny, no worries. I’m not going to cringe at you. I certainly get what you’re saying, but I don’t totally agree. I do understand that you can comment on other walls, etc. but as I said in my original post, I use my personal profile (speaking as me, not my business) as a marketing tool as well. In many ways, I am the PetsitUSA brand so it makes sense. I use the page as the official business page, and can post as myself too. I understand not everyone wants to work it the way I do but it does work for me – and many other people as well. The huge risk in what you’re doing, if the profile is in your business name, is that FB could at any point come and shut you down completely. (I have seen that happen.) At that point you’re back to the starting point. I’m not willing to take that risk, plus I like the added SEO that comes from the page.
Thank you sooooo much, this clarifies a lot… you’d think f-book would have something this simple on their page haha
Hello!
Great article! I’m still stumped as to what I should do… I have a personal FB page where I post various things that I would never share in my professional life (religion, politics, etc.). I am an IT recruiter and would like to setup a page to post job postings, contract opportunities, etc. as well as build my professional brand to my candidates to help build my network and trust to get them to refer me to others they know that are looking for a job- that type of thing.
I’m conflicted on whether or not I should create another personal FB page (even though FB prohibits that) or a fan page? If I go with the fan page, what on earth would I title it because while I am technically “doing business”, I am not my own business… hope this makes sense.
Thanks so much and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.
You may not have your own business, but as you mentioned, you do have your own professional/personal brand – YOU!. You are the brand, and as you mentioned, you want to build trust around your name. When people search for you, they need to find you, whether it’s on your Facebook page, Google profile, a blog, etc. There are so many ways to start building your own brand, and a Facebook page is an excellent way to do just that. Do a page, not a profile!
I’ve seen questions skirting around this issue with business pages, but I can’t find the answer…
My boss set up a personal profile way before deciding to create business pages for the two companies she owns. The business pages were created from her personal profile. I want to keep the mgmt separate (I am the social media person for the company)- ie my posting on the business pages are geared toward our clientele…. that has worked out well except for one situation. I would like to be able to “fan” other business pages AS the BUSINESS (not as “ME”-in this case, my boss) but when I fan another business page all the activity (my postings on their page) comes from the personal profile. We don’t have 25 fans yet, and I understand some options (like choosing our username) will kick in at 25 fans. Will this also change when I get the 25 fans?
Facebook does not allow business pages to fan other business pages. The only thing you can do similar to this is to add another business pages to your business page’s favorite pages.
Whenever you post something on a business page you are not an admin for, it will be YOU (personal profile) that is posting to that business page, This will not change when you get 25 fans.
Great article. I have seen people set-up a business page for their business and when they try to manage their page, it shows up as commenting from their personal profile.
Is there a way around this? How can business owners manage their pages outside of their personal profiles?
Hi Sarah, they probably haven’t clicked the “Like” button for their own page. If you become a fan (aka Like) your own page, then all of your posts will be from your business page (assuming that page was created through your personal profile).
I’m surprised at how many people forget to like their own page!
Hi Nik,
Business pages that don’t have personal profiles attached do show up in searches, both on Facebook and in search engines. But, if you login to a business profile that doesn’t have a personal profile attached you won’t be able to use the search on Facebook.
Profiles are not indexed by search engines, so if you want your business to be found, a profile is not the way to go. It’s also against the Facebook TOS to set a profile up in a business name. If you do, you run the risk of them deleting if they catch it.
I hope that helps.
Hi Therese. This is really great information. Thank you for your thorough replies to everyone’s comments.
I have several Business pages that are not yet associated with a personal profile, but I’m trying to decide whether or not I need to give in and create profiles for each page.
is it true that Business pages without a personal profile don’t appear in the Facebook search results?
If so, it seems to me that everyone who has a business page should turn it into a profile right away. If your business page can’t get found via the native Facebook search, then what’s the point? Am I right?
The other issue that makes this very confusing is that I’ve heard that only Business pages are indexed by search engines like Google (profiles are not indexed). If this is true, it seems like a no win situation.
If I keep my Business pages the way they are (no profiles), then they get found by Google, but not in the Facebook search? But If I create a profile for each page, I get found in Facebook, but not in Google?
is my reasoning correct? Or am I missing something?
Be sure to check this post out – ownership of pages can now be transferred to another admin:
https://socialmediahound.com/2010/06/15/facebook-page-ownership-can-now-be-changed/
I get the difference between personal and business pages. But no one seems to answer this question:
What if you ARE the business?
In other words, a solo musician runs his business under his own name. But his personal profile would still be his name, thus confusing people searching for him.
You can set up a business page in your name. The very first part of the page setup asks you what type of business you are setting up – local, brand, or artist/public figure. Just click artist/public figure and go from there. If you have a personal profile in the same name, you can always lock that down so that nobody finds it, and then use the business page to interact with people.
Thanks for your reply,
I guess Im not clear on why it would be beneficial to create the buisiness page from your personal account. See I actually did this by accident…I was trying to register a new page for a business..but I did not realize I was logged in not it appears it’s connected to my account..not really a big deal I guess but…
I have come across posts that say your “likes” and activity will reflect on the PAGE and I dont want that..and Im also concerned I wont be working for this non-p[rfit for years and years…or at least not maintaining a facebook page for years…so i thought maybe I should delete it..creat page using the nonprofit email account…add my profile as admin..
and invite some friends to become fans…
The steps are tedious but it if it means I can transfer the account page over to someone who takes over my position in the future than perhaps it would be for the better..and also does your personal Profile activity really reflect on your “Page” and vice versa?
hmmmmmmmm
In your case, since you may not be working for the organization forever, you could set up a totally separate business account and set the page up without it being connected to a personal profile.
“does your personal Profile activity really reflect on your “Page” and vice versa?”
No. Your business page and personal profile are separate.
Quick question-
I have created a page..but I need to make it so that someone else can manage it in the future. I dont have fans yet so now is the time…So Im going to delete it and use another business email for it.
IT seems to me there is a lot of talk about the limitations it (the PAGE) has once separated from a personal profile. Is this not remedied somewhat once you add Admins to the page?
I’m only being hypothetical at this point…but it seems it would…and im hoping at least…
You can change the email address associated with your account. If you’re just changing the email address because you don’t want your admin to use another email, you don’t need to. When you set someone up as an admin, he/she will login to their own personal account and will have rights to the page that way. They do not need to log into your account to get to the business page.
Adding admins to a page that’s not connected to a personal profile will not change the limitations that pages have. It’ll just add an admin.
I agree and think facebook pages are perfect for small businesses, as I too have experienced an increase in sales from the page alone. Thanks for the help Therese. I am still stuck on one thing though – it still won’t let me “like” anybodys page. Is that right? If you have a business page you can only add pages to your favorites you cannot like them? It says I cannot connect to profiles when I hit the “like” button. I know the only way to comment on other’s pages is if I “like” them but it won’t let me. Are you allowed to like other pages under your business page?
Thanks!
Re: @george fanta I totally disagree. Wow, was that a comment or a blog post? Anyway, I think Facebook business pages are great for small businesses IF they use them. If they just let them sit and don’t promote themselves, then yes, they are lame.
Great post Therese. Keep ’em coming!
Thanks for the help!
Help! I created a facebook page for my business. It seemed to require me to add a personal profile. I added the pages and labeled it for my business and uploaded all the info. Now, I can only have friends on my personal page. If I invite them from the business pages it shows as my name – they don’t even know who I am sometimes. They can like my business pages but not be a friend. I didn’t want my personal on there and can’t figure out how to fix this. If they search my company name they can’t become a friend since they don’t know my personal name. It’s a mess. Did I do this wrong in the beginning?
Ok, just so I understand. . . you have a personal profile and a business page. When you go to your business page and click the suggest to friends, the suggestion comes from you rather than your business page. Correct? If so, you didn’t do anything wrong – that’s the way Facebook is set up. Whenever you invite someone to a page it’s YOU who invites them, not the page. Whenever you post something on your business page, your post shows up as coming from that business page. Any other interaction you have with people regarding that page will be from you. Think of it as you being the spokesperson for that page.
Also, just because someone is a fan of your page, that doesn’t mean they will automatically be a friend. Think of your business page as your store. Most of the people who come to your store don’t know where you live (your personal profile) but there may be a few people (your friends) who you do invite into your home. Pages and profiles are similar in that regard.
Unless you’re an established business, with a large client base (like Gucci) don’t listen to anything this Therese lady is saying. She doesn’t have a clue to what she’s talking about and isn’t running product driven businesses on Facebook- they’re more like facebook blogs for people to talk about their cats. Let her continue cringing, and I’ll tell you why:
The problem with a business page on Facebook is that it’s very difficult to add friends. You can only ‘suggest’ to someone from your personal account (who is already a friend) to become a Fan and that’s it. You can ask friends to promote it as well, but good luck getting more then a handful of people to become Fans. Meaning if you start a soap company, and you have 30 or 40 fans to start, it could take you 2 years to get to 300 fans. Now you walk into Bloomingdales to sell your soap line, and the buyers see you on the Web via facebook, and they see your 47 friends, half of them from Europe, and they pass on you.
Facebook business pages is the quickest way to announce to the world that your lame, and no one knows your product, and you have no clients. Its the quickest way to embarrass yourself in the business world- and since it’s attached to your personal page, even your friends will know you’re a joke. Better just to start a website, where people won’t know about the traffic, because they can’t see your fan list.
And people don’t like becoming Fans of business pages– it’s too much information to share with other people. I like Khiel’s products, I have no interest in becoming a fan. It’s nobody’s business that I like Khiels, and I don’t care to share that information with other people. People make judgements about you based on your Fan pages. The less information people know about me, the better. I’ll do it as a favor for some friends, but not others. I of course would have no objection to becoming friends with a personal / business page.
Therese is right about one thing- Facebook prohibits people from using a personal Facebook page to promote a business. You ‘suppose’ to only have one personal account. And Facebook has a multibillion dollar valuation because people ignore this rule and have multiple accounts. Facebook doesn’t tightly enforce these rules. Meaning if you started Elena Handbags as a personal page, no one is going to say anything. Unless you’re annoying people, Facebook doesn’t shut down pages.
Business pages do have limits– people can only be a fan of 50 pages, meaning you may have fans out there that have no space for you.
While Facebook limits you to 5000 friends on your personal page, that’s a lot of people and a lot of exposure. After you get to 4000 friends, then start a Fan page and request those 4000 people to become fans of ur business. That’s a problem you want to have– being so popular that you have to switch to a fan page. It will take you 3 or 4 months to get a few thousand friends of your business if you work hard- industry people, buyers, clients, etc…. it will take 3 to 4 years maybe longer to get that many fans of a business page.
Now if you’re home playing with your cats, and you want to start a page to find other people that have an interest in low cost cat nip- start a fan page, and you and Therese can post notes on each other’s pages. You want to sell product, and get known then start a personal account in the name of your business and get going. Between that and jaywalking, I don’t think you’ll be punished for it in the next life.
and by the way, for a few dollars, you can use sites like SocialSafe to back up your list of friends on your personal page that you’re using as a business. So if facebook ever did shut you down (for using a personal page to promote your business), you would have the list of 4000 friends / fans you could easily get back with a new page.
Interesting (yet very bitter sounding) post, George.
Fan pages have been proven to help people get business and for small businesses they can be an excellent piece of the overall marketing plan. I totally disagree that simply having a fan page is a good way to embarrass yourself in the business world. If this is the case, companies like Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Nike, and a heck of a lot of others are embarrassing themselves by having a Facebook page.
The great thing about Facebook pages is that they’re open to businesses of all sizes. I’m under no delusions that my website will ever be in the same league as the companies I mentioned above.. I will tell you though, that the multiple pages I have on Facebook have generated business (aka money). Facebook is one of many tools out there that can be valuable tools too grow a business.
As far as having a website instead of a Facebook is concerned, I’m an advocate of having both. Having a presence on as many high ranking social media sites out there as possible, help a business build their online presence and credibility. Facebook fan pages help in this regard as they are indexed in the search engines, which helps build SEO and SMO for your website. Personal profiles are not indexed in search engines.
Also, I’m not sure if it was a typo or not, but people can become fans (like) up to 500 fan pages, not 50.
so, if i want to make a page that’s completely anonymous how do i do that??? won’t i show up as the admin?
Are you talking about a business page or a personal profile? It’s against the Facebook terms to use anything other than your real name for a personal profile. If, however, you’re talking about a business page, or even a community page, that’s a bit different. With these types of pages, your personal information won’t be on them unless you put it there.
When you set up a business page, or community page whenever you post on that page, your posts will show up as being posted by that page – not you.
Hi Therese,
Thanks so much for your post and your clear answers. I’ve been looking online for weeks for some of these and so far you’re the only person that seems to be able to answer them clearly. So, of course, I have a question for you… 🙂
Our company has created a business page. We’d like to have a custom/vanity URL for the page which seems to require a personal profile be setup and linked to the business page. We have the same concerns as several other people here about linking it to an individual profile of a person that may no longer be associated with the company at some point. I’m wondering, do you know how large companies like Gap and Coke setup their pages? Surely they can’t tie their Facebook page to a single user within their enormous organizations. Companies like that have turnover rates that would never allow for linking to an individual.
The only thing I can think is that they setup a “dummy account” with a fake name but a real email address and let multiple people administer the FB page by using that account. But, that’s just a guess. I’m wondering if you have an absolute answer to this.
My other question is this: if we setup a personal profile (real or fake) that’s linked to our business page for the sake of the vanity URL, when we go to another businesses page a ‘Like’ it, will it show up that our business liked the page or that the personal profile tied to the business page liked their page? Same applies to comments, etc? We’d like to start ‘liking’ other businesses in our area but we want it to look like it’s coming from our business, not some individual who works for our business.
Thanks again for taking the time to answer everyones’ questions.
I don’t know what the big corporations are doing for their pages, however I do see a bit of a solution. You could do what you said, and set up a dummy person (although that’s technically against the Facebook TOS). Next, have the people you want to manage the page become fans. Then, set them as admins for the page. That way if they do a rotton job of it, or leave the company you can revoke their admin status.
When you set someone as an admin for that page, whenever they post on the page, the post will show up as a post by that page. For example, say you have a page called Friday Blogging that you want me to post on. I would sign into my personal profile and click the Like button on Friday Blogging. You can then set me as an admin. Now, whenever I post a message to page it’s going to look like Friday Blogging posted it – not Therese.
By setting someone up as an admin they do NOT have to sign into the dummy page you mentioned. By giving an employee access to the entire account, if he/she got upset enough that person could totally wreak havoc with that page – say nasty stuff about the company, lock you out, or even delete the page.
As for liking – only people can like pages. Businesses cannot like another business page. They can, however add them as a favorite and they’ll show up in the left sidebar on your business page.
Thanks so much for getting back to me Therese! Other business pages have “liked” my business page and are able to comment and post stuff on it. When I try to reply to them as my business on their page it won’t let me. Do you think it’ll help if I link my personal page to the business page? So there is no way in my business to “like” other business? I have no clue how these other business have done that. Also, every time I log into my business profile at the top right it constantly says “create your profile” – does this mean like my personal one? I’ve already created my business one. Instead of “liking” business pages now what I’ve done is “added them to my page favorites” and from there when I “view all” of my page favorites I have the “like” option but now when I click that it says “you cannot connect to this profile” – Yeah I’m totally stuck and confused and feel like I created my business page incorrectly. I can’t even find a help forum on it or a phone number to call them.
Sherri, I suspect the business pages you’re talking about are actually personal profiles set up for businesses. This is somewhat risky as it’s against Facebook’s terms, and if they find out they could delete the profile. If you want to email me privately though I can take a look.
Thanks Therese for the help! I’m still stuck with something and wish I could get some help on it. Maybe you’ll know. I’ve created my business page already, however, I cannot connect with anyone’s profile. I keep trying to click “like” for certain pages and it says “cannot connect to this profile” which means I’m not allowed to comment on anyone’s page. Is this normal? I thought other business could comment on other business’s page if they liked it? Well, it won’t even let me like anything. I also haven’t linked my business page with a personal profile as it suggests to do in the top right corner when it says “create your profile” – does that have something to do with it? Are you suppose to link a profile with the business page? Help! Thanks so much Therese or anyone out there listening. :o)
Sheri, if you have a personal profile (and are logged in) you should be able to like pages. If however, you have a business page set up as a totally separate account you won’t be able to click the like button. Only people can like other pages and comment on them – business pages cannot like other business pages.
Does that help?
Hi Karin,
When you click a share button on a website outside of Facebook, you’re actually clicking it as yourself, not as the admin of any pages that you’re an admin for. The link your sharing will be shared on your personal profile, not any of the pages you are an admin for. So, it’s going to share that link as you, not a page you’re an admin for. However, say you’re an admin of a page called Poodle People. If you want to share a You Tube video on the Poodle People page, you’d just copy the URL for the video, go to your Poodle People page and share the video by posting it in the link box. Then it’ll show up as coming from the Poodle People page rather than you.
I really wish Facebook would use a bit different terminology for Fan Pages & Business Pages. It can be confusing! The business page can look the same a Fan Page, and people can still become fans (aka click the like button). It’s not created through a personal profile though, which means you’ll have less access to the rest of Facebook. Here’s Facebook’s explanation for business accounts:
Business accounts are designed for individuals who only want to use the site to administer Pages and their ad campaigns. For this reason, business accounts do not have the same functionality as personal accounts. Business accounts have limited access to information on the site. An individual with a business account can view all the Pages and Social Ads that they have created, however they will not be able to view the profiles of users on the site or other content on the site that does not live on the Pages they administer. In addition, business accounts cannot be found in search and cannot send or receive friend requests.
Having a business account without a personal profile can be a bit limiting but some businesses prefer it that way. The main reason is because when a Fan Page is created through a personal profile, the person whose profile it’s attached to will always be the owner of that page. Page ownership cannot be transferred. This can make for a touchy situation if the employee who created that profile gets irritated and leaves the company.
If you have a very trusted employee, I definitely think the personal profile with the page is the way to go since there’s so much more flexibility. Hopefully Facebook will change the ownership issue at some point though, which would make it much easier to work with and easier to understand.
Thanks a million for your quick response Therese! Now I understand!
Great! I’m glad that helped.
Thanks for explaining this so clearly, I was going nuts trying to figure it all out. Much appreciated!
Therese . . . My company currently has a FB fan page, but it is linked to the personal account of the employee who created it. I am one of two admins for the account. The company also has a YouTube channel. When I click the Share button on one of our YouTube videos and then click on Facebook, it brings up my personal profile! How can this be changed?
Also, can you explain to me the difference (if there is one) between a FB “fan page” and a “business page?” I need to know the advantages and disadvantages of each type of page.
Hi CR,
It’s on this page:
http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=904
How are Pages different from personal profiles?
Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook. You may only create Facebook Pages to represent real organizations of which you are an authorized representative. People who choose to connect to your Page won’t be able to see that you are the Page admin or have any access to your personal account.
Where specifically on Facebook terms does it specify a business can’t use a profile for business?
Facebook business pages have some drawbacks. People prefer Fans over Likes. The content can’t be backed up. Records retention is not available. If the primary admin leaves the site in a huff, the facebook business page is at risk. It can only be deleted. It can’t be transfered. There are no email notifications from business pages. A business page uses the personal email address. Changing it to a business email address then changes the personal email address also. Most businesses will want to separate out business from personal activities. Having an employee create a business page and also getting farmville requests on their facebook account at work is not good.
SEO optimization path is better through a regular web site that links to facebook. The company will have better control. The only advantage here is the potential audience and the ease to reach them. A serious company will compete in the ad space for eyeballs. For everyone else, the SEO work is better done elsewhere.
Therese… Some say that keeping your personal facebook separate from your business page is advisable. Do you agree or disagree? I suppose it depends on the type of business it is and how one decides to promote it.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this…
Hi Mike, I’m so sorry I missed your question earlier. Anyway, I think the major drawback with Pages is that when someone creates a business page through their personal profile, that person is the owner for all eternity (as things are now anyway). Facebook does not allow ownership of a page to be transferred from on person to another (hopefully they’ll change that at some point).
It is possible to set a business account that’s not set up through a personal profile but this type of account has somewhat limited functionality. Even so, if you need to set up a page for a company where there’s the chance the person managing it may not be with the company forever, a business account only may be the way to go. That way it’s not attached to any one person’s profile.
I’ve created all of my Fan Pages through my personal profile. I’ve found, for me personally, that the line between personal and business is somewhat blurred on Facebook. I have many business contacts who are friends through my personal profile, but I also have many people who are fans (I suppose likers is more appropriate now!) of my business pages. And of course, there are many people who are friends and fans. I actually prefer to use Facebook this way. It allows me to interact on a more personal way with some people, via personal profile, or to keep things on more of a business level via my Pages.
I’m glad it helped!
Am I just stupid?
I found your advice to create a Fan Page just what I needed, but cannot understand how to go about it. The link you have on your blog sends me to Face Book, but the page contains no instructions on what to do, only an overview and case studies.
No, you’re not stupid, Richard! Facebook doesn’t always make it easy to find what you’re looking for. Try this link: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=904#!/pages/create.php
This is EXACTLY what I needed. Thank you so much; I’ve retweeted!
I do a lot of teaching “online marketing” and social media info to travel agents across N America and am constantly preaching this… Thanks so much. I’ve re-tweeted this and plan to post it on my blog! Thanks Theresa…
Adam
Hi Therese, I found your post via Google. It is exactly the information I was looking for. I tweeted it. Thank you.
Leyla
Great post Therese. I’ve already emailed a link to some of my clients. Thank you for clarifying this for everyone.