Facebook announced a few months ago that they are cracking down on people using Facebook incorrectly, this includes spammers, fake accounts, personal accounts for your animals (yes some people actually do this) and also for those using a personal profile as a business.
There are a huge amount of businesses who are using a personal profile as a business (so the profile is actually the business name and not the person’s name). This is what Facebook what to stop and they have begun the process in removing these.
So if you are using Facebook like this then you could use your profile.
The good news is you can transfer your profile over to a page. Keep an eye out for the video tutorial that will show you how to transfer your profile over to a business page later this week.
If this isn’t reason enough to transfer over to a page then perhaps this list will help…
1. The statistics and insights
Your Facebook page comes with a huge amount of statistics regarding what is happening on your page. These statistics include the number of likes, the reach of your page, breakdown of you likers statistics (gender, age, location etc), a list of your top posts and much more.
The personal profile doesn’t give you this option at all. So if you wish to measure your success on Social Media then using a page is the only way to go!
2. Page likes are unlimited
Facebook personal profiles only allow you to have 5,000 friends however business pages are unlimited.
Sure you might not expect to have 5,000 fans to start out with (building your fan base takes time), however, who wants to be limited to only 5,000.
The large brands have millions of likers and who is to say you can’t get to that as well?
You need to think long term in your Facebook strategy..what happens when you hit the 5,000 mark? Make sure you are prepared and have the room there to grow and expand.
3. Pages have access to the Check-In feature
If you are in retail, hospitality or have your own business address then this is a must. Facebook Places allow people to check in to your premises when they are visiting.
It is a fantastic way to increase your reach on Facebook. When someone checks into your business their friends will see that they are at your business which is the perfect way to naturally improve your fan base.
Personal profiles are only able to check into other people’s places and not your own page or place.
4. Facebook Offers
Facebook offers allow you to bring customers to your business with an offer they can claim and share with their friends. Offers are a relatively new feature on Facebook but they have so much opportunity.
You can post offers that can be used offline in your shop, online on your website or a mix of both. So offers are a perfect way for any business to generate buzz about a great deal. When people claim the deal their friends also see it which increases your reach.
5. You can run competitions on your page
Facebook allows you to run competitions from your business page (following their guidelines). On your Facebook page are the tabs where you can run your competition and help promote your business and the page.
You are unable to run a competition on your personal page without breaking the Facebook terms and conditions.
6. Facebook Advertising
Facebook Advertising is another feature that you have access to with pages, personal profiles themselves are unable to do any Facebook advertising.
The advertising feature is a great little tool on Facebook that allows you to target your ideal clients based on their Facebook information.
Best of all advertising on Facebook isn’t expensive and you can set your own budget so you don’t get a huge bill at the end of your promotion.
7. Admin Roles
If you are a company with more than one employee than Facebook Admin Roles are a fantastic tool. Your business page is able to have multiple administrators with varying permissions.
This means that you don’t have to hand over logins to any of your staff members, you can simply set them up as an administrator of your page. You can also remove them if they ever leave your company without and issues with security.
Side Notes:
1. If you are unsure what profile you are using then look at what people need to do to join your page. If they have to click LIKE then that is a page. If they have to click ‘Add to Friends’ then that is a personal profile.
2. If you wish to learn more about using Facebook for Business come to our workshop on November 8th at Mingara Recreation Centre.