I have seen people using their Facebook Profile Page for business. If you are one of them you need to convert your page to a business page or have the risk of your page being deleted. If you are building a business on Facebook, you do not want the risk of being shut down or banned from it.
There are so many reasons why having a Facebook Business Page is better than a Profile Page. If you are one of those people who have not switched over to a Business Page, here are
13 benefits of having a Facebook Business Page.
1. Facebook Insights: This contains mounds of data you can use in your business to better understand your customer. By analyzing this data, you can create strategies on what times of the day to post, what gender and country they are from and what posts are going viral.
2. Facebook Tabs and Contest: By using Facebook Tabs, you can use apps to tell your story, to offer free products, to build your list and to promote a product or service. I don't know how people using their profile page gets the word out about their business. All you really have are your posts.
You can not run contests on your Facebook Profile. It is a violation of Facebook Guidelines.
3. Facebook Offers: Facebook Offers are a great way to create some buzz for your business. You can promote a deal to your Facebook fans and non-fans. When they opt-in for your offer, their friends see it as well.
4. Profile Pages are limited to 5000 friends: Even though you have followers, it still limits your reach. Even though you may be a small business now, most businesses plan on growing will want to reach more than 5000 friends. Also, how many of your friends wants to hear your sales pitches? Not mine.
5. Profile Pages look unprofessional: The way Facebook re-designed the profile pages, it does not look professional as having a Business Page. Your Profile Page is more social as it shows who your friends are, what books and movies you like and t.v. shows you watch.
6. Access To Advertising: Many are scared to do Facebook Ads and think if they stay on their Profile Page they won't have to worry about spending any money on their business. Think again. You will never reach the potential clients by staying on your Profile Page. If you did not know, EdgeRank also affects your Profile Page as well as a Business Page. Do you think you are reaching more than 16% of your friends with your posts?
With a Business Page you can create a Promoted Post to reach fans and friends of fans. You can target regions with your ads to attract new fans and clients to your business.
7. Privacy Considerations: Most people set their settings to default so businesses are actually seeing your personal information. Do you really want business clients to see your personal information?
8. Ability to Assign Admin Roles: If you get to the point that you are going to hire people to help you with your business, how are you going to assign Admin roles with a Profile Page? You can't. You need a Business Page in order to assign roles to help you mange your business on Facebook. You can assign people to help you with advertising, a content creator, insight analysis or moderator.
You can not do this with your Personal Profile. You would have to give someone your username and password. Do you really want to do that?
9. Connection to Facebook Places: If you are a brick and mortar business, you can tie your Facebook Business Page to Facebook Places. By doing this, you can set dates and times that your store is open. This will show up under your Timeline Photo. Customers can check in and if they show up at your store, they can alert their friends that they are there. This is a great way to get free publicity.
10. Business Relevent Information: When you create a business on a Profile Page, you have an age and a gender. When you set up Business Page, it has a category, a mission statement, products, awards and Founded date.
11. Business Relevent Options: When you have a Business Page, you have control over your settings. You can restrict your audience by country and age. You have access to moderation and profanity blacklists to control the conversation.
12. Third Party Tools: When you are using a Facebook Business Page you have access to these tools. You do not with a Profile Page. These tools will help you with content management and planning, analytics, contest promotions and advertising.
13. Avoid Being Shut Down: You really need to use a Facebook Business Page for your business, not your Profile Page. You are setting yourself up to be shut down by Facebook by ignoring their guidelines.
If this was helpful, please leave a comment below and share this with others. If you have some good reasons of using your Facebook Profile Page rather than using a Business Page, I would like to hear them.
To Your Success,
Anita Levesque
http://facebook.com/anitawaltonlevesque
207-619-0307
PS. If you would like to be coached on building your brand and business on Facebook, click here to review the packages.
Hello Anita,
Great information on having a fanpage. I’ve had my fan page for a little over a year. It’s a great way to brand yourself and you can also create other fan pages to attract other niches as well. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Nate. I have had mine for two years now and it is a great way to brand “YOU INC.” Great point that you can make more than one to attract other niches. Anita
Hi Anita,
Wow. You have listed some very relevant points that I have not thought about. I have considered switching my profile page to a biz page (I do have a biz page with my brand) but I could have two and it would give me some benefits that I do not have now – yet I hesitate to make the change and I wonder why! I will give it more consideration!
Wendy
You really do have to have a Business Page as you don’t want to get banned and get your page deleted and lose all of the work you have already done. That is not cool. As Nate put it, you can build more than one to attract other niches. Give it a try. Anita
I definitely need to get my act together on Facebook…I even committed to do so to my business coach. I have both a profile and a business page. I used to conduct lightweight business on my profile but don’t really do so now. Them again, I don’t really use my Facebook page either other than the once per day inspirational/motivational message. Thanks for the tips Anita.
At some point it is a necessity to have some social media platform that you need to be on to grow your business. You will get there, it does take time. Anita
You’re so right Anita! It amazes me how many people are still doing business on their personal profiles. Not only do they risk being shut down….they risk alienating their family and friends as well! Good news is that setting up a business page is easy and free! Thanks for sharing!
I am surprised that they have not alienated their friends and family unless they are part of the business. It is easy to set up a page and that will be my topic for today’s post. Anita
Hi Anita
great overview of the differences between a profile and a fan page. Thanks for sharing
Kind regards
David
Your welcome. Today I am going to give people step by step instructions on how to build a Business Page. Anita