A few weeks ago I sat down with an Alexandria business owner to look at his business presence on Facebook.
“Hang on,” he said. “I need to log out from my personal account and log in with my business account.”
Does that sound like you?
A lot of business owners, concerned about personal privacy, create entirely separate logins for their business.
There’s good news: That’s not necessary!
Facebook allows business owners to set up business pages that are entirely separate from the business owners’ personal Facebook presence without having to create a new Facebook account. This set-up makes it quick and easy to switch between personal and professional Facebook identities and allows business owners to designate other page administrators and editors to help lighten the workload involved in social media marketing.
Unfortunately, this business owner’s son – in addition to the separate login issue – had set up the business as a person on Facebook, not as a proper business.
Combined, the drawbacks and consequences of these two errors are significant. In addition to violating Facebook’s terms of service and putting your businesses’ presence on Facebook at risk (yes, Facebook can and has deleted business profiles for being improperly set up), you may be losing out on a valuable suite of online services Facebook offers to businesses. These include Facebook Insights, Facebook ads, boosted posts, administrative ease and more.
Here are two ways to tell if your business is set up correctly on Facebook:
You should not have to log out and log in with a different account.
If you are logging out and logging in to control your business’ Facebook presence, you don’t have to do that anymore.
Facebook allows you to just log in with your personal Facebook account and be an administrator or an editor of any Facebook business page. One of the benefits is that this allows you to switch easily between your two identities (personal and business) without compromising your personal privacy – fans of your business page will not be able to see photos of your kids unless you allow them to do so.
Further, Facebook allows you to designate admins or editors for your Facebook page without having to share a username and password. That means if you’re too busy to post to your Facebook business page, someone else can help you out.
On a less happy note, if you have to fire or lay off an employee who had access to your Facebook business page, it’s very quick and easy to remove their access to that page without having to change and redistribute your Facebook business password like you would with a separate login.
Your business should not be masquerading as a “person” on Facebook.
What’s the difference? If a business is set up correctly as a business page and you have more than 30 fans, you’ll have access to Facebook Insights (in the upper left portion of your Facebook page), a valuable tool that can help you reach more of your businesses’ fans.
Also, a person can become “friends” with people on Facebook – a business should not be able to do that. (If you get a “friend” request from a business, it’s a telltale sign that the business is set up incorrectly.)
Fortunately, there is a quick and easy way to switch your business from being a “person” on Facebook to being an actual business. Facebook simply turns your businesses’ friends into fans – no questions asked. The conversion is free.
Need help getting your business set up properly on Facebook? Contact me at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to walk you through the process.
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Beth Lawton is founder and CMO of Canoe Media Services, an Alexandria-based business that helps entrepreneurs and small businesses shine online with smart social media marketing, blog content and more. More information is available at www.canoemediaservices.com.