10 Reasons Facebook Business Page is better than a Personal Profile
In the not-so-distant past using a Facebook Profile for business did not matter (like last year). Fans, friends, and customers are all together on your profile. What could have been easier?
Every story has a happy ever after, but, not this one.
Some of you are holdouts, I know, I’ve spotted you.
You are in charge of the ending — ‘Happy ever after’ or ‘Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200’.
Follow along and see my top 10 reasons a Facebook Business Page is better than a Facebook Profile for your business.
Yep, there are more than 10 reasons, but, these are my top 10.
1. Not getting Deleted
Deleted? Not possible.
Facebook is cracking down. Getting your Facebook Profile deleted is the ‘Do not pass Go. Do not collect your $ 200 nuclear scenario.
Yep, using a profile as a business is against the terms and conditions of Facebook, see here. And guess what? You agreed with these TOS when you pressed the ‘sign me up’ button.
Scared of using your profile for business? You should be. Don’t get deleted.
2. Using a Facebook Profile Makes you look like an Amateur
Like an amateur?
Yes, using a Facebook Profile instead of a Facebook Business Page is you stating; “I know what the difference is, but, I don’t care”.
Perhaps you say to yourself – ‘Sure what’s the harm?’, or these ‘little’ details don’t matter. or ‘Everyone does it’
Perception is reality, my friend. Perception is reality. If a person believes you are an amateur, well, may you are.
A professional takes care of the little details in business, not just the big issues. And I want you to be taken seriously.
A profile for business is a rookie move and amateurish.
Don’t be a rookie.
3. Facebook business Page Insights
Facebook ‘Insights’ is a box full of hidden treasure — which Facebook freely gives you — and is full of gold, jewels and precious metals.
All you have to do is open the box and you become rich.
The treasure in the box is knowledge about your fans. Your page insights tell you who your fans are, what they like, and don’t like, what time of the day they interact with your posts, and how many likes, comments, and shares each of your posts receive.
Use this treasure of knowledge to fine-turn the content you offer to your fans and community.
‘Insights’ is only available to Pages and so are the treasures.
4. Tabs and Contests
Have you looked at those tabs, under a Page’s cover photo, and asked ‘what are those for’? I am referring to the “About, Photos, Notes, email signups, videos” tabs.
The (not so special) ‘use case’ for these tabs, is giving your fans another opportunity to get to know you, like you and trust you.
Graph Search, additionally, uses the ‘About ’ section as one signal to serve up your page in results.
Running Contests is also not allowed on a profile.
5. Facebook Business Page Offers
Ever given a free sample, a discount, or a coupon to a prospect to redeem in-store or later?
Samples, discounts and coupons are excellent ways to nudge a person along the path to a sale. And they are only available on Facebook Pages.
See more about Facebook Offers.
6. Facebook Pages can advertise. Facebook profile cannot
Using Facebook ads to drive actual sales and results is no longer a myth.
‘I don’t want to advertise’ you say. I want to reach my fans for free like before. Ah, yes, reminiscing about the good old days of ‘free reach’.
Facebook ads allow you to get highly relevant fans, at a low cost. Fans who are interested in what you have to say and interested in your products and services. With ads, you can target, very precisely, interests, location, gender, email addresses, and mobile phone numbers.
These people are interested in your product or services.
Not ever (never say never says the wise man) in the history of marketing and business was it possible to precisely target relevant people with advertisements. With TV? No. Radio? No. Newspaper? No.
Target fans, with ads, are only available to Pages.
7. Facebook Admin roles (multiple users same page)
You do know, there exist different roles you can assign to people who work on your page. Well, you can. There are five different page roles;
- Admin – Head Honcho – Can do everything
- Editor – Think ‘Community Manager’ or no 2 boss, cannot change page roles
- Moderator – Assistant ‘Community manager’ or trainee
- Advertiser – Specialists in Facebook Ads, can only create ads and view insights
- Analyst – Data geek, only access to page insight
Why is this helpful? If you have many employees helping with your Facebook page, you can assign different roles each with different responsibilities levels.
Would you hand over your username and password to your profile? Nor would I.
That is the only option with a profile.
8. Facebook Business Page Post Scheduling
Scheduling posts is a Facebook business page feature. You can schedule a series of posts for delivery. How cool is that?
But, it is only available to Pages.
9. Business Information
A page can belong to categories and subcategories, have a mission statement, list products and services, and show awards, and founding dates.
These are a few traits which define a business. But, it does not necessarily define a person.
A page can also restrict access. The restriction can be by country or age. You can also set up profanity blacklists, and limit who can post on your page.
For page only.
10. 3rd Party Tools – Page only
Facebook by itself is cool and awesome. If you want to perform other tasks, then many companies integrate their tools to expand the functionality of Pages.
Examples are running competitions, collecting email addresses, and offering exclusive content on your Facebook page.
For your profile? Nothing available.
A profile is for you, a page is for your business.
More Facebook Reading
- Is your boss struggling with social media? Read this How to Sell Social Media to the C-Suite for hints.
Thoughts? Did I miss your favourite reason for not using a profile? Post it the comments section.