It’s not personal. It’s strictly business…On Facebook

Michael Corleone’s famous line from the Godfather should be taken to heart by anyone who uses Facebook for business.  It’s not uncommon today to see a brand owner publish a post under their own name, although they intended to publish as the business itself.   A mis-identification on Facebook can look unprofessional and Facebook’s new rule requiring every business (fan) page to have an associated personal page makes it an easy trap to fall into.

Set Up As A Business Fan Page, Not a Personal Page

Even experienced business people sometimes mistakenly use their personal page as a business page.  In other words, they never bothered to set up a Facebook business page at all.  The associated downsides are massive.  Personal pages used as a business page 1) look unprofessional  2) require fans to be accepted as a friend 3) are not indexed in search engines  4) Preclude advertising, contests and insights etc.  Fortunately, Facebook makes it possible to convert an existing personal page into a business page as follows:  https://www.facebook.com/help/116067818477568

How Can I Be Sure I’m Posting As The Business And Not Me?

But even if you’ve set the Business page up correctly, it’s still easy to forget or neglect to sign in as the business itself.  The easiest way of ensuring that you’re posting as the business is as follows:

1. Start off on your Facebook personal page. Your personal profile picture and name will be seen to the right of the search bar (containing the hour glass), as seen below.
2. Left click on the down arrow at the far right and select the desired business.

3.  The profile picture and name of the business will appear to the right of the search bar, as seen below. Now you know you’re on the business page (not your personal page) and posting as the business, ready to make prospects an offer they can’t refuse.

There may be times when the business owner or management wants to post on their own business page, as themselves.  This is especially true in this age of authenticity when customers want to know the people behind the product or service.  Note that this is the exception and most posts should be from the business itself.  If posting as yourself, start from your Facebook personal page and search for the business in the search bar.  Select your business, ensuring that it’s not a business with a similar name by clicking on the listing with your business profile picture.

You should still see your personal profile picture, but you’ll be posting as yourself, on the business page.  Facebook posts an additional message below the search bar, just to be sure you want to post as you and not the business.  If you click on Business Manager, you’ll be posting as the business.

Power Users

Note that if you’re managing multiple Facebook pages, you may want to tap into Facebook Business Manager, available at the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/113163272211510

Business Manager enables much more powerful Facebook advertising tools such as Ads Manager and Power Editor.  But, unless you really want to continually spend countless hours learning Facebook, and not running your business, you may wish to call in an expert such as Leading Edge Digital to help you to manage your Facebook page.

By the way, if another admin posts to the business page, you will see the name of the other admin next to the post, but non-admins will see the post as coming from the business, not the person.

Although this blog is specifically written about Facebook identity issues, similar concepts apply to other social media such as LinkedIn and Google +.

Tip: If managing a Facebook business page, ensure that your personal Facebook password is very strong. Otherwise, a non-authorized user could get into your Facebook business page through your personal page, with potentially catastrophic results.  You may even wind up sleeping with the fishes!