subject: Why You Should Not Use Your Facebook Personal Profile For Business [print this page] We've all seen it, people who have set up a Facebook personal profile for their business - usually through ignorance of how Facebook works. And we've all heard of the social media butterflies who manage to max out the 5000 friends that they are allowed to have.
So, why would someone using Facebook for Social Media Marketing set themselves up as a business on a Facebook personal profile in the first place?
In many cases, this is because:
1. business owners believe that they need to have a separate log in from their personal account to run a business page
Facebook rules state that each user is only allowed one email log in. This is attached to a Personal Profile or, if the user does not want a personal profile, a Business Account. Managing multiple personal accounts is an infringement of Facebook's Terms and Conditions.
If you choose to have a Business Account, it allows a very limited functionality to the Facebook experience and can only be used to operate the Page and any Ads that relate to it. A Business Account cannot interact with any personal pages.
2. business owners want to keep their business page completely separate from their personal log in so that no one can link the two together
When you run business pages from your personal account, no one else can see which personal profile is behind that business page - except for any admins you may choose to appoint who will be able to see your personal profile as an admin for that page. They cannot see any other pages which you operate or administrate.
3. it is a deliberate attempt to gain access to people's personal walls and comment in the name of the business at a time when Facebook are not allowing business pages to do so.
In response to what have become some pressing problems for those business owners who didn't have access to social media courses, Facebook have set up a facility that allows you not only to change your Personal Profile to a Business Page, but it also changes any friends that you may have accumulated to likes automatically.
Brilliant!
You know there's going to be a BUT don't you...?
It doesn't take over any other details like photographs that were uploaded to the Personal Profile or any of the Basic Information section so you need to ensure that you download onto your hard drive any pictures that are in your image folders if you want to maintain them on the new page.
When it does the switch, Facebook doesn't ask if you would like the account to be associated with an existing personal profile and, therefore, because there is no personal profile, instead of a Business Page, you get a Business Account with that limited functionality.
Instead of Home Profile and Account options, you get only Settings and Log Out.
It can be a bit of a shock if you were expecting to be able to use your new account in the same way as your old Personal Profile or even a proper Business Page linked to a Personal Profile.
So, how to get round things?
Log out and log back in using your own Personal Profile because you need to like the new Business Account page with that name. Then log out and go back in as the Business Account, look down the list of 'likes' and find your name. Using the 'Make Admin' button next to your name, make yourself an admin. Save. It is always wise to get at least one other person to agree to be an admin as well.
Next you should speak to Facebook via the report a bug contact us form and explain that you need the Personal Profile and the Business Account linked so that it becomes a Business Page and the superfluous log in for the Business Account deleted. Or you can just use the delete account facility. Providing you have your personal profile and a couple of other admins on there, the Business page should remain intact.
If you are changing a Facebook Personal Profile for a Business Page because your followers have exceeded the number allowed, your page needs to make you into a public figure - which means that you can still have a small personal profile behind it or you can take advantage of the subscriber button and direct any new friend requests who are not personal friends to that.
