Did you know you are missing out big time by using a Facebook “Personal” Profile for your business? You can’t take advantage of all the features designed specifically for business. Business Fan Pages are the way to go when marketing your business on Facebook. Here’s some reasons to convert to a page and take advantage of these features today. Pages are free and you can create as many as you would like. Reason #1 – It Is Against Facebook’s TOS The number one reason puts your page at risk because it is against Facebook’s policy. The information below says it best on how pages are different including the ability to add page admins. Facebook has the right to disable your account and you would lose all of your profile connections. Plus profiles are limited to just 5,000 connections and pages are unlimited. Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook. You may only create Facebook Pages to represent real organizations of which you are an authorized representative. Reason #2 – Potential Fans Can’t Like Your Business With Facebook profiles you have to request to be added as a friend. Depending on how often one checks their profile that might take several days, sometimes even longer. With a page fans can have instant gratification just by clicking the “Like” button on your page. You can even reveal special offers or coupons after a fan likes your page. Do yourself a favor and make it easy for fans to follow your business. #3 – No ability to schedule future post This is the latest feature offered by Facebook and only available if you have a Business Fan Page. Profiles do not have the ability to schedule a post. With this feature you can schedule a post for the entire week or even days and weeks out. This makes it easier to manage your social media and get on to running your business. Reason #4 – Not able to see page stats Facebook keeps stats on the fans who visit Business Fan Pages on the site. No stats are available to your business if you are using a profile page. Page Insights give you the ability to see how fans engage with your post, their demographics (age, location, etc.), total likes and more. This is very powerful information on how to market your business on Facebook. It’s free! Reason #5 – You can’t Advertise A Profile Page or Promote a Post The last reason is the only one that will cost you some money, but still can be cheaper than traditional forms of advertising. Plus using the demographics we talked about above gives you the ability to create highly-targeted ads on Facebook. You can’t get that with a phonebook, television or newspaper advertisement. There’s lots of great information in the Facebook Help Center to get the best results with Facebook Ads. Facebook also just introduced the ability to promote a specific post (Link: 5 Tips for Using Facebook’s New Promoted Posts). This new feature gives you the ability to target that specific post in front of more eyes. It’s new so the verdict is still out on how effective this new feature is. But it is only available to those who use pages for business. What are your waiting for? Pages are free and Facebook has no plans to start charging businesses who have pages. You can see from the 5 reasons above that pages are a better solution for business. More information on Facebook Pages can be found in the Facebook Help Center. Need help converting your profile to a fan page or adding custom pages? Contact me today and I’ll help you get started! Dennis J. Smith is the author of “Promote Your Business or Cause Using Social Media – A Beginner’s Handbook”.
