{"id":603,"date":"2010-12-13T16:58:12","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T21:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steveholt.com\/home\/?p=603"},"modified":"2019-05-06T13:07:57","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T18:07:57","slug":"facebook-pages-vs-facebook-profiles-did-you-make-the-right-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steveholt.com\/home\/?p=603","title":{"rendered":"Facebook pages vs Facebook profiles… did you make the right decision??"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobody told you, I understand. You thought that you had to create a completely separate Facebook account for your business, so you did. And now you want to create a ‘fan’ page (it’s called a ‘like’ page now) and you don’t know what to do. Well, there are a few things you need to know. First of all, you are screwed.<\/p>\n

Well, that may be a little harsh. But there are some things that you really need to know if you want to do this. It isn’t going to be easy either, so prepare yourself.<\/p>\n

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  1. Personal Profile pages can only have 5,000 friends<\/strong> – I know it is hard to believe that you could have that many friends, right?\u00a0 But you never know.\u00a0 You just might.\u00a0 And if you end up with that many then you can’t have any more.\u00a0 ‘Like” pages can have unlimited fans.<\/li>\n
  2. Personal Profile pages don’t have ‘insights’ <\/strong>– I have written about this before<\/a>.\u00a0 Facebook Insights have been revamped and now provide some great analytics to see who your fans are and how they interact with you.\u00a0 You can only have these insights if you have a ‘like’ page.<\/li>\n
  3. Personal Profile pages can’t have ‘like’ buttons<\/strong> – Again, I wrote about this before<\/a>.\u00a0 You have seen then and you have used them… the ‘like’ button on websites.\u00a0 It makes it super easy for people to share with their Facebook friends that they like you.\u00a0 It is free publicity.\u00a0 But you can’t have one unless you have a ‘like’ page.<\/li>\n
  4. Facebook doesn’t offer a tool to convert your Personal Profile to a ‘like’ page<\/strong> – it seems a little crazy, but it’s true.\u00a0 When you reach 5,000 friends Facebook tells you that you need to create a ‘like’ page, but they offer nothing to help you.\u00a0 Gee, thanks.<\/li>\n
  5. Merging your ‘like’ page and your ‘places’ page<\/strong> – Did I mention that I wrote something about this before??<\/a> With the new ‘places’ feature in Facebook, you can create a ‘place’ page to represent your business.\u00a0 And you can also combine your ‘place’ page and your ‘like’ page, if you want to.\u00a0 You can’t do that with a personal profile page.\u00a0 Sorry Charlie.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So what can you do?\u00a0 Well, even though you don’t have many options, don’t jump off the rooftop just yet.\u00a0 You basically have to convince your friends to ‘like’ your new page and they have to do it on their own.\u00a0 You can send them a message or post a status update to ask them, but you can’t hammer them over and over about it or it will turn them off.\u00a0 If you are going to do that, then you have to clearly explain to them why you are doing this, then cross your fingers.\u00a0 You see, in their eyes they have already connected to you in Facebook, so some of them will be confused.\u00a0 Be prepared for that.<\/p>\n

    Also, the worst part is that you’ll have to decide whether to keep your profile page or close it.\u00a0 If you don’t close it, even if you quit using it altogether and remove all the content from it, people will still be able to find it when they search for you in Facebook.\u00a0 Having to maintain 2 things is also going to be a hassle, so you’ll want to seriously consider shutting the profile page down even if you have some friends left who haven’t moved.<\/p>\n

    You need to switch from a Personal Profile page to a ‘like’ page.\u00a0 You know this.\u00a0 So buck up and do it.\u00a0 You’ll thank me later.<\/p>\n