Do I need to open a Facebook page for my business? Do I keep my personal profile too? How do they work together? The answers to these questions are not very intuitive! This article will clarify Facebook marketing for the solo-entrepreneur.
Essentially, this Facebook Training compares company pages and personal profiles to help you determine what would work best for you and your business.
“Should I open a Facebook page?” is the most-asked-question at PSMU. That’s because our community is made up of mostly solo-entrepreneurs, and therefore “the Facebook page” is a gray area. It’s obvious, if you’re a big company, that you ought to open a Facebook page. However, if you’re just a one-woman or one-man show, is it worth it?
It’s a very good question.
According to Facebook, you are not to use your own personal profile for commercial gain. You cannot, for example, sell your status update to an advertiser.
Facebook generally supports converting profiles into pages, since profiles are meant for individual people who aren’t selling anything. Pages, meanwhile, are for brands, businesses, organizations and public figures. Here’s where it’s confusing for a solo-entrepreneur: your business and personal life overlap, right?
PSMU does not advise closing your personal profile, as others might. Social media is about connecting one-on-one with real people, which you can’t do from a business page as well. You cannot send a message to an individual from a page, you can only send to groups.
Also, you should know that business updates may or may not get seen by potential customers. They’re kind of hidden. On the other hand, if you send a message from a personal profile, it goes right to their inbox. That’s one reason why it’s important to keep your profile. You also have some real friends on Facebook, right? And some friends who might not make the transition over to a new business page. In a nutshell: keep that profile.
Hey, here’s a good thing to know: many of you think Facebook messages are better than emails. Our survey suggests that 69% of you think you get a better response from Facebook than email. 23% think email and Facebook are about the same. For young people, email is outdated.
You will naturally have some business interactions happening on your personal profile, and that’s not a bad thing. You can make some great connections that way. And, luckily, we have never heard of Facebook cracking down on solo-entrepreneurs because they are using their personal profiles for business use. It seems that, as long as you aren’t doing hard-core selling on your profile, you’re in good shape.
So, then, back to that first question. Should you open a Facebook page? Well, that depends. Facebook pages have a lot of benefits. For one thing, they are another destination site. In other words, your Facebook page might show up in the search results and help you attract visitors. However, in order for the page to be worth your while, you need to be on there daily. You need to create value and content that people will respond to. That’s how you get involvement and interaction. Also, Facebook measures the importance based on the impressions and comments; so, if you get a lot of comments, it’s more likely to show up in the newsfeed for a longer period of time. A post with over 50 comments, for example, will last for awhile.
So, if you have the time to grow and support activity your Facebook page, it’s definitely worth opening one. (Remember, if you can’t be there all the time, you can use Hootsuite to schedule messages). From a page, you can send out messages to groups of people — targeting geographically, by gender and so forth. It’s a great way to potentially reach a group of people. You can also post promotions, specials, events, important news, and so forth.
So, in a nutshell: it’s a good idea to have both a personal profile and a company page if you have the time for both. You can encourage your friends to visit your company page from your personal profile, and continue to engage through meaningful interactions. After all, social media is all about the one-to-one connections!
Where can I go to get started using social media for my business? The Practical Social Media University teaches small business entrepreneurs how to use social media for prospecting. Believe it or not, social media is not just for big companies. Small business owners have experienced great success with social media marketing, and you can too! All you need to do is tap into the abundance of free tools and platforms. So, what are you waiting for?! Find out more about the Practical Social Media University and the founder, Steve MacDonald.
Here is one example of dozens of testimonials for the University written on Yelp, the world’s largest third party reviews and rating company for businesses. “I must admit that I am very new to social media but realize how crucial it is to grow my business. I really didn’t know where to turn to get training in social media until I was introduced to Steve MacDonald and his Practical Social Media University. I am amazed at how Steve takes the overwhelming and often complicated world of social media and makes it easy to understand, while walking you through the process step-by-step. Steve’s advice and feedback have given me the confidence to move forward and I highly recommend Practical Social Media.” To see more reviews, video testimonials and social media raves for yourself on the university, please visit our reviews page at practicalsocialmedia.com/university-reviews/.
Steve MacDonald, Founder of the Practical Social Media University promises to run every social media recommendation through a rigorous process of previous testing, more than 25 years of marketing expertise and constant feedback from our members. You now have the chance to learn from a community solo entrepreneurs that have been putting these recommendations through the school of hard knocks! What comes out is a time tested, constantly refined and fully updated curriculum of training resources that has proven to make a major impact on the success of solo entrepreneurs everywhere.