Mistake: Creating a Profile Page instead of a Brand Page

Because Facebook was created on personal profiles, many business owners still think a profile is what they need to promote their business. But it’s not. If you identify with any of the following, you’ll want to create a Facebook Page, not a Facebook profile.

via 6 Things NOT to Do On Facebook As a Brand | Outspoken Media.

photo © 2008 Horia Varlan | more info (via: Wylio)I’m seeing more articles in my feed lately that references this same problem: business creating PROFILES instead of PAGES on Facebook. Unfortunately, this is coinciding with too many local businesses doing just that. As part of a Facebook Series, I want to throw out five things that make more sense on a Facebook PAGE, reasons you need to revisit the decision to start as a PROFILE in the first place.

1. Visibility – You want more people, not fewer, able to see your page and be funneled into your conversion process. With a PAGE, anyone can see you on Facebook – whether or not they have an account or are logged in. They’ll be limited in how they can interact, but they will be able to see what’s going on. However, with a PROFILE, the only folks able to see you on Facebook will be those already logged in to Facebook. Don’t get me wrong – that’s a ton of people. But if they are not logged in, or if they do not have an account in the first place, then they will not see you on Facebook. Your “follow us at facebook.com/MyProfile” will not be open to anyone not in the service.

2. Flexibility – If you have a personal PROFILE, you know that there are pages for photos, info, notes, questions, friends and your Wall. And that’s it – you can’t add a new page for “come to our show!” or “buy my child’s girlscout cookies” – this functionality is not available for personal profiles. But with a PAGE, you can add pages for any of that and more. The flexibility to build a landing page to point new friends to your site or to your Like button; to add new pages for sharing information, contests, polls, blogs; new APIs being rolled out to add other sites from your own server with iframe tags – this flexibility allows for much more control and creativity in reaching out to the masses.

3. Durability – Remember that you don’t own the platform, and that Facebook has rules. Having a business PROFILE is a violation of those rules. You can have a business account in order to run a PAGE, but it’s a no-no to use a regular PROFILE for your business. For this reason, your site can be reported and deleted without notification. I’m thinking that would be a bad thing.

4. Usability – A PROFILE will have one sign-on – one email/password combination to open and interact. With a PAGE, everyone has their own login, and co-laborers can be added/changed as needed. The creator is an Admin with her own profile (her own email/password). Then, other admins with their own profiles (their own email/passwords) can be added to share the burden. At any time, new admins – family members, employees, friends, etc – can be added and or deleted. The creator can even be removed as needed. Over time, the ability to delegate with a PAGE helps your group build a community voice and doesn’t wear any one person out.

5. Profitability – Okay, this one is more my hypothesis than a hard and fast rule like the others, but hear me out. The ability for me to be Rick Stilwell on Facebook (personal profile) and then to share with my friends that I think a PAGE (business fan page) is worth Like-ing is different than me “being” that business profile. I can “suggest to friends”. I can “share” links and photos to my own Wall that point back to the page. I can interact on the page in multiple ways if I’m an admin – I can post things AS the page, or I can interact AS myself (for example, I’m one of the admin son the Jamestown Coffee page, and there are comments from “me” and from “Jamestown Coffee” that I posted – so my “branding” as a coffee lover can be used both ways, right?). Being able to share with more people – my friends, other admins’ friends, then those new fans’ friends as well – gives a level of word-of-mouth that I think is stifled by starting with a PROFILE instead of the preferred PAGE. Add to that the other four points, and it looks like there is more confidence for the whole exercise to payoff.

If you have already started a business PROFILE page, I think there are a few possibilities for you going forward. Stay tuned – that’ll be the next and last in this series. And if you have any questions or other ideas on this, leave a comment and let’s hash this out.