A question often asked is whether or not a personal Facebook page should be used for business. There are advantages and disadvantages of each. In this blog I will discuss some advantages I have discovered using a personal Facebook page for business.
1. Growing an Audience
It is easier to grow an audience as a person than as a business. I already have a good following of friends, family, and professional contacts that I now have direct access to by using my personal page. It would be difficult to get all or even most of those folks over to a business page.
2. Creating a Voice
I cannot talk to another personal page in my business page voice. Personal interaction is more difficult from a business page and industry leaders would probably not have gone to like my page if I had not developed a more personal relationship with them first.
3. Creating Conversations
When people post something and I respond (not as spam, but as actual conversation) their friends and followers get to see and hear me. I have grown my audience significantly through these conversations. When I post from my personal page and they respond to me, again I am reaching everyone who would see any one of their posts. This would not be happening from a business page.
4. Friends not Customers
My followers think of themselves as “friends” not customers. I encourage that notion.
5. Reach
Any request that I post, whether it be on my business or personal page, is seen by less than 10% of my friends (based on FB’s newest logarithm.) The only option for ensuring that you reach each and every one of your current friends and request that they like your business page instead of your personal page is to contact each of them. If you have a significant number of friends (I keep mine at around 4000) you would have to individually message each of them to make sure they received the heads up. FB strongly frowns on that many messages. In fact, they prohibit it.
There are those who argue that you should only use your business page for your business and those who argue that a personal page is much better. On this occasion, I land squarely in the middle. For advantages of using a business Facebook page, visit our blog “Advantages of a Facebook Business Page”.
