By Nakia Tyler
Let’s begin with a pop quiz.
Debbie Duncan* is the owner of Debbie’s Donuts, a small local business that specializes in homemade breakfast pastries. In order to stay competitive with other donut vendors in town, Debbie decides she needs to put her business on Facebook. What should Debbie do?
A) Use her personal Facebook Timeline, under the name Debbie Duncan, to promote her company.
B) Create an additional Facebook Timeline with a first name of Debbie’s and a last name of Donuts.
C) Using her personal Facebook account, create and manage a Facebook Page called Debbie’s Donuts.
This may seem like a trick question, because all of the above techniques have been used by various companies and organizations for promotional purposes. Thankfully, the Facebook Terms of Service make the choice quite clear: “You will not use your personal timeline primarily for your own commercial gain, and will use a Facebook Page for such purposes.”
The answer to the question above, then, would be C. Debbie would have no other choice than to create a Page for her business if she wanted to follow Facebook policy and not risk having her account deleted.
If you’re still not convinced that Pages are the best option, here are some Pros and Cons on making the switch for your consideration.
Pros for Using Pages Instead of a Timeline
Pages were built for business. Setting up a Facebook Page will give you robust tools that aren’t available for personal Timelines. These tools – such as analytics, ads, and apps – can help your marketing strategy and increase your online visibility.
Increase your search engine optimization. Personal Timelines on Facebook are not searchable within search engines like Pages are. Pages were designed to increase traffic through search engine optimization.
No limit on fans. A personal Timeline is only able to have up to 5,000 friends, whereas a Page can have unlimited ‘fans’ or ‘likes’. If you don’t want to limit the number of individuals that can see your content, then setting up – or switching to – a Page is the way to go.
Because Facebook said so. The biggest advantage for using a Page is the fact that it is compliant with the Facebook Terms of Service, while using a Timeline is not.
Cons for Using Pages Instead of a Timeline
You cannot request friends. With a personal Timeline, you can send friend requests to potential customers, and solicit their business. With Pages, users have to actively choose to receive information from your Page by ‘liking’ it.
Your posts might not get seen. Facebook has developed a system to evaluate posts based on affinity, timeliness, and level of interaction. This system is called EdgeRank, and if your Page posts don’t rank highly enough, users may not see them.
It’s not as personal. The overall relationship between a Page and a Fan is a lot less personal than that of Timeline friends. In addition to not being able to request friends, you cannot chat with your fans or send them direct invitations to events. That’s why some businesses think that creating a timeline is the way to go. It is not.
It will require a time investment. Because of the reasons mentioned above, a Facebook Page is a bit more high maintenance than a Timeline profile. Successfully maintaining your company’s Facebook presence in a way that attracts new fans and increases your SEO and EdgeRank will require planning and effort. You will need a content strategy. The end results, however, will be worth it: greater visibility, more customers, and increased sales.
Are you currently violating the Facebook Terms of Service by using a Timeline for commercial use? The good news is that it is very simple to switch. For instructions on how to transfer and convert your current Timeline into a Page, check out this Facebook Help article, and let us know how it goes in the comments section below.
*Names used in this scenario are fictional. Any similarities to actual persons are coincidental. No donut shop owners were harmed in the writing of this blog post.
– Find Nakia Tyler on Twitter @kiabear
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