Do I really NEED a Facebook Business Page? And what’s the different between a Business Page, a Fan Page, and a Personal Page?
I’ve gotten these questions quite a few times, so I thought it might be time to go back to basics.
Let me start with covering the difference between a Facebook Personal Page and a Facebook Business Page.
First, remember that people come to Facebook to be social and Facebook knows this. So, it keeps the focus on social interactions, not business. (This is part of why reach on Business Pages is down.)
Personal Page
A Facebook Personal Page (also called a Facebook Profile) is for your personal stuff. It’s not meant for business. In fact, if you only post business stuff and are too salesy, Facebook can choose to take away your Facebook Personal Page.
It’s where you can friend people (and you both have to agree to be Facebook friends). When you’re scrolling through your newsfeed, liking, and commenting, the default is to interact as you, as your Personal Page.
Also, you get to decide who can see your posts on your personal page. You can show posts only to friends, make it public, or make it shown only to a specific audience.
Business Page
A Facebook Business Page (also called a Fan Page) is for your business. You can promote and be as salesy as you want on your business page. (Though I suggest posting 70% inspirational, educational, and entertaining content and only 30% promotional content. You can read more about what type of content to post for best results here.)
You can only run Facebook Ads from a Business Page.
A Facebook Business Page is public and can be seen by anyone. Instead of friending you, people can like your Fan Page in order to see more posts from you.
Alright, so let’s talk about the question that keeps coming up…do you need a Facebook Fan Page?
Do you have a business?
Then yes, I believe you absolutely need a Facebook Business Page.
Here’s why…
- As mentioned before, Facebook does not let you be overly salesy on your personal page.
- If you want to advertise at some point, you have to have a fan page to do so.
- When you attract quality fans, you are more likely to move them over to being new subscribers to your email list, and building your email list should be a priority.
- And I think this may be the biggest reason of all… It helps create branding, awareness, and validity for your business.
What if your company doesn’t allow you to have a Facebook Page using the company’s name?
Now, I know there are some companies that will not let their distributors have a Facebook Fan Page using the company name. In fact the company my family works with, (where we are the top distributors in the US) will not let us use their name in our Facebook Page.
Instead we have a very successful Fan Page focused around health and wellness that never mentions the name of the company or the official name of the products. Instead, we rebranded them. (You can check out the page here.)
So, (probably not surprising) I believe very strongly that you should still have a fan page. By the way, for more info about how to do this, check out this blog post here.
So, there you have it – the difference between personal and business pages and why you need a business page if you have a business. As always, if you have questions or want to share your take-aways, hop on over to my Facebook Group and ask away! https://www.facebook.com/groups/jennpossick
