Okay, I’ve got a Facebook Page…What now?

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Congrats! You’ve made a big step in the world of social media. But, oh dear. Don’t tell me you’ve started a Facebook Page without having a strategy. If that’s the case, do yourself a favor and delete it now. Harsh? Yes. But I’ve seen so many businesses wallowing out there, posting lots of spammy looking stuff and subsequently doing a great job of making themselves look BAD. Why would you do that? Perhaps some of these reasons sound like your rationale for starting a page:

•    Everyone else has a Facebook page so I have to have one too.
•    I’ll make sales. All I have to do is post my product or service.
•    I heard that other media forms are dying, like newspaper ads and direct mail.
•    It’s keeping up with the times.
•    It’s free.
•    I can get all my friends to like it, and I’ll have hundreds of people on there!

First of all, a Facebook page isn’t for everyone. It depends on a combination of factors, including what your industry is, if you’re B to C or B to B, where your audience is (or isn't) and how successful you’ve been with other media. For example, if you are a service provider and clients are coming in from your newspaper ad, and you’re turning people away, that may be enough, for now. But do revisit the thought down the road. Your clientele may be newspaper readers, and not Facebook frequenters.

Facebook pages are not about spamming the public with advertising by constantly posting hard selling come-ons on your page. If that’s your mindset, you will fail. This is social media, not hard hitting in the face, advertising. And yes, while some methods of reaching people are dying out, such as newspapers, it doesn’t mean they don’t work today for your target audience.

Myth: Facebook pages are free. That’s just not true! They require a lot of time. You can do it yourself, however, if you’re offering a service that bills at $200 an hour, is it worth taking the time to do those posts? Do you place ads in newspapers yourself? Probably not beyond making a phone call and writing a check. If you do go ahead with a Facebook page think about outsourcing so you can concentrate on your business at hand. And ramping up by growing fans rapidly via a Facebook ad will set you back a pretty penny. If you are a one person show and posting all day, what does that say about the amount of work you really do?

A Facebook business page is not about your friends; many of your friends, while interested in you, will not have much interest in the services or the products you offer. On a positive note, they may like your page, and, while they never participate there they may pass along your page to people they know that will have an interest. But do get yourself set up for rejection, and do not be offended when your friends “like” your page, then “unlike” it a couple of days later.

All the wrong reasons are posted above. Now, I don’t want to give away all my trade secrets, but I highly recommend conversing with someone who can help you determine the reasons why YOU should have a Facebook page, what the expectations are, the best way for you to go about it, content, how to handle conflict and negativity, how to project the essence of your brand, and I could go on.

Wish I didn’t have to say this: It’s not that simple. Strategy and Planning is the key. Winging it is not a substitute. Best to you!

I’m Facebook Friends with a Movie Theater!

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A local, independent movie theater sent a friend request to me on Facebook. It happened to be a theater that I frequent, so I accepted. But who did I really friend? Is it an employee of the theater? The owner? No clue. And I was surprised when the theater “liked” a photo I posted recently. And a little spooked too. Who IS this person?

For the record, I’ve also been friends with a car brand, a restaurant, and a dairy product. The car brand wisely switched to a business page after realizing that there are limitations to acting like a business page while masquerading as a personal profile.


Why DO businesses take the friend profile route? My number one guess is that they don’t know what all their options are. Some of these businesses have run their businesses through a personal profile for a long time, and perhaps there just wasn’t good information available at the time.

But there’s no excuse now.

Seriously people, using a personal profile as your business page is limiting. Well, okay, the ceiling is 5,000 which sounds like a lot, but remember, only a small percentage of “friends” will ever see any of your posts. With a business page, you can grow to 10, 20, 30K if you like. And people can search in Facebook on key words and find you and easily like you without begging to be your friend, thus creating work on your part and theirs. Those folks are likely apprehensive when it comes to requesting becoming friends with you; they may not want you to have access to their personal lives. Of course, they can play with privacy settings, but isn’t this becoming rather confusing at this point?

And there you are, posting away about your business on your personal page. How many of your friends are really your target audience and would actually need your services? A business page would open you up to thousands of people who are indeed interested in what you do. But who ARE these people? You'll never know unless you have a business page and have access to all the stats, including demographics, that Facebook business pages provide.

Another advantage to Facebook business pages is the ability to create and place ads. I've had great success with those for my clients; why wouldn't you want to utilize this feature?


So, where’s the line between business and pleasure? Here’s my recommendations, and no, it’s not a solution for everyone. Consider it a practical approach.

Your personal profile should be for friends, family and networking. It can be for all three, or just some of those. Your choice. But it’s a place for you to share and let people know about YOU, as a person. If your passion is running on the beach, archery, or teaching your dog new tricks, I want to know and enjoy those passions with you.

I do not post about my consulting business on my personal page. I don’t even post links to my blog posts there! I have messaged a few folks that I thought would be interested, but that’s it. IF they want to know more about what I do for a living, the addresses for my sites, blogs, and LinkedIn profile are on my info page. When I land a fabulous new client, yes, I DO post about it. Not to promote my business, but because I feel joyous and want to celebrate!

Okay, now you’re saying…great Gerry, but what about my business? Now that you’ve discouraged me from running a business on my personal profile, what do I do now?

Stay tuned for my next post and find out.