Confused about what kind of Facebook profile to set up for your business? This quick guide will help you choose the right direction based on your page’s goals.
Why is this important? Your fans want to interact with you as easily as possible – give them every option to engage without barriers. Plus, by setting up the correct profile from the beginning, you won’t have to try and switch everyone over to your new page later. It’s like herding cats, trust me.
Types of Profiles
There are three types of profiles you can choose from. They are:
- Personal Profile
- Page Profile
- Group Profile
Personal Profile
For: Individual people
This is what you should be setting up for you, as a person. If you login to Facebook using a unique email address and password, this is a personal profile. You can set your permissions to as high or as low as you like, and can make your feed available for subscription (good for public figures).
You should be the only person logging into this account. Never share your password with anyone!
Examples
- Bill Given – Mayor of Grande Prairie with an open profile, available for subscription. As a public figure, Bill did this right. Plus, he can still post to his friends privately if he creates groups of people within his profile.
- My Profile – On my profile, privacy is set relatively high, but I allow some things to be posted as public. I’m not a public figure, so I keep most of my postings for friends only. Most people would probably set up their Personal Profiles this way.
Please note, your profile photo and cover photo are always available to be seen by everyone!
Why this profile is bad for businesses: You have to invite people (or they invite you) to be friends which creates a barrier. There is no easy way for your potential fans to quickly follow you using one simple click – the Like button. No Insights are available for personal profiles.
Page Profile
For: Businesses or Organizations who would like to promote to and interact with fans
This type of profile works best for businesses and organizations. It allows your fans to ‘like’ you, and gives you the opportunity to show up in their feed as well as interact with them.
Examples of Pages are the nine10 page (small business) and the Red Bull page (large business). Pages allow you to post statuses, share pictures, add custom app pages, and lots more! You can choose if people post to your page, and if they can/do, their posts don’t show up in the main feed.
After logging into your Personal Profile, you can create and maintain your Page. You can assign others to be administrators for your Page, and you can set permissions for those admins.
You get access to insights for your page as well, which is a great reporting tool to see how your page meeting your goals. Using this data, you can strategize and improve on your marketing efforts.
Why this profile is bad for businesses: It’s not, as long as you keep up with it. This type of profile should be the one you choose for your business or organization. You maintain a lot of control, plus insights and search benefits are an added bonus.
Group Profile
For: Groups of people interested in a common theme
This works best for online communities, such as the Buy, Sell, Give Away Grande Prairie Group or the more generic Birds and Animals Group.
Groups are really more about a theme that everyone can contribute to rather than promoting a business or organization.
Groups can be open, closed, or secret, and can have one or more administrators. Usually groups will set up community rules, over and above Facebook rules, in order to promote the right group culture for that topic.
Groups can only be deleted if everyone leaves the group. As an admin, you can remove and ban people should you choose.
Why it’s bad for business: Anyone and everyone can post to your page about anything (for open groups, at least). Yes, you can delete and manage posts, but you lose a lot of control over what your fans see. No Insights are available for groups.
It’s Easy to Choose
Armed with this info, you should find it easier to choose which kind of profile fits your goals. Businesses and organizations – the Page Profile is your best bet. Happy Facebooking!
