Dear Jasmine,
I'm hoping you can help me with something… My business became an actual business after friends would see personal photos that I posted on Facebook. However, I'm starting to grow tired of the Facebook drama (I don't really care to know what “Sally” ate for breakfast) and want to stay away from using my personal page for… well, everything. I have a business page set-up, but I'm not sure how to get people to contact me through that versus my personal page. Does that make any sense? In a perfect world, I'd be able to only have a business page, but I'm not sure how to go about this. I guess what I'm unsure of is: 1. if I only use my business page, how will this directly impact potential clients from seeing my work and 2. how do I get my “friends” to only visit/post/contact me through my business page?
Thank you,
Facebook Fanpage Fanatic
Dear FFF,
To be honest, I don't care what Sally ate for breakfast either. However, the key with social media is using it to connect…so while I might not care about breakfast, I might care about what happened at breakfast. It's the small moments (In a perfect world, my favorite cereal would be comprised entirely of Lucky Charms marshmallows) and the idiosyncrasies (Cocoa Puffs are my version of making chocolate milk) that connect us more than a narration of your day (I am eating cereal).
I try to make these connections on my Business Page and prefer to leave my Personal Page pretty quiet. I actually started the Business Page because Facebook limits how many friends a person can have. When I reached the limit, I opted for the Business Page and soon began to see the perks of people participating because they wanted to be there.
You said you wanted to have just a Business Page…that's entirely possible because you can transfer your FB friends and make them fans when you combine pages (here's how to make this happen).
So let's get directly to your questions…
1. “If I only use my business page, how will this directly impact potential clients from seeing my work?”
If you combine both your FB pages, your current friends will automatically become fans, so if they participate in status updates and comment on photos the same way they do on your personal page, there's still a good chance your work will pop up in their feeds and their friends' feeds (here's an article explaining the Facebook algorithm and how you get reach with your posts). However, in order to tag photos of your clients, you must be friends with them. This is the only reason I maintain separate pages…tagging clients is of the utmost importance to my business.
2. “How do I get my “friends” to only visit/post/contact me through my business page?”
There's only so much you can control, so be sure to focus on things you can change, not the behavior of your friends. In light of this, I don't post status updates on my personal page and instead opt to update the business page. If that's where I want people talking, then that's where I need to start conversations. It's important to really focus on cultivating reasons for people to like your page, so if you're teetering between both spaces (writing the same status updates on both pages, uploading the same photos on both pages, etc), there's no reason for a “friend” to become a “fan”.
Also, I tag my clients from my business page because that's what I want their friends to see…if their friends opt to click on my profile, it'll take them to my business page. And this is precisely what I want because the business page is an open profile with interaction, updates, and photos. Essentially, the business page is what I want to use as a marketing mechanism, so I need to be sure to invest my time in that space effectively.
I hope this helps and I wish you all the best as you work your way through Sally's breakfast, Facebook, and finding the best fit for you.
Stay Fabulous,
j*
