Facebook pages, profiles, groups – are you confused?

As I travel around Ireland meeting businesses I am finding that there is still a lot of confusion about Facebook Pages, Facebook Profiles and Facebook Groups.  Many businesses set up profile pages (sometimes having been advised) without realising that its frowned upon by Facebook and there is a chance their business “profile” page will be deleted by Facebook. So here is my breakdown, you choose which is best for you:

Facebook Profile:   This is for an individual with first name and last name. Should NOT be used to promote business as its is limited to 5,000 friends and has bad visibility in search engines. Also, some content is not fully visible to users so makes it difficult for people to decide if they really want to connect with you.  You want to avoid having to post the following:

Facebook Page: Formerly known as a “Fan” page and if I am honest I still refer to them as fan pages.  Facebook pages enables public figures, organisations and businesses to create a public presence online and to network with existing and potential clients. In Facebook’s own words: “Authenticity is at the core of Facebook. Just as profiles should represent real people and real names, so too should Pages for entities. Only the official representatives of a public figure, business or organization should create a Facebook Page.”  

Facebook pages are the ideal option to promote your business, they have unlimited fans or likes (as they are now know as) and have great visbility in search engines.

Another common confusion is thinking that if you have a Facebook page you can become a fan or friend of another profile or page, this is not the case.  People with profile pages become fans/likes of your Facebook page. You can however add another Facebook page to your favourite pages box, you can do this by clicking the link under the pages profile picture/logo “Add to my page’s favourites”.

Your Facebook wall posts will be seen by fans/likes in their news feed.

Do you have profile and need a page? If you have a Facebook profile and should have a Facebook page, I recommend that before you get many more friends, you set up a page and ask people to migrate across. Better to do it now than have to move 5,000 friends in the future.

Facebook Groups: Ideal for small communities and for people to share common interests. Group pages can add new members by invite only or they can be open to the public for anyone to join. Groups allow people to come together and discuss issues or common interests, post photos  and share content. Members can interact and share content with one another so an ideal place to meet people with similar interests.