Personal Facebook Account or Business Account?
One of the most commonly asked questions we get and now at this point in our business is “Should I build my business on my Facebook personal page versus should I create a Facebook business page?”. We wanted to give you some feedback.
First and foremost, we are going to put out a disclaimer that Facebook really says that your personal page should be your personal life. If you read the policies and procedures on Facebook, it very much does say that you should use it as a personal page. Now, with that being said, I can tell you that I (Melanie) grew my original following on my personal Facebook page. I will tell you that it is challenging to grow a business page, but there are benefits of using a business page.
We are going to tell you our personal experience and our viewpoints along with our advice and then let you decide what you want to do and you take it from there. To start, if you have a Facebook business page, people know, understand, and respect that you have a bottom line. You are going to have something that you want to offer the viewer, whether it is a service or a product, and it could range from an Etsy shop to a network marketing business and more. But, when you lead with a business page, there is a trust that does need to formed as you as a seller and as someone who specializes in a very specific area. So the content that you are putting on your facebook business page is really geared toward what your audience wants to see, how you are connecting with them, and also how are the things that you are saying going to create a connection between you and what you have to offer. I (Katy) am very intentional with the type of content that I am putting on a Facebook business page. You aren’t going to see a random photo album of me and my family from our vacation last summer. You aren’t going to see random pictures of me 
and my dog. You aren’t going to see pictures of me and my husband. Unless there is a bigger purpose to that. I’m always keeping the things that my audience likes to see in my mind. No, not every post that I do is a call to action, but every post that I do is a call to think. And in some way, the things that I want them to think about also have to do with the service that I provide. For example, I am in the health and fitness industry. I know that a lot of what I talk about is geared towards women with curves, women with children, women who really struggle with confidence and comparison, because that is my story and that I know that the service that I provide can help them deal with the struggles that they might be having in those areas. With Chic Influencer, it is very much geared towards the women business owners who are trying to build a business and want the tips, strategies, and insights into how to actually do it (how we actually got from Point A to Point B and how we navigated the mess in the middle). So every post that we do is really geared towards the woman who is trying to figure out how to grow her business. Additionally, with Chic Influencer, we would not have started a business building company that provides a service on our personal pages. But, I will share to it. I will intentionally mention Chic Influencer in my personal page as a way to direct them to what I offer on that page.
People can easily can get caught in that trap of just selling. So we get on social media and just say ‘my goal is to sell x amount of product’ or get a certain amount of sign ups, and we get pigeonholed into just always selling. If you look at the Chic Influencer page, you will see that we are giving a lot of advice, a lot of tips and quotes that are geared towards business owners. We are giving a lot of content of free. What happens then is that people who are interested in what we are doing will go and research who we are and what we do and join the community or attend the live events that we have to offer.
The one thing that we like about the Facebook business page is that it allows us insights to be able to see who is coming to our page, what the best times are, and what is our engagement rate. So, we can look at that and say ‘what content is doing well’ and create more content like that. We can run advertisements. We can pull a lookalike audience from all of the people who like Chic Influencer and run an ad for a free downloadable or an event that we are hosting. The ads are great and are a perk of a business page, but we also know that content is still king. The only way that the ad will work is if we have relevant content content. People will scroll to see that.
When we both started, most of our business was on our personal page. And I (Katy) do think it is easier, usually, to start with your personal page and work with the people who already know you and already trust you and are already aware of the things that matter to you and that you value. For me (Katy), as someone who wanted to grow a business, I didn’t want to just sell to my friends and my family, I wanted to grow a business. I felt like there was a professionalism that comes from having a business page. Not to say that you can’t have success in your personal page. But, as a business owner who looks at the numbers and wants to see what my audience is engaging with, I know that having a business page is like a stamp of “this is a real deal”. It does take longer to grow. It is also worth mentioning that there is a trust factor that goes into building a successful page. Along with a consistency piece that even if only 3 people are liking your content, you are still going to show up everyday knowing that the right people at the right time will be on this page to see that message.
We really worked our personal page while we built our business page. I (Melanie) can still remember when I decided to make the shift to a business page and it scared me!! I was so afraid! So, if you are saying to yourself that switching to a business page makes me nervous, that is cool! It made us nervous too! To give you a timeline, we worked on our business page for 18-24 months before we made the jump. There was a long period of time that we worked on growing it.
If you have a personal page and you are not building a business, it doesn’t matter what your profile picture is. It doesn’t matter what your timeline banner is. It’s YOUR personal page. You can add the whole album of vacation pictures, every dog picture, every quote, every meme… everything you love, you can share. It’s your page! But, on your business page, it has to have that look and feel of a business. It does have to have a nice, clear, crisp profile picture. Your name should be very distinct (ex: if you are the brand, like ‘Melanie Mitro’ or a company like ‘Chic Influencer’). Your banner really should depict the brand and what you have to offer. It should have a business feel to it.
You can see the very two distinct ways that you can run both pages. If these tips helped you, we would love it if you share this people who you know who may struggle with deciding if they should have a personal or business page.
We have navigated this messy part of building a business and we are here to help you do the same!
