Ever since Facebook launched Fan Pages clear back in 2007, there has been a lot of confusion about whether businesses should use a Fan Page or a Profile to promote themselves. Unfortunately a large number of businesses have chosen a Profile.
Hopefully it will be clear to you which is superior for a business after I discuss the difference between Fan Pages and Profiles as well as the pros and cons of each.
What’s the Difference?
Let’s start with Facebook Profiles. They are for individual, non-commercial use, which is why they technically only allow one profile per person. It represents an individual person and must be held under an individual name. It can be friended and followed to see public updates in News Feed.
Facebook Pages, on the other hand, are a little different. They look similar to Profiles, but they offer unique tools for connecting people to topics they care about, like businesses and brands. They are managed by admins who have their own Profiles, therefore Pages do not have separate login info. Pages also provide insights to help admins understand how people are interacting with the page. Pages can also be liked to see updates in News Feed.
Pros and Cons
Again, we will start with the Profiles.
Profile Pros:
- Can send unlimited private messages to “friends”
Profile Cons:
- They are optimized for individual people to connect with friends
- Can have a max of 5,000 friends
- Limited to one per person
- Cannot have biz and marketing apps installed on them
- Don’t allow apps for lead capture
- Cannot be checked in to
- Cannot be called from Facebook mobile app
- Can only “boost” a post for $6.99 with no targeting
- Cannot schedule future posts
- Do not have access to stats on posts, friends and friend demographics, etc.
Now have a look at the Facebook Pages.
Page Pros:
- Optimized for artists, businesses & brands to showcase their work/products & interact w/fans
- Can have an unlimited number of fans
- You can be an admin on an unlimited number of Pages
- Pages are pre-installed with custom functionality designed for their category
- Allow you to create custom apps to gather email leads for marketing outside Facebook
- Can be checked into which alerts friends of whoever is checking in that they’re at your business
- Can be called directly from the Facebook mobile app when a fan visits your page
- Can run hyper-targeted ads to get traffic, emails, likes and more.
- Can schedule future posts
- Can access a huge array of stats on posts, fans and fan demographics, etc.
Page Cons:
- Can only send private messages to fans after the fan has sent the first message.
Hopefully that puts things in perspective for you. Make the right choice and use Facebook Pages for businesses. If you’re unsure of how to set one up, have someone else do it for you. Iboom Media is able to manage (and create if necessary) all your pertinent social media profiles for your business or brand.
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— IBoom Social Media (@IBoomMedia) May 29, 2015
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