Anne's Spot: Facebook Pages for Organizations

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Facebook Pages for Organizations

Some organizations have already created Facebook Pages, others have created Profile accounts. And, there are some others which are considering creating a Facebook presence, but are not sure whether to create a Page or a Profile account. Before making a decision about using Facebook for business purposes, here are some considerations:

Read Facebook’s terms of agreement. Of course, you have already agreed on those terms when you created an account.
Pages are for organizations. Profile accounts are for individuals. From Facebook's terms of service: "Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook." The terms of service says clearly that a Profile account should represent an individual.
Pages are distinct presences that communicate, distribute information and content, engage their fans, and capture new audiences virally through their fans’ recommendations to their friends.
Pages offer analytics; Profile accounts do not. Analytics include how many likes, comments you received each day, and demographic information.
Pages are designed to be a media rich, valuable presence solution for an organization.
Pages are customizable. Profile accounts are more limited.
Pages offer a “Like” button (or a widget) that you can embed into web pages. Profile accounts do not have widgets.
Pages have unlimited fans (or likes). Profile accounts are limited to 5,000 friends.
Pages allow you to email everyone in your fan base. Profile accounts limit you to sending 20 emails at a time.
Pages automatically accept fan requests. Profile accounts require you to manually accept new friend requests.
If you are using an Profile account, instead of a Page for your organization, individuals might be less reluctant to friend a Profile account that represents a group or an organization—because an organization is not a person.
Facebook does not provide a way to convert a Profile account to a Page. If you have Profile account for your organization and you want to use a Page instead, you have to copy your information to the page. Friends cannot be converted to fans. Options are:
- Ask friends to like the Page by sending them a message from the profile account.
- Tell friends by using a status update.
- Recommend through the Page “Tell your fans” option. You cannot customized the message explaining why you're asking them to do it.
- After copying information from the Profile account to the Page, l decide whether to delete the account or leave it. Instead of deleting it, you can set the privacy settings to limit it from being found. Two different presences on Facebook can be confusing to potential fans and friends. Facebook's friend recommendation feature will continue to suggest to friends of friends to your abandoned Profile account.