The Biggest Concerns For All Businesses Using Facebook
One of the biggest concerns that I hear from small business owners when teaching them how to use Facebook is 'What about privacy'.
They're understandably concerned that if they start to market on Facebook, their customers will be able to find their personal profile page with pictures of their children, their wild nights out or their embarrassing hobbies.
As with all things in life, if you take the trouble to learn how to use Facebook properly, the solution to this problem is really simple.
Facebook does provide all the controls that you need to use to manage privacy matters fully, and I regularly publish family photos on Facebook, but I lock all my private posts down so that only the people I want to see my content are actually able to view it.
Safe Business Pages Step 1: Don't Use Your Personal Profile
The first step to separating business and personal on Facebook is to set everything up correctly.
That means using your personal profile for family and friends use and your business page for business use.
On a personal profile people have to use 'friend requests' ... you are the gate keeper, nobody can be admitted to your personal profile unless you give them permission.
When you post content on your personal profile, use 'Friends' (not 'Public') as your default post visibility option:
Safe Business Pages Step 2: Adjust Your Settings
On a business page, anybody can find and 'Like' a page, it is 'public facing' so clearly, you will not use this type of page to publish personal information.
You can still, however, lock down many settings on your business page and you should do so, to get it running the way that you want it:
I recommend that every page has at least one additional page admin 'just in case'.
If your personal profile was suspended for any reason, or even deleted in error, if you have a second trusted page admin, you can continue to operate your page whilst sorting out the problem with your own account.
The rule of thumb for giving somebody full admin access is 'would I trust this person with my credit card?'.
If not, don't make them an admin.
The Biggest Facebook Concern - Solved!
I've saved the best until last!
Most businesses worry that because their personal profile is connected to a business page the two are 'linked' in some way.
Well, that's certainly true, but they can be easily unlinked so that there is no connection between a personal profile and business page other than via you as the page admin.
To do this, first go to your business page settings:
Next navigate to the 'Featured' area:
In my own business, for reasons of transparency, I am happy to leave my personal profile connected to my business pages.
However, I only do this because my personal profile settings are completely locked down and you will not be able to find my Facebook images and posts in the public domain, so I have assured my privacy that way.
In addition, I only accept as friends people who I know personally, so once again, only people that I know get access to my personal info, and even then, I still protect many posts so that only family or individuals can view them.
I recommend this approach as I personally feel that it is more transparent for a business, but if this personal/business connection really bothers you, this is how you sever the link.
By only ever posting as yourself or your business page, this way both entities can remain entirely separate.
Paul Teague is a social and digital marketer and creator of the Clixeo software for Facebook at http://clixeo.com
The Biggest Concerns For All Businesses Using Facebook
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Reviewed by Paul Teague
on
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Rating:
Paul Teague
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