Facebook Business Page or Personal Profile for my Direct Sales Business

Your Listening to the Street Smart Wealth Podcast, show 149

I am regularly asked the question - should I create a facebook business page or just use my personal profile for my Direct Sales business, and if I do make one, how do I combine the two so they work together for the best exposure? We will cover that on today's show!

Check the podcast archives on the blog at JackieUlmer.com for previous episodes if you missed any or are new to the show.

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Should I use a Facebook Business Page or my Personal Profile for my Direct Sales Business

 

IT's an ongoing debate, whether to use a business page or your personal profile to conduct business on Facebook. In this training, I'm going to share the pros and cons of both, and how to combine the two for maximum reach!

We've covered this already, but it bears repeating.

When you take your business online (in addition to your offline, in-person networking), you extend your reach from just the people in your warm market – your friends and family, their friends and those you meet while out and about – to the billions of people online.

When you work your warm market, you typically need to reach out to people, when you work online, you can attract people to you.

I developed a true "pinch me" business when I would wake up, and find new leads and contacts from people who contacted me to ask about my business and product line.

And, I have met some of my very best friends this way!

On Facebook there are different types of entities – people (personal profiles), groups (open or closed groups of people) and pages (used by businesses, charities, celebrities, and so on).

So, you have a personal Timeline, why not have a Facebook business timeline, too, right? Here is why a business Facebook timeline is so important. Not to be techie, but Facebook is basically a closed system that is not indexed by Google. Facebook Business Timelines ARE indexed by Google though.  This just basically means that people can find your Facebook business timeline in Google!

 

You have 3 opportunities to connect with people - your friends, your followers and your business page followers.

 

When I started on Facebook, business pages did not exist so I learned how to carefully keep my business alive on facebook, and yet in the background so as not to offend those who did not want to know about it.

And, I view it like I do my real estate friends. Each week, many of my friends in real estate post details about their opn houses they are hosting. It's not at all offensive to me and they aren't blatant about WHY it's the best house ever and why I should buy it.

Think about this as you create your own business info that you gently share.

Remember the 80/20 rule and the concept of Facebook being like Cheers, the TV show from the 90s, where everyone gathered in a social pub after work!

There was talk about the wife, the kids, vacation, and jobs. Keep your life colorful, interesting and entertwine all aspects together to showcase who you are - not all business and not all play. 

 

So, why use a Facebook business page? Here are some top reasons for why to use a Facebook Business Page:

1. It is against Facebook’s Terms of Service to use a personal page for business purposes. They could shut down your account. You can be generic about what you do, and I recommend this, but if you are continually pumping your business info out, you could get slapped! Big Time!
2. It’s annoying to friends and family to constantly see business ads on your personal page. Most people view this as spam.
3. When you post business content to your personal profile, people may unfriend you, block your feed, and possibly report your posts as spam.
4. If enough people report you, you may land in Facebook “jail”. Ouch, this is no fun, and there are a number of companies who have been blocked due to too many people spamming links. IF your company is blocked, and you have references to your company name on your profile, it can also get blocked.
5. Using both a business page and a personal profile gives you two “voices” to speak to your customers and potential team partners. Two voices are better than one.
6. A business page is open to attract anyone, not just friends and family and their friends (your warm market).
7. A personal profile can only have 5000 friends, a facebook page can have millions of fans.
8. With a business page, you can run targeted ads to build your fanbase and attract people who are interested in your product and opportunity. (The targeting of these ads is really important. More on that later.)
9. When you build your fan base, your ordinary posts can be seen by hundreds or thousand of people every day.
10. When you’ve built your fan page, and your audience and post engaging content regularly, people will come to YOU asking about your product and opportunity. People reach out to me every day. Some days, a post will catch people’s hearts and go viral, and I’ll see reach in in the ten thousands and dozens and dozens of people will reach out.

Now creating a fan page, learning to place ads and post engaging content does take a bit to learn. It takes about 10 minutes to create a page, and about an hour once a week to set up and "pre post" a week’s worth of posts. 

And just like Network Marketing it may take a few months of sustained effort, a little bit every day, to build momentum. But if you are planning to be in this business in a few months anyway, why not also plan to have people coming to you? There is a time line to success!

I know people who say they don’t want to learn new things, or that they tried an ad one day and it didn’t work for them. There is a trick to it. You have to put some thought into who you want to attract. You need to target your like ads specifically to them and post content to engage them. And you need to talk to them, not in your bullhorn voice, but your talking to your best friend conversational voice AND you need to put your heart into it. That is all.

 

When you post to your business page, you have the option to share that post from your personal profile and this is one way the two entities can work well together. You are seen as just SHARING content and not originating it.

And, you never know who else will see it and share it, expanding your reach even further!

Don't get discouraged if if takes a little bit of time

 

Use Hashtags

 

Be consistent in posting value, including your business link

 

Like your own page from your personal profile and share some of the business content from time to time, and this is how you get the most bang for your buck.

 

 

My Two primary Facebook Business Pages

 

StreetSmartWealth on Facebook - my generic page

 

FunFabLashes.com - my business specific page

 

 

ACTION STEPS

 

Start your page - what's your strategy?

 

Upload photos and posts before you start inviting

 

Be consistent

JackieUlmer.com/connect - Details on my new business launch with my daughter.

 

iTunes reviews shout out!

 

Thanks to Riversong - UK - who writes - Jackie has been a constant source of inspiration to me for the last 18 months. I’m so pleased at her fantastic weekly calls are all available to download! Thanks Jackie!

 

You’ve been entered into a drawing for a free month of my inner circle coaching program.

 

I LOVE and appreciate reviews!

 

Go to JackieUlmer.com/itunes or JackieUlmer.com/stitcher to leave your review and be entered into a drawing for a free month of coaching.

Show notes http://JackieUlmer.com/149

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Until next time - remember this - Hesitation Never Cashed a Check!