Crazy fun with Social Media - FaceBook for business?? Really?

This post is about using FaceBook (FB) for business. It's more about logistics than strategy. I thought I'd share some of my decision making process/experimentation here because I know other multi-talented business owners are also grappling with questions of how to manage online identities and how to use FB for business.

I've just set up two business "pages" for my businesses. I did that because I decided I really want to use FB mostly for keeping in touch with friends and family. Now when business contacts ask to be my friend on FB, I can say, "please become a "fan" of my business, I'm using FB for staying in touch with friends and family".

However, I may live to regret my choice! Keeping up with two profiles will be twice the work. I'm also an artist with a separate website for my pet portraits - so now three times the work. You see the problem!

First of all, FB was designed for you to stay in touch with friends and family. That is how FB wants you to use their service. If you solicit business directly, this will probably cause you to violate FB's terms of use, and they may well delete your profile - no questions asked, no warnings given. So keep that in mind. That being said, there are some recommended best practices about how to use FB for business. (In fact, let me give a shout out to Social Media Magic University (SMMU) and Jennifer Shaheen who teach this stuff).

Now, some people want to use FB exclusively for business. That means they use it for business networking. Their profile is more professionally focused. They aren't soliciting business directly as much as they are building relationships, demonstrating expertise and sharing information of value. For those who don't want to use facebook for keeping up with friends and family, the choice is pretty easy.

The issue that many people face howerver is - what if I want to do both - keep up with family, and also connect around business?? Like myself. Well here are some of our choices:

1. Use a single profile to represent yourself and your business. Intermingle business, family and friends and just determine in advance how you want to balance both and post to your wall with that in mind. You can use the privacy settings to help control what is seen on your wall and by whom. This option is recommended by many experts simply because managing a number of different profiles - one for personal and one for business can be hard to keep up with.
2. The next option is to use your personal profile for friends and family and set up a FB "page" to represent your business. Here are both of my pages for examples Carol Hillson Creative on FB and Carol's Pet Portraits on FB. To set up a business "page" click on the "advertising" link at the very bottom of the page, and then click on the "pages" link at the top of that page. (They don't make it easy!) This approach is actually what FB wants you to do with business. A "page" is a lot like a personal profile, except you invite "fans" rather than "friends" and it has analytics to help you measure the impact of your posts and or marketing efforts.
3. You can also start a group for your business - however, groups are meant more for facilitating discussions and there are no analytics. 

I'll keep you posted if I think I made the right choice. The jury is certainly out for now.

To be continued...