It wasn’t long ago that I wondered aloud why some people would manage both a personal Facebook profile and a Facebook page of their personal brand. Particularly after Facebook launched subscriptions, why not just allow anyone to read your public posts?
But on second thought…
I allow for subscriptions of my public content, but lately I have realized that this just doesn’t cut it. I eventually broke down and set up a business page for my consulting posts. Here’s why:
Can’t Target Subscribers
There were times when I simply wanted to write a status update that only my subscribers could see. A “thank you” for subscribing to my public content. Instead, I had to write a public post. And that felt kind of silly since my friends would also see it.
Can’t Limit Specific Content to Subscribers
When I wanted to promote one of my latest blog posts about Facebook strategies, I’d do so publicly. But what if I wanted to make another public update that had nothing to do with what I do on my website? What if it was about baseball?
This happened frequently. I wanted to promote content I wrote about the Milwaukee Brewers in a separate endeavor. The thing is, the majority (if not all) of my subscribers are following my content for social media information. They would not want to read baseball posts.
Wearing Out Friends
My friends never said as much, but I can imagine they were getting tired of the constant stream of social media posts. I don’t like it when people use their personal profiles to continuously promote themselves, and that’s exactly what I was doing.
What I needed was a way to use a list to target my posts about social media… But you can’t create a list of non-friends (in this case, subscribers). So I either needed to just keep bombarding my friends or limit the number of posts promoting myself.
Analytics
This is an easy one. You don’t have analytics for your personal profile. But you do have Facebook Insights for your business page. This way, I can do a much better job of targeting and timing posts based on statistics.
It’s Cleaner
Since I created my page, it’s a clean break. I use my personal page to update about personal stuff (or anything not connected to my website). I use my Facebook page to build my personal brand.
It’s More Official
If I truly am a business, I need a business page. There’s no way around it. Whether you’re a consultant or restaurant or musician, you can’t fully benefit from Facebook without having a business page. I knew this for the typical business. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize that for myself.
How About You?
Do you allow people to subscribe to your public posts? What types of content are you looking to share to those people? Do you also have a business page for your personal brand?
