Facebook just released a tool that helps you migrate your profile account to a Facebook Pages. Why would anyone want to do that?
Well, some people are using their Facebook Profile Accounts (meant for personal use for friends and family) for their businesses. And this is against Facebook’s terms and conditions (this video explains why).
You can see this as Facebook “helping” businesses make that transition by introducing this tool. More likely, Facebook is shifting users towards terms of service compliance, as representing a business or other non-human entity with a profile instead of a Page is prohibited.
With a Facebook Page businesses and public figures can run contests, promote your products or services and collect email addresses using email management systems. Using the Facebook migration tool, your personal friends instantly becomes fans of the new Facebook Page; so businesses do not have to start a Page from scratch with zero fans.
However, there are some issues you will want to note before migrating your profile account to a page. Among them, your vanity URL may no longer work, for example, if your personal account was www.Facebook.com/janedoe, once this converts to a page, you will not be able to use www.Facebook.com/janedoe for your personal account again. There are other implications and you want to get more information before making the migration.
Now, just when I was going to publish this post, I found out that Facebook has disabled the migration tool. This is about a day after the migration tool has been released.
What does this tell us? That things change very fast in the social media space, especially with Facebook. This tool has not yet been officially launched but many were already testing it and within the space of a day or two the migration tool is disabled.
Not because Facebook doesn’t want to encourage the use of Pages, more likely that they are fine tuning the tool with the feedback they received. You’ll want to stay on top of these changes. And one thing is clear though that Facebook is serious about enforcing their terms and conditions.
So if you are using your profile account for business use, if you are doing any sort of promotion using your personal account, you will want to start a page instead. I see more local businesses and public figures in Kuala Lumpur setting up Facebook pages as they begin to see the power of social marketing.
You can set up a page for your own business or have someone else do that for you. If you are interested to find out more or outsource this piece of work you can contact us for a free marketing consult. We can discuss your total marketing plan tapping into social media, local and mobile marketing plan. And if you like to receive updates on changes in the marketing space, you can sign up for our complimentary newsletter here.
What's New In The New Facebook Page?
Facebook began rolling out the new Page* Design. Apart from some visual changes, some new features are now added.
The one I like includes being able to interact with others as my Page. That means I can like other Pages as my Page, leave comments or likes as my Page, cool.
The other new feature I like is notification. I used to have to go into individual pages and look for updates and comments that require response.
Now notifications are there to alert me when fans engage with me. i do’t have to go look out for it. This is something I have wanted for quite some time.
And if you choose the Everyone Filters, you will see the most relevant post coming up on top – this may not follow chronological order but will show you the most engaging post.
Facebook says there will be more changes coming. What do you like about the new page roll out?
Love to hear your thoughts on this one – leave me a comment below and feel free to share this with others.
* If you are a thought leader (Trainer, Speaker, Coach, Mentor, Author) or a business owner, you would use a Facebook Page for branding and promotional and keep your Facebook Profile account for friends and family. More information in this video which explains how Facebook only allows one Personal Profile account per person.
