Should you have separate personal and professional profiles on Facebook?

Facebook was created as a way for people (specifically college kids) to stay in touch with each other. As it’s grown, marketers have figured out how to leverage it … but more and more people, besides just college kids, are also using it exactly the way it was originally intended.

So marketers are left asking the question of whether to separate their business and professional endeavors by creating two separate profiles on Facebook.

The simple answer is no, don’t separate the two.  First, from your friends’ perspective:

• if you’re sending out enough marketing messages that your friends would be annoyed, so would your customers!!  Stop!
• Social media is not a broadcast medium.  People don’t tune in because they want to be inundated with your one-way sales messages.
• Having to think about your friends receiving the same messages that your potential customers are getting is a great filter, or test, as to how much you should be sending out.

And second, from your customers’ perspective:

• The magic of social media as a sales machine is that it builds rapport for you.  Because your potential customers get to see stuff about your personal life, they come to know you, like you and trust you … and therefore will buy from you.

I said that was the simple answer.  Now for the more complex answer.

If you’re doing social media marketing in any sizable way at all, you probably want to think about having a fan page.  It’s every bit as flexible as a personal page, but it has the advantages of unlimited # of fans, plus great tracking.

Iyou want more info about how to do that effectively, that’s what we’re here for!  Give us a shout.