In this article, you’ll discover how to prep your Facebook profile for a professional audience and find tips to help you post from your Facebook profile to support your business presence. You’ll also have the option to become friends with friends of your friends and even people you meet inside Facebook groups. While you can use a personal profile to promote your business in creative ways, Facebook expressly states that personal profiles are not to be used solely for business purposes. #1: Adjust Your Personal Profile Settings for Professional Exposure It can be tricky to blend your personal life with your business in a public setting like Facebook. Choose Who Sees Individual Posts Just because you’ve set your global Facebook settings so your posts are public doesn’t mean you’re stuck sharing everything with everyone. For personal use, you’ll definitely want to let your friends post to your timeline and tag you in photos. But your friends and family aren’t always going to be in a business state of mind when they’re out with you having fun or sharing an experience with you. Pro Tip: Take care to revisit theses settings every few months to keep your personal activity safe and separate from people who may be viewing your personal profile for business. While your personal profile photo is used in places like Facebook groups, your cover photo stays on your personal profile page and is seen only by people who visit your personal timeline. While your friends and family may not be your ideal customers, they may still want to read about things happening within your industry or share something if it’s helpful to their own friends.
Wondering how you can use your Facebook profile to support your business?
Looking for tips to help you successfully blend your personal and business identities on Facebook?
While Facebook prohibits people from using personal profiles primarily for commercial gain, you can use your Facebook profile to indirectly promote awareness of your business.
In this article, you’ll discover how to prep your Facebook profile for a professional audience and find tips to help you post from your Facebook profile to support your business presence.
What’s the Difference Between a Personal Profile and a Business Page?
When you initially sign up with Facebook, you do so as an individual. You create personal login details and share personal highlights about yourself for people you know in real life. You’ll also have the option to become friends with friends of your friends and even people you meet inside Facebook groups.
Conversely, with a Facebook business page, you’re setting up a presence that’s all about your brand, business, or cause. You have the freedom to advertise and promote your products and services on a daily basis.
While you can use a personal profile to promote your business in creative ways, Facebook expressly states that personal profiles are not to be used solely for business purposes.
Before you begin promoting your business on your personal profile, make sure to read Facebook’s Terms of Service to make sure you don’t violate them. If you do, you run the risk of having your account shut down.
#1: Adjust Your Personal Profile Settings for Professional Exposure
It can be tricky to blend your personal life with your business in a public setting like Facebook. It’s important to take precautions so you don’t share something overly personal, like a night out with friends or a family member’s private wedding.
To check and adjust your profile settings, go to your home page and click the drop-down arrow on the top left-hand side of the navigation bar.
At the top of the Settings page, you’ll see the general settings area where you can change how your name appears on your profile, add a primary email address, a mobile phone number, and even update your password.
Many women enter their maiden name as their middle name on a Facebook profile so high school friends can find them. While it makes sense for personal use, you may not want business contacts to have that bit of personal information about you. Now’s the time to remove that from your profile.
Next, focus on security settings.
Among the options here, it’s a good idea to enable two-factor authentication and to identify trusted contacts who can help you get back into your account if you forget login details.
As you move into the public arena with your Facebook profile, you’ll want to control who can see your posts, who can send you friend requests, and how people can look you up. Use the Privacy Settings and Tools section to make any necessary changes.
For example, you’ll likely want everyone to see your future posts, so set that to public. If you’re thinking about allowing people to contact you through your profile for business purposes, consider changing the settings so you can receive friend requests from everyone.
Choose Who Sees Individual Posts
Just because you’ve set your global Facebook settings so your posts are public doesn’t mean you’re stuck sharing everything with everyone. Thankfully, Facebook allows you to choose specific audiences for individual posts before you actually hit Post.
Once you craft your post, hit the down arrow on the Public button next to the Post button to reveal a menu of audience segments. Choose the proper audience and then click Post.
If you’re blending your personal and business activities, this is a useful feature.
The timeline and tagging settings area is where you protect yourself from having too much of your personal life shared on a profile you’re gearing toward business.
For personal use, you’ll definitely want to let your friends post to your timeline and tag you in photos. That’s the fun of Facebook, after all. But your friends and family…
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