Here’s a question I get asked a lot by entrepreneurs who are trying to make sense of personal vs business pages, “If I cannot place ads on my personal profile page what’s the point of having it then?” Facebook has a lot of rules and one of them is, you cannot advertise directly on your personal Facebook page. They have established business page capabilities, and they want you to use that for all your business needs. They know you will need to market your business page in order to get people to see it, and they also want to capitalize on that by providing paid advertising services for those pages. Think about it, this is a great business strategy for Facebook! Nevertheless, there are ways in which you can use the personal page to add value to your business page. Yes, it most certainly can be done! .

Another common question I get asked is, “how can I separate my real friends from my business associates on my person profile?” Basically, that is a big problem for a lot of people; they have their family on their page and of course, they want to give value to them. What I recommend and do with that is, I try to mix it up a bit. Meaning, I post things that are of value to both my family as well as my associates. I will post a few interesting pictures from family events, and I’ll do the same for business events. My business is my life and my life is my business; they are intertwined into my brand – me, and so my family understands that. Anyone who does not get me, or understand why I do what I do, they probably have already unfriend me, and that’s ok too. But if you really do not want them seeing your business stuff, you can create lists on Facebook. It’s a bit more work to setup and keep going, but it’s an available option to use.

Once you’ve built that relationship with people even from your past, they will not have a problem being a part of what you do – actually most of them will be happy to support you. They are like your tribe; they will come with you on whatever journey you are taking. Overall, just make your Facebook wall really valuable to anyone who goes on it. Avoid salesy pitches after pitches; no one likes them. People are tired of being sold to! I know I am. (until I see that banging Gucci handbag on sale – Lol☺ )

Social Media Marketing Mentoring and Me

I thought I knew Facebook, until I sat down with my SMM mentor; what I’ve learned is priceless. I’ve got books upon books of notes on various aspects of leveraging my Facebook personal page that I have started implementing, and I want to share a few of those with you.

1) The first thing you do is to make sure that your personal Facebook page is designed bearing your business in mind. It doesn’t matter what niche you are in, you want to ensure that your personal profile is working for you, because that is the point of contact where most people see you first. Let’s be honest, when you see someone’s business page and it interests you, don’t you go to see if you can peak into their personal page? I do! (only for business pages that peaks my interest, but nonetheless – I do!) Personal profile pages say a lot about us, and if someone wants to know if they can do business with you, or refer a friend to you, or if you are truly an authority in your niche they will come looking at your personal pages across social media platforms – especially Facebook. First impression lasts, so It’s really, really imperative that you get your profile right in order to convey your ideal message. To accomplish this:

Make sure you have a great header picture. You can place a family portrait of happy moments, or a group of important business people you’ve met and fell in love with. Just really make sure it’s professional looking, enriching and communicates the narrative you want it to communicate. You’re human!

For your profile, a suitable picture of you should be used; not some random image or your business logo. You want it to have a personal feel and not business-like. After all it is your personal profile page. You also want to make sure you are visible – people can actually see you, and your photo is current or at the very least still looks like you do – not a photo of you when you were twelve. Yeah, those are cute, really, just not on a page you want to kinda show to represent your business – your brand – you. Another thing is, you want to look happy, pleasant, appealing, not all miserable and unhappy. I’ve seen some personal profile pic that are just sullen and can be a huge turn off. I’ve included some examples of good profile pics and not so good ones in that ebook at the top of this page; feel free to download. These two tips are central to the success of your personal page assisting your business page, cause no matter where you do business, it will all lead back to your personal Facebook page.

2) The next thing you do is to make sure the follow button feature on your personal Facebook page is turned on. You do this so that If you have maxed out your personal profile friend number, and people are still requesting to be added as friends, they will follow you instead. The follow is automatic but if it is not turned on, they won’t be able to follow you. I also try to follow a number of people per day as well; it’s definitely a way to get your name out there – your brand. Just imagine if you are following say fifty (50) people per day, a lot of those people will actually come and check you out. They will! I do it myself at times when people follow me (again, if they spark my interest), and so I know this works. And this is where it all comes into play; why your personal profile page need to look awesome. Based on what they see when they visit your page, they will decide whether to follow you back, send you a friend request, or just totally ignore you. Here’s the key, while you cannot send a hundred Facebook friend request per day, you can receive 100 Facebook friend request per day. Huge plus!

NOTE: In order for your follow button to work, your profile must be set to public. And one very good thing that you can do, is keep your friend list private while your followers remain public. That way no one will be able to access your friend list and cherry pick at your friends. I’ve had it done to me before I made it private. Not a good look at all!

3) Create a short but informative intro for your profile to let people know how you would be of benefit to them. You have only 101 characters to sum this up, so be sure to use them wisely. There are a few examples and tips in the FREE ebook above, so do download.

4) Make sure your links are clickable, and will end up exactly where you want them to. For example, the Facebook links such as the “Works at” needs to be linked to your business page. That’s where you have your authority to sell, and are hopefully selling, so that link could get you a lot of leads and possibly closing. Too many people have this very important link pointing to blank or irrelevant pages.

Facebook Personal Page A Real Networking Genie

5) Send out as many friend requests as you can, and accept the ones who request your friendship. Add people who are in your niche, and possibly in your area, everyday on Facebook. Send them friend request or follow them – after you’ve checked their page out, of course. Likewise, accept those friend requests you get, after quickly perusing their personal pages. Facebook views traffic as value, especially local and niched traffic. Every day I send out at least 10 friend requests. I do 10 because Facebook does not really like too many friend requests, and I want to remain in good standing with them, and you will soon see why. In addition, Facebook restricts the number of friends you can have, I believe it’s five thousand (5,000) maximum, and when you’re building a business, that is really restrictive. We all want more than 5,000 people to be hearing our message, especially since they will not all convert.

One of the things that is super important to me and I try to do every day, is to network with people. I go out, I talk with people, I get into groups, I link them on their pages. I do it all. But I try to network with people who are in my niche, people who I know I can learn from, and people who I think can learn from me; people with whom I may be able to do a joint venture, or collaborate to improve our businesses. It is very important to build relationships; it’s actually a huge part of working on your business, instead of only in it. I choose to make it a part of my daily method of operations, because I know the benefits. Relationship building exercises are the keys to our business success, and our personal Facebook profile pages are the magnet. It’s the first place people head after they first meet you to get a more real sense of who you truly are, and what you are about.

6) Create teasers or lead magnets with great visual representation of what you’re offering FREE, and post it on your personal Facebook page, with no links. This is key! In the status bar with your graphic, ask your friends and followers to let you know in the comment section if they need the link to access it. Great way to start a conversation, send people to your tripwire, and possibly close some deals. Nothing may happen in a week or even a month, but eventually someone will get things started and you know that’s all it takes to get the ball rolling at times – just that one to start. Also, be sure to do your part and engage them well. You can also choose to use the messenger to private message those that peaked your interest, those you feel might be receptive to your other similar offers.

Whatever you do:

• Never, never, ever post links on your personal Facebook page. Why? Facebook dislikes when you send people off somewhere else – outside of Facebook. If you do this, and especially make a habit of this, your personal page will not get any publicity from Facebook plus – and more importantly, Facebook will shut you down. So, this is not very good if you are using your personal Facebook page to enhance your business’ reach. What you do instead is to post snapshots of whatever you need to have them view, and then let them know if they want the link to it, they can let you know in the comment section. This is a really great strategy; not only will you have them requesting the link, but you can also chat with them privately outside of the comment section with messaging – building relationships.
• Do not be woefully salesy on your personal Facebook page. Huge turn off! Mix it up with happenings in your personal and business life. Interesting things and moments. There is selling everywhere, so allow your personal Facebook page to be a welcoming place – like a breath of fresh air – so people can breathe easily.

In addition to asking my inner circle about their use or non-use of their personal page to extend their business reach, I’ve also been asking business owners I meet if they are using their personal Facebook profile page to help their businesses, and it’s actually quite surprising to me that most people aren’t. They had their varying reasons, and that’s absolutely fine because there is no right or wrong to this. There really isn’t! Some people use it, and some people don’t. Whatever works for you, works for you, but as I’ve outlined above, that’s how I use it to help my business.

Allow your personal page to be your lead magnet, that will take them to your business page with your tripwire, then that tripwire will send them to your website or blog’s landing page where they will see your premium offer. Social Media is not for selling, you should use it to generate buzz, and send people off to your website or blog. That’s where the sale happens! I use it to introduce people on my personal page to offers on my business page, as well as to send them to my landing page, all without selling directly on my personal page. Yes, I do! I use it on a grand scale to bring sales into my business, and since people will decide within a few seconds of landing on your personal page if they want to be associated with you in any way, let alone do business with you, you must ensure your page is setup to facilitate what you need it to.

So, should you use your personal Facebook profile to market and grow your business? I say, absolutely! Your business can use all the help it can get to take it to the next levels up.

Go ahead and download that e-book above, and come back here and let me know in the comment section if It has provided value to you in any way. Until then!

Xo,