Facebook marketing is a new animal, and as such, there were many businesses who simply didn’t know how to get started with marketing on this social network of choice. As a result, many of you created a personal Facebook Profile for your business, instead of a Page.

This is incredibly common, and now many businesses who want to use the superior Facebook Page have gone through the frustrating process of suggesting that your friends on the personal Profile “like” your Page. The conversion rate for this process is generally quite low – you’re never going to get even half of your friends to like your Page. Using a personal profile as a brand is actually a violation of Facebook’s terms of service (TOS), and by doing so, you run the risk of Facebook pulling out the big stick and revoking your access. So what do you do?

Now, you can take the business profile and use the Profile Migration tool to set up an official Brand page. Brand pages are better suited for local marketing because they allow anyone to “like” you (no approving friends), all of your current friends will be switched over to fans, there’s no maximum on how popular you can get, and they offer small businesses more robust media and promotion offerings. The fact is, Brand pages are simply the better option. By not using them and sticking to a personal profile, you limit your brand’s ability to really reach out and engage customers.

However, there are some unexpected results that inhibit the functionality of this application.

• It will create a new Page from your personal profile. You do NOT get the option to move your friends over to a pre-existing Fan page.
• The name of your profile will likely be the name of the new Fan page. Changing the name of your profile is also problematic, because Facebook doesn’t allow you to use anything but a “real person” name. And since you can only change the name of a Fan page with less than 100 friends, that’s going to be a major issue for many.

The process is relatively new and some minor hiccups are being worked out, but you can be assured we are staying on top off the progress and will be ready and available for you to make a smooth transition and have all the offerings and benefits the brand page has to offer.

Using a personal profile as a brand is actually a violation of Facebook’s terms of service (TOS), and by doing so, you run the risk of Facebook pulling out the big stick and revoking your access. Wow, sounds a bit harsh, doesn’t it? I mean, really, you’re just trying to make a buck…

Not to worry, there’s a better way to expand your exposure and reach on the big boy of social networks without fear of the big stick coming out.

As a small business owner you want to get yourself set up with an official Brand page. Brand pages are better suited for local marketing because they allow anyone to “like” you (no approving friends), there’s no maximum on how popular you can get, and they offer SMBs more robust media and promotion offerings. The fact is, Brand pages are simply the better option. By not using them and sticking to a personal profile, you limit your brand’s ability to really reach out and engage customers.

With the recently introduced Profile Migration tool, Facebook is making it even easier to have much more functionality and better promote your business to customers. Here is an easy to follow Youtube video that takes you through the process: Profile Migration Tool

Personal Profiles with your Business name are not the Facebook way to go anymore, so make the switch today!

During a recent presentation at Emerge Memphis on 3/10/11, Managing Project Director James Hutto covered some fantastic tips and tricks to help business users become more proficient and secure when using Facebook for professional purposes.

One of the questions we are most often asked has to do with the best way to use the same Facebook profile for both business and personal.  Since Facebook’s terms and conditions stipulate that you are not supposed to create 2 profiles, this is often confusing for a great many people.

James covered the power of Friend Lists and how they can be used to really fine-tune the security settings in Facebook and only show specific pieces of your profile to certain groups.  At the most basic level, James urged all attendees to create a list for Personal and a list for Professional, and to set what those 2 different groups can see through security settings.

There was also an overview of Facebook’s security settings, and some instruction on the best ways to optimize for privacy and professional networking.

This seminar had some great Q&A and a great deal of ground was covered with specific answers to attendee questions. Some participants even decided to test out what they learned by leaving some comments on our Fan Page!

Here is a copy of the presentation:

I was asked to speak to NPA Worldwide, a global organization of personnel professionals, in a workshop for recruiters.  Social media and recruiting go hand-in-hand, especially in today’s climate where finding the ideal candidate is the name of the game.

Fortunately, social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook provide some amazing tools to allow recruiters to target potential placements.  We all post such detailed personal and professional information about ourselves in online profiles that can all be easily searched, that means that finding that ideal candidate is (or can be) easier now than ever before.

Time
One obvious issue that was discussed is the time investment required to be successful in social media.  Several of our participants today voiced concerns about the level of involvement needed. My thoughts on the large time investment are this:  if you are spending tons of time on LinkedIn and you know that it’s working, then that’s obviously well worth the effort.   In order to justify the time, you have to be monitoring your social media efforts and quantifying your results.

PLET
I presented my PLET method for using social media, which covers the basics that everyone needs to know if you’re going to successfully take advantage of these new media channels: Post, Listen, Engage, & Track

Here are some examples that I covered for how recruiters can use this methodology:

• Posting information is crucial, and content is still king! But don’t just throw out your job posting like every other recruiter does- find some way to “hook” people and get their interest. Keywords are crucial, but finding your (online) voice and letting your personality show through are important.
• If you aren’t measuring it, then you can’t improve it (or for that matter, know if it is worth your time investment).  Measuring the effectiveness of social media efforts is a must – so using tools like URL shorteners (bit.ly) that allow you to see how many clicks you’re getting to job postings can go a long way towards helping you start to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
• Listening for opportunities is one of the chief ways to take advantage of online tools.  Google alerts to monitor for lay-offs or openings is a free way to extend your ability to know what’s happening.  We also discussed the importance of organizing all of that kind of information, and using RSS feeds with Google Reader is a brilliant way to not only organize, but it will give you the ability to do searches as well.
• I talked a lot about the great tools that Google provides, and Analytics was another one.  Knowing that your site or blog is getting increased traffic from wherever you are spending your time promoting is just as important as knowing if people are hitting your links.  The reason we can be so good at online marketing is because we can measure it on such a granular level!