Avoiding a Facebook Faux Pas

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What follows is an article I wrote for our local business community, WiredSonoma, regarding what I perceived to be a basic misunderstanding of how one should create a presence on Facebook for their business. WiredSonoma is an organization dedicated to entrepreneurship and the utilization of technology in the Sonoma Valley. It is open to anyone who lives or works in the Sonoma Valley.

A Facebook Faux Pas

Does your company have friends or fans on Facebook?

The distinction is important because it not only reflects on your brand but has implications for your chances of success in social media.

Let me start with Facebook Rule #1: People have friends, businesses have fans.

You may not be aware but Facebook offers three forms of presence on their platform: Accounts, Pages (aka "Fan Pages") and Groups. Each serves a particular purpose.

Facebook Accounts are the foundation of Facebook and to do anything on Facebook, one must have one. According to Facebook's Terms of Service, accounts are for "real people" and must contain "real names and information". Additionally, the terms state you cannot use your "personal profile for your own commercial gain."

Those terms pretty much rule out creating an account for your business. However, I have noticed – with increasing frequency – people creating personal accounts for their businesses. Not only is this in violation of Facebook's TOS but it's like trying to use the handle of a screwdriver as hammer – you're using the wrong tool for the job and it doesn't look terribly smart. Fortunately, Facebook has an answer with "Pages."

Facebook realized people were creating fictitious user accounts for their businesses so they created Facebook Pages. I won't say that Pages are perfect but they are purposely designed for fictitious entities like businesses, brands, products, organizations, bands, personalities, etc. What's more they come with a suite of tools that give you insight into your "fan" base which you cannot get with a personal account.

Facebook Pages have another advantage in they they are designed to integrate into Facebook's social network in a way that is more conducive to a business. This makes sense when you consider that we relate with our friends differently from how we relate to businesses. On Facebook, a "friend" defines a close relationship that offers parity between parties. A "fan" relationship, on the other hand, is more casual and less symmetric but also more viral, meaning fan-ship (if that were a word) spreads much more easily than friend-ship.

Additionally, creating an account for you business rather than a page also hides your business in the vast pool of personal accounts rather than integrating it into Facebook's directory of businesses. If you're a plumber, would you rather have your page listed under plumbers in the Yellow Pages or listed in the White Pages under whatever part of your business name you happened to squeeze into the "Last Name" field of a personal profile? Put down that screwdriver!

Lastly, there are Facebook Groups. Some businesses have gone the route of creating a Facebook Group for their business but, alas, this is probably not performing as intended. This is because groups are membership-based entities in Facebook and are generally designed to allow members of an existing organization to have a "meeting" space on Facebook (e.g. a chess club or user group). For a business, groups are not good for cultivating new relationships (i.e. marketing) but for keeping and strengthening those that already exist (i.e. customer retention/satisfaction).

In our business, we have yet to recommend that a business create a Facebook Group. This is usually for one of three reasons. 1) most businesses are not ready to manage their own communities; 2) Facebook Groups lack the kind of support from Facebook to make them real business tools; and 3) LinkedIn provides a better platform for this type of community.

In summary, think of Facebook as a massive conference or trade show where people register (e.g. create Facebook accounts with personal profiles), businesses set-up booths (e.g. Facebook pages) and people can break out into special interest groups (Facebook groups). So, if your business is trying to use Facebook as another place to interact with potential or current customers, it pays to take a little time to learn how the system works before you hang up your shingle.

Ready? Maybe it's time to create your business' Facebook Page.