What do I post where on Facebook?

If you are an entrepreneur or business owner you probably wonder where to post your content on Facebook. You might already have started a Page or Group for your business, next to your own profile. Sometimes it’s very hard to decide where to post. In this article I will explain how we are handling this for our own activities. This guideline is also usable for entrepreneurs with multiple businesses.

First I would advise to use a Facebook Page for your business instead of a group. Groups were the first option a long time ago but today Pages are more convenient and give you the tools to operate as easy as with your own profile. Sometimes I also notice personal profiles that are used for a business, but this is not allowed by Facebook’s terms of use.

Important to know is the fact that you can moderate a Facebook Page with multiple people.
A Facebook Page can also have a username (e.g. www.facebook.be/itconsultservices), a group doesn’t have this option !
So now you have your Personal Profile and your Facebook Page.

What to post on the Facebook Page of your business ?

·         Links to your own blogarticles, written on your company blog. If you don’t have a company blog you can write short articles using Facebook Notes, directly on the page.

·         Links to interesting articles about your industry or expertise, found on other blogs or newspaper websites.

·         Status updates directly connected to your business.

·         Pictures of business events or trade fair visits, directly connected to your business.

What to post on my Personal Profile on Facebook ?

·         Status updates regarding your activities, your business(es) or even your personal life when still appropriate to build your credibility and reputation.

·         Links to your own blogarticles, shared from the Facebook Page of your business (Or articles written on Facebook Notes)

·         Check-in’s from Foursquare or Facebook Places, when appropriate to build your credibility and reputation (e.g. When you are attending business events, workshops, trade fairs, …)

·         You can share even more personal updates, postings and photo’s, but I would recommend to limit these shares to the people you want to be able to view them.

Last month I wrote about the perfect mix of mindsets needed to be successful in using Social Media for your business. This is of course directly related to the lists above.
Networking should always be the Nr. 1 activity, marketing should be the least present among your postings. Nevertheless visitors should always be able to see and experience your skills and credibility.

You can be the expert in your industry within your network. Make sure your profile wall and Pages are always fine. Don’t allow garbage postings by games etc.
Your personal profile and business page should always look professional and display you as a true professional in your industry.

The Facebook 5000 friends limit

This weekend I ran into the Facebook 5000 Friends limit. In the last couple of weeks I had been receiving warnings because my friends-count together with the Pages I liked was already over 5000 and Facebook wants you to keep below that number.

The reason for this limitation according to Facebook is that nobody has 5000 real friends in life. If you have more connections you must be a celebrity and in that case you need a fanpage where your network can just click on a Like button to enter your network.

Nowadays newbies can opt to not have a personal profile and immediately choose for a Facebook Page (Some Belgian politicians did this recently). When I became a member of Facebook a normal user-profile was the only option available.

So the best option for me today was to start a Facebook Page, next to my profile ... and open the door for the next part of my large network.

Of course I can't do this without making a few humble suggestions to Facebook

- Get rid of this 5000 friends limit. Almost all online networks allow you to have as many connections as you want, they make sure that no tools are available that would allow to spam the whole list. I have over 20000 connections in my network, gathered over multiple online and offline networking groups. I'm only allowed to to let 25% of them connect to my Facebook profile which is weird !

- Why not offer an easy and userfriendly tool to transform your Facebook Profile into a Facebook Page ? Now I have to maintain and update two different pages on Facebook which doubles my time efforts

Anyway... as from now it's no longer possible to connect to my Facebook Profile, but feel free to Like my Facebook Page :-)