Recently Bobbie emailed me because she had setup her Facebook business Page in a way that she has a Personal Profile in the name of the Business AND the Business Page itself, owned by that Biz identity.
It happens often, people miss a step and discover later on they have setup their Facebook Business Page in a way that is not right (ie according to the Facebook Terms of Service) and now are stuck … what to do?
In this situation Bobbie has created:
- A Personal Profile in the name of the business (Biz Profile)
- The Business Profile has been making friends
- She also did create the proper type Facebook Business Page (Biz Page)
- She had her own personal Facebook Profile as well (Personal Profile)
Where she erred was in creating a new profile in the name of the business, the one I am referring to as the Biz Profile. Facebook’s rules on creating pages are very clear… they should be created by the personal profile of the business owner… or an authorized representative. (See the Facebook terms of service for more details)
How do you fix this particular situation?
The best way I can advise you to fix this Bobbie is to do the following:
(follow the steps with the noted identities as referenced above)
- Make your real Personal Profile (YOU) an admin of the Business Page (you will have to Like it first, then go to edit page, manage admins).
- Make another person (a trusted one) an admin of the page as well to have a backup.
- Make posts over one week to the friends of the Biz Profile (as a status update) – be honest to get them to take action. (ie. Hey folks, I set up this identity by mistake and have to fix it, it means closing this Facebook profile and using only the business page (Link) Please click this link and Like the page so we can stay connected – thanks for your help! * Do this a few times over a week… to get as many as possible to migrate.
- Once you are comfortable with the friends having switched to Likes… As the Biz Profile, ‘unlike’ the Biz page.
- As the Biz Page, remove that person (Biz Profile) as an admin.
- Ensure both you and the backup admin can fully access that Biz Page.
- Delete the Biz Profile (ie close that account – and you have to stay out of it for 30 days or Facebook automatically reopens it).
Once this is all done then your Personal Profile will have the proper control of the Biz Page and the setup will be working more effectively. You will also find that people are not confusing the old Biz Profile with the Business Page.
Because Facebook Pages have much more in the way of Apps available to use and also it gets benefits from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that personal profiles and groups do not – your visibility will get a boost and you can now ‘work that Biz Page” properly and more effectively.
Good Luck in making your fix Bobbie!!!
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… Post a question on my Ask Kathy on Facebook feature and I will do my best to help you as well!
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