Now that Facebook has reached over 500m users it would be foolish for your business not to have a presence. Increased exposure and building a network of devoted fans should be good enough reason. There are many benefits but the purpose of this blog post is not to preach to the converted. I have seen countless times people/groups/businesses getting a fundamental step of setting up on Facebook completely wrong, which type of profile to select.

The main Facebook faux-pas seems to be businesses and groups setting up as a personal profile intended for individuals. It’s like trying to open a can of beans with a spoon, it’s the wrong tool for the job. Let’s have a look at what options you have.

When setting up a presence on Facebook you have 4 options:

• User Profile
• Facebook Page
• Community Page
• Facebook Group

When you first come to Facebook you will see the following page:

It’s not uncommon for people to go ahead and assume there is only one type of profile and set up a user profile for their business. The option you need is hidden at the bottom of the page. If you already have a Facebook profile you can also set up a page for your business or a group/community page by visiting an already existing Facebook Page/Group and selecting the link on the left hand side of the page called “Create a Page for My Business”:

Types of Profiles

User Profile

These are intended for use by individual human beings and not for a collective group or cause. This was the original foundation of Facebook and should only be used for this purpose.

There’s actually a serious privacy concern here. If you have your privacy settings set so that only “friends of friends” can see your information, as many people do, you could be exposing your private information. We have seen it happen, a person you don’t want to see you information will be able to access it by becoming a “friend” of a business you are friends with. There is now a link, which is easily obtainable, and that person can now see all your information.

If you are setting up for a business or group DO NOT USE THIS TYPE OF PROFILE if only for this reason.

Facebook Pages

This is the type of profile you want if you are a business, product, brand or public figure such a s celebrity, band or artist.

These profiles must be attached to a Facebook User Profile and you will be given the option to create one or login into your existing profile to complete the set up. You can also find a link on the left hand side of an existing Facebook Page when you are logged in saying “Create a Page for My Business”.

Facebook Pages are a way of communicating with your customers and fans. Any status update from these profiles will appear in fans news feed like a normal status update. Using this can be a powerful way to inform your fans of news, offers or updates such as new pictures and videos.

Anyone can become a Fan of a Facebook Page but users will not be given the option to post anything to the Page’s wall, unlike a Facebook Group which by default gives all users this option. This is an important feature of Pages as you often will not want people posting things to your wall, you will want to be in control of this. Users will be able to post comments to your updates which can create controversial conversations between fans, especially if someone posts something negative. You should not be fearful of this as there are ways and means of dealing with this. Something we’ll explore in a later blog post

Facebook Groups

Groups were created by Facebook to let users with a similar interest on hobby to communicate with one another. This might be a local book club or a paranormal investigation group.

Groups have members and like Facebook Pages anyone can join. Groups will give you much more control over administration of users meaning users have to gain permission to join. You can also make Groups available only to certain networks or make it a closed group.

You must be careful with Groups to ensure they are set up correctly as by default any member can post to the wall. This leaves it open to spam and can leave the group open to criticism. Although restricting this can be thought to go against the nature of a Facebook Group.

Community Pages

Community Pages were set up in 2010 as a way for people to share “the best collection of shared knowledge on a topic”. These were brought about because users were using Facebook Pages to bring users with similar interests on a topic together, not its intended purpose.

Community Pages have a similar feel to Groups by bringing groups of people with an interest around a similar topic but on a wider scale. At the moment there is little you can do with these pages other than add content once you have joined. You will see information pulled in from Wikipedia and also any posts posted by users around that topic.

These pages are not much use to businesses, at least not at the moment. As Facebook develops these we might start to seeing them being useful.

So remember

Make sure you pick the right type of Facebook profile when getting set up. Businesses, band, celebs and public figures should be using Facebook Pages!

Rant Over!