You need to know what type of account (business or personal) you have with Facebook. Here’s an summary of the Facebook rules and features for each type of account to help you stay within the rules.
- Before You Start: You have a Facebook account (login). You understand the different types of Facebook presence you can create (profile, page, and group).
- Learning Level: 2 | Getting Started
- Article Last Updated: Sunday, December 4, 2011
Facebook Account Types
Your Facebook account is the way you log in to Facebook. Facebook offers two types of accounts and your account type determines the kinds of information you see and some of the actions you can perform with your Facebook business page.
- Do you have a personal Facebook profile? If you do, you have a personal Facebook account (login).
- Do you have just a business Facebook page? If so, you might have either a personal Facebook account (login) or a business Facebook account (login). Here’s how you can tell which one you have. Do you see a “Create Your Profile” button on the top of your account page? Then you have a business account. (Unsure where to look? Click on Account in the upper right corner.)
If you have two different Facebook accounts (logins), you have a problem. Having two accounts (logins) for Facebook is a violation of their terms of service. If Facebook discovers your violation, they can close your accounts and remove your entire Facebook presence (all pages and your profile). You will need some assistance to resolve this situation. It’s more involved than an article like this can explain.
Personal Accounts
Just because you have a personal account doesn’t mean that you can’t use Facebook for business. You can add a business page to Facebook using your personal account. In fact, that is exactly what Facebook wants you to do. From your personal account, you can administer your personal profile, any number of business pages, and any number of groups.
Many people who add a business page also have a personal profile. There is no problem with administering a business page from a personal account (login), even if you want someone else to help administer your business page. You can have an employee or someone you hire help you administer your business page without giving them your Facebook account (login) information.
Business Accounts
If you only want to use Facebook to maintain your business presence, you can use a business account. This separates the business account from all personal accounts, and may be a smart strategy for your business. A business account has some limitations on the types of actions you can take on your business page, and has limited access to Facebook information.
You can convert your business account into a personal account by clicking on Create Your Profile button.
Your turn: Have you accidentally created more than one Facebook account? How did you resolve this? Or, did you convert a business account to a personal account? Share your experiences here.
Related Articles:
- A Facebook Page Means Business
- Facebook As A Social Media Hub
- Should My Business Be On Facebook?
- Create A Facebook Page For Your Business (Part 1)
- Create A Facebook Page For Your Business (Part 2)
- Facebook Privacy: What Is Public Information?
Article categories: Articles • Facebook • Level 2
Article tags: Account • Account Suspension • Facebook • Facebook Accounts • Facebook Business Account • Facebook Page • Facebook Personal Account • Facebook Profile • Terms Of Service (TOS)
Charlene Kingston is the small business person behind the Social Media DIY Workshop.
154 Responses to “Understanding Facebook Accounts”
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I'm Charlene Kingston.
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I have a personal FB account and was going to set up a separate business account, but I guess I can’t. That stinks. I don’t want customers to have to be exposed to the personal chit chat from friend posts to find business info. Sounds like that would be the only way.
Tim recently posted “How to Clean Drapes.”
Hey Tim, You have not understood this article. Accounts are how your login. You can have both a personal profile and a business official page using a personal account (login).
I don’t know why Facebook makes this whole account thing so difficult.
I’m confused (in many ways!!) and am trying to get clarity on this issue as I have a personal account and wish to administer pages for several clients and am unsure how to manage them and set them up without using my own personal account.
Under the paragraph “Facebook Account Types” you say that “Having two accounts (logins) for Facebook is a violation of their terms of service”
Then at the end of the article under the paragraph “Business Accounts” you say “Instead, if you want to create a Facebook personal profile, create a separate Facebook account for your personal profile.
Is that last piece of advice not a violation of terms of service?
Mairead
This part of Facebook is very confusing. So let me first explain what the article says, and then give you some advice for your situation.
In general, if someone is setting up a FB account for their own business, I recommend that they have two logins: one for personal (if they want or have a personal profile), and a separate one for the business. This used to be a critical setup piece, but with recent FB changes, it’s not so critical. It used to be that Facebook linked each page/profile/group with the user who created it. That’s no longer true. It used to cause a problem because whoever created the business page had admin access forever, even if they left the company, or ended the business relationship with the business.
For you, setting up and administering FB pages for others, you could create a business login to FB for each client, and use that account to create the FB business(official) page. That way, you can give your clients a FB login for the business. That login would only access their business account (if you set them up as admins also).
However, you can just use your existing FB account to add business pages for your clients. You can add any other FB user as an admin. But be careful. Any admin can change the admins for the account, which means you could find yourself shut out by another admin.
Does this clear things up a bit? Let me know.
Hi, I do have a personal account and would like to have a business account separately. My freind tells me that I should have just a fan page and it’d spread around the word if I have events etc. BUt for the networking sake I’d like to have my business page. Should I just have it linked into my personal? But then I agree with others, everyone can see the chat there. So should I create a different login then for business? But it’s about clients, i’s about the networking so people can see me in my industry.
I think you are a little confused. When Facebook talks about accounts, they mean how you log into Facebook. Your username and password. With a personal account, you can have your personal profile, and create one or more business pages. That’s not a problem. You access all of these from the same personal account (login) to Facebook.
The term “fan page” is no longer used by Facebook. They call it an official page for a business, or page for short.
There are people who mix together business and personal, but I don’t think that’s a smart idea. I believe you should think about your audience. Your friends don’t care about business promotions. Your customers don’t care about your weekend plans. So keep them separate.
HI…I am new to helping my clients set up their business FB pages. Recently, I sat one up thru my personal account to administer w my client, since they did not want a personal account. This is working OK except they have the same PW now as my personal account, so we have privacy issues (they can log onto my personal account at any time too).
We both want to make sure the accounts are separate…I guess I am not sure how to set up and manage multiple FB accounts, from my personal account, regarding separate PW’s for each client.
Nor am I sure how to open just a business account for them.
I need some quick advice, if this makes sense to you!
Thanks,
MLou
Hi there. Your situation is exactly why I recommend creating a business account to create a business page. Your client needs a way to access Facebook, and not through your personal account!
There is nothing wrong with using your personal account to create the client’s Facebook page. The page isn’t tied to your account except that you are an admin for the accounts you create. You can be removed as an admin later. The link between you and business pages you create for clients isn’t permanent. It doesn’t matter that you used your personal account to create the page.
Your client must have their own account (login) to Facebook.
At this point, I don’t believe your client can add a business account, because my understanding is that a business account is related to creating a business page. You can’t create a business account without creating a business page. So either they must create a personal account (like the business page, and then you can make them a page admin), or you must delete their business page, create a business account, and start over.
At any rate, you need to have them stop signing in as you! Change your password! You can be the admin from your personal account to any number of business pages. I personally admin 7 pages for other businesses. That’s not a problem. You don’t have to be logging in and out of client FB accounts to do your work. You can do it all from your personal account. The challenge is that your business client needs a way to get inside Facebook, their own account. Most people use a personal account. Your client doesn’t have to use their personal account to connect with friends, etc. Only to log in to access their business page.
Does that help?
I am an admin on a business page but how do I access it from my personal page without searching for it everytime?
Great question, Amy. Here’s the secret. In the top right, click Account. There’s a drop down menu. Choose Use Facebook As Page. Next, you get a window with a list of all pages where you are the admin. Now, what you do next determines how you access the page.
- If you click the page name, you go to the page only.
- If you click Switch, you go to the page, but you are now using Facebook as the page.
I’ve got an article that explains how to use Facebook as your page, the benefits, etc. Check it out so you know which one you want.
Will my friends automatically be added to “Like” my business page? If not, is there an easy way to do that? Thanks.
No. Your business page and your personal profile have no connection in Facebook. If you want your friends to like your business page, you have to invite them. However, I offer this word of caution. If you start asking your friends to get involved with your business, some of them are not going to like that. You have to think about the audience for each Facebook presence. Your friends want to talk to you. The people who like your business want to know more about your business. Generally, the two don’t mix.
I suggest you take a very low key approach. Post ONE TIME on your Facebook profile that you have created a business page and provide the link. Don’t ask people to like your business page. Just tell them it is there. The ones who are interested will check it out. The ones who are your best friends and want to support you will check it out. The others will ignore it, as they should.
In the meantime, keep posting great stuff on your business page. It’s very exciting for a new business page administrator when the first strangers start liking your business page. You have to be patient. Using social media is more like running a marathon than a sprint. You are in this for the long haul.
Hi Charlene,
I appreciate your article and being present in the comments. I have a dilemma maybe you can help resolve. I’m working with a client who created a FB profile which she uses, she also created a FB profile for her biz and later a separate Business Page. She wants me to delete her FB profile for biz but I’m scared that will “deactivate” her entire FB account including the other two pages. Have you run into this before?
Thanks so much, Jen
That’s an interesting question, Jen. I haven’t seen this exact situation, but I imagine it is actually fairly common. I’m assuming that she has two accounts/logins (one for each profile). The good news is that Facebook made a change about a year back that impacts pages. It used to be that they were tied forever to the profile that created that page. That’s no longer the case. A business page is a separate thing from every profile. Yes, there are profiles associated with the page as page admins, but the admins can be interchanged.
The help topic about deactivating your account seems to say that only the related profile information is removed. The good thing about deactivation is that you can restore a deactivated account. So if you are feeling brave, you can try deactivating the business profile account and make sure that the pages are not impacted. If that works (and I think it will), you can request a permanent delete later.
Facebook’s Help Center isn’t all that helpful, but I did find an article that explains how to merge two accounts. This might be another way to resolve the situation, but at first glance, it seems like much more work, especially since you already know you want to trash the business profile.
Do let me know what path you take and how it works out. There are other people who would love to learn from your experience.
Charlene,
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions. I have an interesting one for you. I work as a financial advisor and have up to now been restricted in posting content prior to written approval – which makes the use of my Facebook business page cumbersome at best.
My firm is establishing a new policy (which is a requirement to continue use of FB) that we can use an outside vendor to monitor our page for a small fee and by signing up we can post anything we want within certain guidelines without the prior written approval. The catch is I have to give them my username and password. Clearly, I don’t want my firm or some outside vendor knowing how drunk I may have gotten last weekend, what my sister thinks of my dad’s girlfriend, etc.
My question is this, referring to your post on April 6th, am I understanding correctly that I can create a separate profile named “Mike B Admin” (or whatever) and make that profile an admin for my business account and give them THAT password? If I can’t do this, do you have any other ideas or suggestions that I may be able to use?
Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Regards,
Mike B.
Hi Mike,
I would be leery of any situation where someone wanted my Facebook account login. That means someone else can use Facebook on your behalf, making relationships with others, posting comments, posting wall posts, etc. If that other person spams, you pay the consequences. Facebook could suspend your account for their actions, and you would have no recourse.
I see where you are going with your logic on creating a new account (login), however, I don’t know if that will work. When you go in to create a business account, creating a new business page is part of the account creation process. I don’t believe you can just create a login without creating a new business page. You can certainly try. The other problem with your strategy is that the new account (login) isn’t a person in Facebook, and it can’t be made an administrator for another page.
The purpose of the business account is to provide access to a single business page, a page that you create when you create the account.
You certainly have a challenge! I can appreciate that you want to continue to be on Facebook as a business. My opinion, for what its worth, is to not give anyone my username and password, not even in exchange for more liberty, not even if that is the only way to keep using Facebook.
There are many businesses today making bad social media policies, ones that many of us don’t believe will stand up to legal challenges. I believe that your firm is adopting one of those bad policies, and that it will not last.
I also believe that giving someone else your login credentials (username and password) is a violation of Facebook terms of service, but could not find that in a quick search of their help center.
Here’s something to help you understand the normal model for this kind of thing. If a business today hires someone to administer their Facebook business page, that person using their personal profile likes the business page. Next, the business makes that person an admin. Then, the person does their admin work while logged in through their own personal profile, and works as an admin on behalf of that page. That’s how it works. I’m the admin for 5 business pages other than my own. I login through my personal account, choose which business page I’m working for in that moment, and switch identities (Use Facebook as Page). Then, Facebook tracks my actions to me doing them on behalf of the business. So if I spam while being Page X’s admin, Page X doesn’t get in trouble, I do!
I know this may sound harsh, but I’d suggest that your firm’s solution is so problematic that I’d advise you to stop using your Facebook business page if they require you to hand over ANY ACCOUNT LOGIN INFORMATION.
Charlene
Great information! Wish I found this site before I searched endlessly through FB help for answers. My question is why my business page requires a login for FB users before it’s viewable and therefore is not viewable when non-facebook users click on my facebook link. I’m also having trouble with my page showing up in Google search (200 users). My page began with a business account but I recently created a profile and now switch back and forth between my profile and the page, as you stated above. I can’t get into the same privacy settings for my business page as for my profile, and it’s driving me crazy. I don’t want my profile to be Google-searchable. I actually didn’t want a profile, but was unable to “like” other businesses as a page administrator without a personal profile – so I finally caved. I’d appreciate any help you can give. Thanks.
Unfortunately, Mary Beth, you’ve got a bit of a situation. Let me just cover the basics. Facebook (business) pages are public pages and appear in Google search results. It doesn’t matter how many likes/fans you have. It’s a violation of Facebook’s terms of service (TOS) to use a profile (personal) for a business. You are not the only person who has both a profile and page for their business, but because you are violating FB’s TOS, you are at risk (like all of the others) to have your accounts suspended. From a page, you use the Use Facebook as Page option and you can like other businesses, have a business page news feed from the businesses you like, and interact completely as your business page. (See http://socialmediadiyworkshop.com/2011/03/use-facebook-as-your-page/)
A business page is public, so there is no way to add security features to it. If you use a page, anyone can see what you post. FB is committed to protecting personal privacy, not business privacy. A business page is appropriate for a business, a cause, public figures, authors, or just for a professional presence for any individual (whether or not you are a business).
I recommend that you shift back to your page, and migrate the professional contact people on your profile to your page. Make your profile truly personal, even if you don’t use it much to chat with old friends, family, etc.
If you are really uncomfortable with using a page for your professional presence, there is another option to research. You could create a group and make it secret or closed. A group is designed for a community to have conversations. You can think of it as Facebook’s version of a forum. I belong to several groups related to professional organizations, and we use them to ask and answer questions, post links to interesting articles, and share upcoming events. They work similar to LinkedIn groups, with the advantage of being on Facebook.
It can be quite challenging to figure out the multiple tools on Facebook, and then manage your online presence through them. Once you get the hang of it, once you understand the best place to have each kind of conversation, it does get easier. For example, I have a profile and two business pages. I’m really clear about how I use each one, but it took a little time to figure that out and adjust to having three places to talk.
One quick way to sort things out is to make a list of the kinds of conversations you want to have on social media, broken out by topic. Then identify the audience for each conversation, and cluster together conversations for the same audience. Then, find the best tool to implement each conversation stream (by audience).
I hope this helps.
Hi Charlene
Thanks for the great article…it has helped explain a lot but didn’t resolve a problem I’m having. I have a personal page and am an administrator for our business page which someone else created initially. Now that I know how to go to account and choose which page I’m using some things are working better, but even when I’ve selected the personal page and have unchecked the box in the posting preferences that would otherwise have all my postings come from the business page even when I’m using Facebook as my personal page, If I try to like a page it always goes to the business page. Do you have any suggestions so I can like a page personally, not as the business?
I appreciate any help.
Hi Hunter. It’s hard to tell exactly what is happening from your comment, but here’s what I think I hear you saying.
You have unchecked the posting preference box. That’s okay. I think of this option as a sort of safety net. If I forget to switch to “Use Facebook As Page” and I’m on my page, and I mean to post as my page on my page, that’s what the check box takes care of. The way you have it set, you will be posting on your own page as you (not your page.) That should not cause any problems when you are using Facebeook as your page. It only kicks in when you are using Facebook as you.
Now, you are having problems liking a page as you, not your business. Make sure that you are in “you” mode (instead of “page” mode). To make sure, click on Account and switch to you if necessary. Facebook should register that “you” like the page, and not your “page.”
I have seen a few problems with this on my own account. Sometimes, it’s like Facebook gets a little stuck. If you are sure you are “you” and Facebook has your “page” like the page, refresh your browser. It’s usually a circle symbol or two turning arrows symbol, depending on the browser. They are all different. This tells the browser to reload the current page. I’ve used the trick a few times with Facebook with good results.
If I’ve missed your question, let me know.
Hi Charlene,
I tried to set up a business account on Facebook, but another employee accidently created a profile and made a personal profile. We want to keep just the business account, and not have it tied to any employee. Is there any way to get around this situation without deleting the page / account associated with it and starting again?
It doesn’t sound like there is a way, but before I do start over I want to confirm.
Thanks
Hi Carolyn,
Did you set up the business account? If so, the only thing you can do with a business account is create a business page. The whole idea of having a business account is that is has a unique login for the business. What ever username (login) and password you created is now the business login for Facebook. But that needs more explaining later in this reply.
The other person who set up the business as a profile can delete that profile. And that’s exactly what you should do. You should use the business account (login) to create a business page.
Now, your business page is out there. A business page is NOT tied to any individual. (In the past, the person who created the business page was tied to the business page forever. Facebook fixed that problem about a year ago.) The business page is tied to the business account (login). Anyone who knows that username and password can log into the business account and work as a page admin.
Decide which employees you want to be admins for your new business page. Have those people log in to Facebook using their personal account (login). Like the business page. Then, log out of your personal account and use the business login to access the business page. As the business page, set up the people you want to be the admins. There are two ways to do this, but I’m only going to mention one to keep it simple. View the business page. In the left column where you see the number of people who like the page, click on “people like this.” Facebook pops up a window that contains a list of everyone who likes the page. Locate the people you want to make an admin, and click “Make Admin.”
Now, any time those people log in to Facebook using their personal account they can switch to page mode and work as the page admin. I’ve explained Use Facebook As Page in this article (http://socialmediadiyworkshop.com/2011/03/use-facebook-as-your-page/).
Put away the business account login information. That’s not how the admins will access the page going forward. But it’s important information for the business to have on file so anyone from the business can log in and work on the page. For example, if all of the admins quit at the same time, the business would have to “un-admin” each of you using the business account (login). It’s really critical for the business to have that account information.
However, none of the page admins will use the business account to access Facebook. All of the admins must log in using their personal Facebook account and then “Use Facebook as Page” to work as a page admin.
Dear Charlene -
Thanks for your response above, but I think you may have misunderstood my question. Like you, I now have a personal profile and function as an administrator for a business page where I work. I view this as having a personal profile and a business page. I definitely do not have a profile for my business and a business page. My issue is that I cannot get my business page to show up on a Google search. I also know that I am not alone with this dilemma, as I have seen discussions on this topic in other forums, but without any solid answers. I also can’t figure out why a user must first log in to see my business page, but other business pages don’t require a facebook login to view them. I have a Facebook icon with a built-in link on my signature block on emails, but when nonFacebook users click on it, it requires them to login. Thanks again for your thorough responses to all the questions!
Sorry for the delay in my response. It’s been a crazy week! And thanks for explaining more about your situation so I can answer you on target.
Facebook pages are public, there is no privacy available for them. However, if you put an age restriction on your page, Facebook must require all users to log in to prove that they are over your age setting. To check (and change) this, edit your page. The age restriction option is on the Manage Permissions page. If that doesn’t fix it, submit an error report to Facebook at (http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=909)
The Google problem is different. Facebook allows Google to index every page. However, with Google, they reserve the right to decide which online items (websites, Facebook pages, etc) they add to their index and when they will index new sites. I’m not suggesting that they found your page and blacklisted it. It might be as simple as Google hasn’t yet found it. I’ve never tried this with a Facebook page, but with every website I create, I manually submit the site to Google for indexing. I believe you can do the same with a Facebook page, it’s just a website to Google. You will need an account with Google (for any service, including Gmail). If you don’t already have one, go to Google Webmaster Central (http://www.google.com/webmasters/) and create an account. They have lots of information for webmasters there, most of it isn’t relevant for you. Under Webmaster Guidelines, they have information about submitting a new site. The exact link I get from inside my account is: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl. You will add the web address for your Facebook page. Now that you have an account, you have a way to check to see when Google crawls your site.
Do that, and give it a few days. From your account, you can see when Google indexes your Facebook page. That’s when it should appear in Google search results. If this doesn’t work, the problem is with Google and is beyond my depth.
Let me know what happens. I might be able to point you to a Google/SEO expert who can help resolve Facebook issues. I’ll start looking now.
Hi,
I wish to ‘like’ other similar businesses, in the hope they will ‘like’ my business in return.
The problem with this is when i ‘like’ a site, it simply shows me as a person as liking the business, not my business liking theirs. So they are unaware of my business.
Is there a way around this??
Thanks
Hi Richard. That’s a good strategy. The reason your likes are showing up as you is because you have to change to “Use Facebook as Page” to act as your business page. It’s easy. I’ve written the instructions in this article. (http://socialmediadiyworkshop.com/2011/03/use-facebook-as-your-page/) You switch to using Facebook as your page, and when you are done, you return to using Facebook as you. Everything you do while using Facebook as your page shows up as your page. You can like other businesses, and comment on their wall posts/status updates. When you like businesses, their posts show up in the news feed for your business, also.
Charlene,
Wow, lots of advise here. And I apologize if this has been covered – its rather basic. We (an annual bike event) set up Facebook page as any individual would…but this probably should be changed to a business. Is there a way to convert a standard FB page to a business page? Can it be done without losing our friends (or converting them to “likes”)?
Thanks
Hi Doug,
Don’t ever worry about asking a question here. If you don’t know the answer, I want you to ask the question.
There isn’t any sort of auto-convert process. (Well, Facebook tried to create one a few months back, but the results were disastrous.) I’ve written an article about how to do it (http://socialmediadiyworkshop.com/2009/12/changing-your-facebook-presence-to-a-fan-page/).
I do recommend that you create a page for your event and switch from your profile. It’s a bit of work, and there is no guarantee that all of your “friends” will become “likes” with the new page. I don’t say this to scare you, but what you are doing is technically a violation of the Facebook terms of service. You could login one day to find your event profile suspended with no options available to you. It’s an investment in the long term.
Here’s how I think about losing people in the conversion process. If you notify everyone (as I recommend) and someone chooses not to switch over with you, they were dead weight on your list anyway. They were not really engaged by your event. Better to trim the dead weight and have only people who care about your event on your list. Otherwise, you think you have a large following, but in reality, you actually have a smaller following.
Hello Charlene,
Ok, I’m having the same dilemma as Marybeth had.
I have a PAGE, for my biz ( http://facebook.com/greenflamecreations ) & previously I never had a problem looking @ it with out being logged in or having other people who are not registered on facebook look @ it.
However, I discovered the other day that I can no longer look @ it with out first logging in. So, this is very discouraging, because @ this time, it’s my only form of having a website to display my biz / artwork / etchings etc to possible customers etc.
So, I’ve already made sure my age restrictions weren’t set, they are set @ the Anyone (13+) Setting. Via edit page in the right hand upper corner of the page.
(Ok, so after I started typing this to you, I went back into FB and decided to experiment.)
I took off the country restrictions. I had the USA, Canada & Australia as the only countries that could view my page. I removed all of them, and “WALLA” That did the trick….
Now my page is viewable by ANYONE with out having to log into it! =)
However, this is still discouraging to me. I really don’t want other countries to see it, as I’m not willing to ship to all the other countries out there. I really don’t understand why having a few countries listed, makes the page NOT Viewable by anyone with out first logging in. =(
So, I hope you don’t mind, But…. I wanted to still post this, in case anyone else who is also having the same issues, now they too, will know what to do to fix it.
Hopefully Marybeth also got hers figured out as well! =)
Thanks for having this page / site to help us all out though. Very informational and very useful! Thanks =)
Hi Heather.
Thanks so much for posting this! I love when other people have insights to share. I would not have guessed it was about country restrictions, but now that you say it, that kind of restriction is related to the age restriction. Of course they are related!
I can understand your frustration. If you make it clear that you only ship to certain countries, and include that information on your order form, people will see it. I’m sure people in those countries are used to seeing US sites that don’t ship to them.
Here’s another thing you can try. When you post your status updates, you can limit who sees the posts by geography. Before you click share, use the privacy option (tiny lock) to customize it by country. You can select multiple countries. I’ve written about this trick here (http://socialmediadiyworkshop.com/2010/07/facebook-status-update-tricks/).
Thanks so much for sharing your ah-ha moment with the rest of us!
Hi Charlene,
I’m so happy to have found your website. What a wonderful resource! I have read all of these informative responses and have a situation that is similar to many of these comments. So I will wrap my questions within a reiteration.
I have not previously had a Facebook account. I wanted to create a business page in order to begin some buzz about my little cyber shop. I really had only intended to have a business page but then in my enthusiasm clicked “create a profile” and then suddenly had a Facebook page linked to my business page. That is simply too messy for me–I wanted a very clear delineation between what is “me” and what is “business.” So here goes:
-If I understand correctly, it is not a “violation of terms of service” to have one account (log-in) as a personal Facebook, and a second account (log-in) as a business since my business is not “me.” Did I understand that correctly?
-In an earlier comment, you explained that a “person who set up the business as a profile can delete that.” That seems to be my issue, so how can I delete my profile from my business page? I can’t seem to find the path.
-Finally, can I then create a Facebook account as “me” not my business? Would I need to use a different email address?
Thanks in advance for taking your time. . .
Sheryl
Hi Sheryl,
Here’s what’s happened. When you clicked “create a profile” you changed your business account (login) permanently to a personal account (login). There’s no going back. You can have a business page that is accessed through a personal account. That isn’t a problem.
A profile and a business page are separate things out there in the Facebook universe. I can’t tell for sure from what you’ve told me, but it sounds like you have a personal account (login) with both a profile and a business page attached. And you didn’t want a profile. A personal account is a difficult thing to delete. In fact, Facebook’s delete process is really just an inactive process, and as soon as you try to login or create a new account with that email, your inactive account becomes active again.
I recommend that you keep what you have and just make your profile invisible through security settings. You don’t have to fill it out. But you might change your mind later. I actually have a profile and two separate business pages that I run (I only have a personal account), and I’m clear about how I use each and whom I connect with on each. Yes, I get some website fans who want to become friends, but I have a standard answer I send them that I only friend people I really know because I’m talking about reunions, weddings, family, etc. I don’t talk about social media there. At all.
I’m pretty sure this isn’t the answer you hoped I would give. Let me explain why. I do my best to give advice that is consistent with Facebook’s rules. The hard thing is, they are always changing their rules. I do my best to keep up. They have a topic in the help center that specifically addresses your situation, a business account accidentally turned into a profile. So I don’t feel I can give advice that isn’t consistent with them. They follow up that topic with this one about keeping the personal account and adding a business page.
If you simply have a personal profile from your converted business account, and you want to delete your profile because you really didn’t want a profile, you can request to have your account deleted.
You can start over creating a business account. I strongly suggest that you use a business email address, preferably one that is from a business domain (name@mybusinessdomain.com) so it is clear to Facebook that it’s a business account, if you have email with your business domain.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
Hi Charlene,
Thank you so much for the clarity of your reply. You are right when you suggested that I was hoping for a different answer–one with an easier solution. I believe I will start over by asking to have my account deleted and then begin again with a business account. Fortunately, I had not put much time into the page itself. I did spend a lot of time looking for an answer to my question before I found your website, so my gratitude is genuine.
After deleting my personal profile/converted business account, will I be able to create a personal Facebook account if I wish to at a later date?
Regards,
Sheryl
As long as you use a different email, you could start the process even before your old account is completely deleted.
When you look at the big picture of Facebook, they provide an amazing free tool for the rest of us to use. There are some things that are too complicated, things that they change too frequently, and some things I believe they just haven’t completely thought through. If we were paying and having these kinds of problems, it would cause a revolt. They basically have no customer service type of function. There is almost no way to reach a human who works there who could answer questions. When someone has a problem, like yours, and they expect a logical, simple solution (which is reasonable) and instead they get this reality, it can be quite frustrating. Just know that once you get things set up, it does get easier.
Good luck!
Hi Charlene -
Thanks for the great 411 on FB Accounts. Attempted to find the answer to a question of ours by looking through the comments, but have not found it yet.
Issue is this: We have a Business Account with one administrator who uses a departmental email acct. to log in. The admin has not completed the “Create a Profile” option (because we didn’t want the admin to convert the Business account into a Personal account).
We’re attempting to “Like” other businesses, but are unable to do so.
Under the Featured tab for our Business Page, the “Add Featured Likes” is disabled. The message we have for Likes is: “You currently have no likes. Give people more ways to connect with you by showing them your likes and interests. You can do this by choosing Use Facebook As Page under Account, and then liking other pages that relate to your page…”
Is this problem a result of not “Creating a Profile?” Is there anyway for our Business Page to Like other Business pages (or even Personal pages) without “Creating a Profile?”
Look forward to your guidance.
- Ryan
Hi Ryan.
First, you are correct to not use Create A Profile because it will convert your business account to a personal account. The Add Featured Likes function is disabled until your page likes other pages, so that isn’t a problem right now. That’s what I can tell you.
I don’t have my business Facebook page setup from a business account. This means that I can’t experiment with my own account to see exactly what you are seeing. Facebook doesn’t let us experiment and add in fake accounts we can use for testing. So let me tell you what I know and see if that is enough to help you. (BTW, if I had understood business accounts in the beginning, I would have my business page set up from a business account. There are so many advantages for this!)
When I want to like a page as my business, I choose Use Facebook As Page under the Account menu (upper right). I suspect you don’t have that option because you are logged in as the business. That feature lets the user switch between being a person and being a page temporarily. But logging in through a business account means you are permanently the page.
After I switch over to Use Facebook As Page, I then go to a page I want to like. It’s just like liking a page as a person. You simply click the Like button at the top. The difference is that the Likes counter doesn’t change for the page, because the only likes that Facebook counts are people who like the page, not pages that like the page.
The best way to verify that you indeed were successful as your page in liking that page is to return to your page. Go to Info and under Likes and Interests, the page you just liked should show up. There’s another way to verify you successfully liked the page, but it’s iffy. Click Home to see the news feed for your page. IF the page you liked has posted something recent, and IF the thing they posted gets a high enough EdgeRank score, it MIGHT show up in your news feed. A possible third way to verify that you successfully liked the page is that your Add Featured Likes should be enabled and show you the list of pages your page currently likes.
BTW, the Add Featured Likes lets you choose some (or all) of your liked pages to appear in a rotating list of pages in the left column of your wall under your profile picture. My business page likes about 300 pages, but I’ve only chosen 8 as featured likes, and they rotate through.
I wish I could walk through the steps on my end to make sure I’ve told you exactly what you need. I hope this is enough to help you solve the mystery. Please do post back with either a YES or NO and we’ll keep going if necessary.
Hi Charlene -
Really appreciate the quick, comprehensive reply.
Case closed. We were able to successfully Like other Fan pages last night. While logged in as administrator, we clicked on the “Add to My Page’s Favorites” link on another Business Page’s left sidebar, and the page was added to our Likes.
And as you mentioned, we now have the ability to select which Liked pages we want to appear under our profile via the “Add Featured Likes” function.
Thanks again for your article and response.
- Ryan
I’m glad it all worked out for you.
Hey, great article and great help.
Quick question: When I created my business page, I didn’t realize that I was successful. So, just a few minutes later, I created it again. Now, I have two and I only want one. Is there anyway to delete the extra page?
Thanks.
You are not the first person who has done exactly that, Michael. Here’s what to do. Go to the page you want to delete. Click Edit Page (upper right). Make sure the Manage Permissions tab is open. At the bottom, click Delete This Page. I’m not sure what happens next because I don’t want to delete my own page to test it! I’m sure it will tell you what to do from there.
Thank you so much! It worked like a charm.
Hi Charlene,
Thanks for a really interesting & helpful page!
I have discovered a small issue… I am working as a webmaster for a rather big international company. About a year ago I created several business pages (one for each country) on my personal Facebook account.
It has been working really well until lately when I tried to add two of my colleagues as admin of these business pages.
I was only allowed to give them admin rights to approx. 10 pages, then I got a “Warning” saying that I am blocked to use this feature because I am using it repeatedly in a short period of time. If I continue with this behavour my personal account may be closed down.
The problem is that I have approx. 50 business pages on my personal account and I don’t know how to give my colleagues access to them without risking my own Facebook account…
Have you heard about this problem before? Do you have a solution?
Thanks a lot in advance!
/ Anna
That would be scary, Anna. Here’s what I do know. Facebook has put some sort of throttle on user activity. Anyone who does something “too many times” in an hour gets shut down. It’s their way to stop spammers by stopping people doing repetitive behavior. It happens if you comment on too many posts, I’ve seen that. I suspect this is what you have run into with your activity.
I’d recommend only doing a few an hour, perhaps try 20 an hour, and see how that works for you.
I suspect (again, my best guess) that if you had a business account (instead of your personal account) you would be getting the same warning message.
Please report back on what happens so we can all learn from your experience.
I have asked my friends/coworkers/clients to “like” my business page. Many have stated that the “like” button doesn’t show up. Why and how to I make the “like” button show up?
The like button is an automatic part of the page. The only time it goes away is after someone likes the page.
If you feel there is a bug on your page, you need to document what is happening. Verify the name of your friends who don’t see the like (you might want to check your page’s list of likes to make sure that person hasn’t already liked the page). Submit this information to Facebook at the Known Problems page.
Thanks a lot for your advice Charlene!
I tried to add 5 new admins / hour and that worked just fine!
I guess it’s quite good that Facebook has done something to stop the spammers!
/ Anna
I’m glad that worked. It’s slow, though. I wish I had a smarter answer for you. If you figure out something better, do come back and share it! I’m sure others will love to learn a new trick as well.
Charlene-
I have a personal account and have for over five years. I recently added a business profile to my account. I have more than 25 friends and now have a unique name for my business Facebook profile. Do you recommend a business strictly do a business page? I realize there are more limitations with the Business page as far as seeing information about users… In your professional opinion would it behoove me to create a business only profile and under an additional email address for my business become the admin? If this is the route you recommend how do I keep my vanity url? http://www.facebook.com/peacockproductions
Hi Ivy. I do recommend that businesses only use business pages. In part, I recommend that because that’s what Facebook also requires. While many businesses do use personal profiles instead of pages, they run the risk of having their account closed. But there’s another reason for keeping business and personal separate. Your customers don’t care about the wedding you attended, and your friends don’t care about your new product features. Think about the audiences. They are very different and want to have different conversations with you.
Now, I do recommend being real and human in your business page. You can mention some personal things, things that let people see that you are real person and not a robot. Each person can decide what amount of “real and human” they show on their business page.
I do recommend that you fix the situation by creating a business page and shifting your business “friends” from your business profile over to your business page. I’ve written an article with that strategy (http://socialmediadiyworkshop.com/2009/12/changing-your-facebook-presence-to-a-fan-page/)
There will be a catch with the vanity url, and I’m not sure exactly how that will play out. Here’s what I can tell you. When you create a new business page, you cannot even ask for what you are calling a vanity url (Facebook calls it a username). Your page isn’t eligible until you have 25 people like your page. So when you create the business page, you get the stock url for now. You start the migration process. Some of your business “friends” will make the change, other will not. (At least that’s what most people experience.) At some point, your business page will have 25 likes, and you can apply for the vanity url you want. However, it’s already in use (by you!). So, before you apply for the vanity url, delete your business profile. If there are still friends left on it, message them, give them another chance, and then unfriend them. You have to permanently delete the business profile, and that actually takes some time because Facebook hangs on to it in case you change your mind. But at some point, the name will become available again and you can request it.
Good luck with the transition. I do think it’s better to do it sooner rather than later, while you have a small number of people involved.
Oh, and make sure to use your other communication channels (email, Twitter, etc.) to let your business friends know that you have a new page and action is required!
Hi Charlene!
Great blog you have here! I really appreciate all the help and information you offer! My facebook situation is looking a little bleak, but I’m hoping you can help me.
A client has a Facebook Fan Page set up by one of her employees. It appears that this employee created a blank profile page to create the Fan Page. The client uses her personal account to admin the Page, but she wants to use this dummy profile page for employee access. I know you can convert a business account to a personal account, but can you convert a personal account to a business one?
I realize the client can just pass along the login info of the dummy page to employees and such, but she prefers to not have all the profile features available (it looks weird and unprofessional to her).
Also, deleting the Fan Page and starting over is not an option. Her page is doing well and has 1000s of likes. On the bright side, creating a new business account is an okay option. Yet I would have to make a new Page, and that Page would ultimately be a dummy page.
I did see an option of placing a Facebook Ad and getting a business account that way. Before I design and buy an Ad, will this lead me to setting up a new Facebook Page or will I be able to point it to the client page and create a business account in the process?
I hope that all makes sense and I hope you can help me. Thank you so much for taking the time to read all of this.
Regards,
Julie