Melon Corporate Blog
Facebook: Profiles vs Pages
As a digital marketer it is very easy to become convinced that when software gets updated (as it invariably does), the latest iteration automatically supersedes all previous knowledge and installments and must be used immediately. Newer is better, right?
This perception of mine was challenged yesterday when I received a ‘Friend’ request through Facebook for a business profile.
My immediate reaction was to wonder why this business was setting up their Facebook presence as a person, rather than as a ‘Page’. Pages are so much easier to market, you get a wealth of extra opportunities to network and advertise and the openess of a page allows you to be so much easier to find.
Knowing the owner personally, I sent off a quick message outlining my thoughts and offering him to help with managing his Facebook presence “properly”.
His response made me look at things an entirely different way.
“Easy: People are much more likely to accept a friend request than a page request. I personally almost never accept page requests. Also I don’t think pages can intrude on status feed the way an updating of my status can.”
This man was marketing himself by being more difficult to contact - and in doing so creating a more personal experience for his customers. He was creating friends, not fans. And in less than a week he’s up to 141 of them.
Whilst I still feel that he is limiting his potential reach, there’s a lot to be said about using technology to suit your purposes, rather than changing your purpose to suit the technology.
What are your thoughts?
If you want to ‘friend’ the Buckingham Quintet you can do so here: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002149063009
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Comments - oldest entries appear first, most recent entries at the end.
While I agree that you should adapt to whatever suits your needs in order to sell yourself, the method your friend chose is actually against Facebook T&C;‘s. I don’t really care for what Facebook tries to control, but for his own benefit he shouldn’t do that, to avoid having his profile banned after gathering a couple hundred friends. That would be a pity and waste of efforts.
In the short run, he can actively attract “friends”, but then you are likely to come across as spam after a little while. Having a page for your business provides a passive way of reaching out to the consumers who DO want to connect with your brand.
By Daryl on 10 03 2011
Hi Daryl,
Thanks for your input. There are a number of legacy profiles out there - created before Facebook even introduced pages - which were set up as business profiles. I’m curious as to how Facebook has dealt with those in light of their most recent T&C;‘s.
I agree with you, however it’s interesting to see how the lay-person approaches these situations.
Dain.
By Dain Saxon on 10 03 2011
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