Facebook Suggestion – Normal Profile or Fan Page – And the IRONY

So do you want a traditional Facebook profile page or one of those fancy new fan/business pages everyone seems to have these days?

I’ve been getting this question a lot lately, and here’s the deal… And the irony…

The regular ‘ol profile page has so many more business building tools and features, it’s almost unfair and backwards. But, Facebook wants you to have a normal ‘ol profile page only if you’re using your real, real birth name.

Therefore, Joe’s dry cleaners should use the fan/business page to promote their business. Unfortunately, that means he won’t be able to take advantage of several of Facebook’s business-building tools, like taking photos with his customers and then tagging them to prove he’s the cleaning guy. Yes, I mean if Joe takes care of Mary’s silks and cashmere, and all of Mary’s friends know about it… It’s much more likely that she’ll take her delicates to Joe too.

Sure, Joe can still take photos and post them to his fan page/business, but without tagging, it’s restricted to only people who visit his fan page/business and you lose the chance of those same photos appearing on fan pages. profile of your customers. pages, and in their photo albums to boot.

Not the end of the world, but not the best either. There are other advantages to having a regular profile page as well, and we’ll discuss them in the coming weeks…

So here is my advice…

I think it would be better if Joe the dry cleaner started with a regular profile page. There’s no reason Joe can’t market himself as a guy who cares about dry cleaning and owns the local dry cleaner on the corner of Maple and Elm. Traditional Facebook Pages also allow you to separate your friends into categories and hide some posts from a category while allowing others to see them.

Joe could have a category for family and friends, and another just for his dry cleaning customers and prospects. Since Joe can have up to 5000 friends on his normal profile page, there won’t be a rush to have a fan page/business for a while… And I think the normal profile page will garner the flood of new business that Joe is very much looking for. faster than if you had a fan/business page. Besides, who doesn’t want to know and have a relationship with the owner of the establishment that he frequents?

Even if Joe is an off-site owner, he’s much nicer and a stronger motivator for people to bring their clothes to Joe, because they know Joe and like him. In closing, do Facebook the way it was initially designed, you’ll do it better, faster… And when you’re at your 4999th friend, start a fan page/business to handle the overflow. I hope that helps you.