How many businesses do you know that have a personal Facebook account? Well if you know any, did you know it’s against the Facebook terms of service? If you want to promote your business on Facebook then you need to create a Fan Page. You can actually create a business Facebook account, but it differs from a personal account which many businesses have.

The difference between a personal and business Facebook account?

A personal account is just a regular account that everyone has, you can add friends, build a portfolio, send messages, etc.

A business account does not have a profile, they can’t view profiles of other users, they can’t be found in search, can’t send/receive friend requests, can’t create application, and has a bunch of limited features.

What’s the point of a business account?

Business accounts are useful for businesses that don’t want to hold a personal Facebook account, this way they can still make use of features such as creating fan pages and don’t have to bother with the other Facebook stuff.

Most people would much prefer a personal account for their business, but according to Facebook Terms this isn’t allowed.

4. You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).

In the FAQ it also says:

Maintaining a personal account for anything other than an individual person is a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. If you don’t convert your noncompliant account to a Page, you risk permanently losing access to the account and all of its content.

Also on Facebook you’re not allowed to use an alias, which includes your company/business name, so don’t bother registering and splitting your company name between the first name and last name fields.

My business already has a personal account..

Don’t worry, you’re potentially in a better situation than starting with just a fan page, there’s an awesome feature which lets you convert your personal account into a business account and fan page. All your friends will be converted into fans of your fan page which will instantly give you a kickstart of fans, you’ll also keep your username for your fan page url.

Convert your personal account into a fan page

Go to Your Account and download a copy of your Facebook data as a backup.

If you own any groups then assign a new admin so you don’t lose them.

Now go and convert your personal account.

Awesome

Well done! You’ve now converted your personal account into a fan page, now you can follow my guide on building a “killer” fan page.

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