Facebook Pages vs. Profiles: Don’t Make the Wrong Choice

By Lani and Allen Voivod

If there’s one thing we hate, it’s to be the bearer of bad news. Okay, we know, who actually likes to be the bearer of bad news, aside from your gossipy Aunt Edna? But we digress.

We’ve had more than a few businesses and organizations reach out to connect with us on Facebook recently who have set their business/organization up as a personal account, known in Facebook parlance as a “Profile.” These are well-meaning folks who have amassed hundreds of connections – “Friends” – and we’re just going to be blatant and capitalize the terminology for ultimate clarity.

These businesses/organizations are at risk to lose all the equity they’ve built on Facebook. Immediately, suddenly, and without prejudice.

You see, Facebook’s rules say “Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while (Fan) Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook.”

So if you’re using a Profile to represent a business or organization on Facebook, you’re violating their Terms of Use, and you could have your Profile – including all Friends, content, and customization – deleted without warning.

Now, what are the chances you’ll get found out in the sea of 400,000,000 users? Maybe not huge. But for what it’s worth, we know firsthand that it’s not an urban legend. It happened to a client of ours, on a product line in which we’re not involved. Once we got wind of what was going on, we warned them of the risk. They didn’t take heed, and their account got found and axed within the same week.

Thankfully, they hadn’t gone too far down the Facebook road on that account – they lost a couple of months of activity and about 200 Friends. But ones who have reached out to us in recent months have many more Friends, and years of content that could literally disappear overnight.

If you use a Profile to represent yourself as a professional associated with a business or organization, you’ve got no worries. (Unless you maintain a second Facebook Profile for your personal life – that’s against Facebook’s rules, too.)

If you ARE using a Facebook Profile against their Terms of Use, however, here’s what you should do:

1. Create a Fan Page for your business or organization.

Also referred to simply as a “Page,” that’s the functionality Facebook created just for folks like you.

2. Send a message to all your Friends.

Tell them you’re converting your Profile over to represent you as a person by a certain date, and refer them to your newly created Page to continue to interact with your business/organization. In fact, give yourself time so you can send 2-3 messages. When’s the first time you remember taking immediate action on something yourself?

3. Follow through.

Even if you think you have no use for a personal Profile on Facebook (you do, but let’s not get into that right now), don’t waste the equity you’ve already built up. You’ve done your due diligence by letting your Friends know multiple times about the change. So make the change, and let your Friends do what they will in response. It’s an opt-in/opt-out society.

Good luck with the conversion, and if you have any in-the-trenches stories about this issue, or other related tips ‘n tricks to share, by all means post ‘em on our “Epiphanies, Inc. – Social Marketing & Success Strategies” Fan Page on Facebook.

And if you’re not on Facebook at all yet, do what you can to get past your hesitations and get on board. 400,000,000+ humans can’t be wrong … can they?

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As Certified Social Media Strategists and Certified Inbound Marketing Professionals, Lani and Allen Voivod of Epiphanies, Inc., train teams, craft strategies, and serve as long-term success partners for a handful of global brands, industries, and mission-driven organizations. Find out how they can help your business boost visibility, community, competitive edge, memberships, and profits at http://facebook.com/AhaYourself!

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MadViral online since 2005, MadViral Enterprises, LLC can help you market your business with Email Advertising, Professional Unique email design services

Facebook Pages vs. Profiles: Don’t Make the Wrong Choice

Article Marketing Tip: Who Is Your Online Writing Role Model?

By Steve Shaw

If you do not already have an online writing role model, find one. This is perhaps the best article marketing tip that I can give you to help you grow in your writing.

When you start article marketing, each month you will need to produce a steady stream of articles. At first you may have an initial burst of creative energy that helps you consistently produce your articles, but after a while it’s very easy to lose your focus and your inspiration.

This is where an online writing role model comes in. Not just any type of writing role model, but one who writes for the internet. Online writing is different from any other type of writing.

If you have someone who you can look up to, who you can see producing quality writing on the net, you have a built in motivator. It’s encouraging to think, “If he can do it, so can I!”

Having an web writing role model also helps you to learn. As you watch this person you admire write, you will continuously pick up some of his or her positive writing habits and characteristics.

This is not to say that your writing will mimic someone else’s–quite the contrary. By having someone whose writing you look up to, you will learn from them and have the confidence to develop your own style.

I have a select few web writers who I really look up to, and I’d like to share some of the crucial lessons I’ve learned from them:

Lesson 1 – Your articles should provide a generous amount of helpful information.

When writing an article, the idea is to serve your reader by providing valuable information that is not found elsewhere. Aim to give your reader more than he is expecting. When you write in this fashion, your articles will convey a sense of professionalism, quality, and dedication that readers appreciate.

Lesson 2 – Focus on teaching in your articles.

Not sales, not links, not anything that is directly geared to benefit you. The body of your article is for your readers, and the reason why a reader wants to read your article is to LEARN something. Each article should teach something new. You can be writing on the same topic, but each article should offer new tips, new information, new angles on your topic.

Lesson 3 – It is never a waste of time to thoroughly think through your article structure and proofread it several times.

We’ve all seen articles that are obviously thrown together with little thought for how the article is organized and with numerous spelling or grammar errors. What do you think when you see an article like that? Readers can form some pretty powerful opinions about an author, the author’s business, and the author’s products when the article is obviously low quality. It pays to spend time writing an article that makes sense, has proper spelling and grammar, and offers valuable information to the reader. Writing quality articles takes time, but it’s worth it.

Lesson 4 – Learn to write on your topic from every angle possible.

Publishers do not appreciate seeing virtually the same article being submitted repeatedly. No matter what your topic is, you must come up with a way to offer fresh content. Think about how a beginner would view your topic. Also write articles with more advanced content. Get creative with your approaches to your topic in each article. Any topic can be exciting, depending on how you write about it.

Lesson 5 – Be yourself.

Your articles should demonstrate your expertise, but there’s no need to try to be someone that you’re not. Write about lessons that you’ve learned the hard way. Admit to not always doing things perfectly. Your readers will appreciate your honesty, and they will have the benefit of learning from your experience.

These are some of the major lessons I’ve learned from watching online writers that I admire. Do you have a web writing role model yet? What has he or she taught you?

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For more info on how you can use article marketing to reach thousands of potential prospects for your website, go now to http://www.submityourarticle.com/report . Steve Shaw is an article marketing expert and founder of the popular article submitter SubmitYOURArticle.com used by thousands of business owners.

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MadViral online since 2005, MadViral Enterprises, LLC can help you market your business with Email Advertising, Professional Unique email design services

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Article Marketing Tip: Who Is Your Online Writing Role Model?