Using Facebook for business

As many business owner/operators have done, I’ve turned to Facebook for networking opportunities.  When I first started using Facebook a few years ago I set up two profiles – one for personal use and one for business. I didn’t want to confuse personal stuff with business stuff and really didn’t want my business contacts seeing what various members of my family were chatting about.  For me, that made sense to do.

However, Facebook has in their Terms of Use that you should really only have the one account and when the use of business pages became the thing to do, I closed down my business profile and created business pages for people to ‘like’ and remain connected with me on a business level.  So I contacted as many as I could to let them know, but not all followed me to my new location and I lost a few.  Hopefully they read this blog and might reconnect by liking my new existing pages.

I have made many new contacts via Facebook and because I use it consistently have also gained new clients through being able to provide a service setting up Facebook pages and helping clients to maintain their Facebook business profiles.

I have more than one business page on Facebook – in fact, four, and each have their own list of followers.  It is, however, mainly my A Clayton’s Secretary and KathiesPhotos pages that have the most followers and activities and I have my respective blogs feeding both of these pages, plus connections to Twitter.  Photography is a passion of mine outside of working hours and so it was with both surprise and pleasure that I picked up a booking for an exhibition of my photography, simply because my photos had been seen at Facebook.  I also gain many comments at Facebook about the photos – more than at my blog, although my blog does cry out for comments (hint, hint).

One more thing – if you have a signature block for your business (and you should) why not include your Facebook and Twitter links – I use the logos for each social network tool in my signature block. A great way to encourage people to connect with you and continue networking.

So, if you haven’t already, I invite you to ‘like’ my Facebook pages – either one or both.  And please understand that if you send me an ‘Add Friend Request’ it will be refused but only because I prefer to keep family and friends separate to business.