Facebook Business v.s. Personal Page for Artists, Makers or Craft Business
January 28, 2013
Gothic Birdcage © 2012
Stainless steel, glass, copper
Artist: Joe Diemer 4' ht x 2' depth
Dear Harriete,
My art business on Facebook is named "J Diemer Artisanry", and it is a page off of my main Facebook account "Joe Diemer". When setting it up it seemed Facebook wanted businesses and interests to be on a page, not the main name, but I've since seen many other artists just use their name - which makes an easy connection for others to find your work when you comment etc.
I've now got 178 followers on the J Diemer Artisanry page so I don't want to rock the boat, but wonder if it would be better in the long run to consolidate the two identities. What's your opinion? Convoluted problem!
Take care,
Joe Diemer
Joe,
I struggle with the same question….but decided years ago to just use my name, Harriete Estel Berman as my Facebook presence. It has been impractical to clarify that the "artist
Harriete Estel Berman" is different than the personal profile of Harriete Estel
Berman.
Below are a few considerations that may factor into your decision.
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Is your Facebook profile really private? Not in my
opinion. Even if your "Privacy" setting is Friends, or Friends of Friends I don't
consider this private. Private on the internet is an oxymoron, but these other privacy settings do offer an allusion to privacy, and thus your Facebook page is NOT searchable.
An important proviso is that my Facebook profile setting is "public". That means everyone can see my Facebook page. It is also the only way that Google can crawl my Facebook profile page and fetch the links to my website, ASK Harriete or posted content.
A personal facebook address can be your name. A Facebook profile can also match, more or less, with all your other social networking profiles with a variation of the same name. For example, my facebook URL http://www.facebook.com/harriete.estel.berman
is similar to my other social network URLs on LinkedIN, Flickr, and Crafthaus creating consistency across 2.0. platfoms
All Facebook comments lead back to my Harriete Estel Berman Facebook profile.
A limit on friends. The downside with using my personal profile as professional is that there is supposed to be a limit on the number of friends....but, I will deal with that
problem later (3,000 "friends" so far).
Can you effectively manage a Facebook business page? A Facbook business pages is essentially another site. It doesn't do much good to have a Facebook business page without activity and regular posting with original content just like a blog. I don't know about you, but I am on internet overload already. There is no way to stretch beyond my website, blog and other social network.
Does a Facebook business profile offer the visibility you want for the effort?
A great point of debate. As far as I can tell Facebook visibility only extends to Facebook, so investing time in other social platforms and SEO for your website are equally or perhaps more important.
The PROBLEM with closing a business page:
I don't know what you will do with all your followers if you close your business page. Practically speaking there is no way to consolidate your personal profile with the Facebook business pages other than just inviting your followers to be your friends.
ACTION PLAN:
If you are going
to use your personal Facebook page as your public profile, CHANGE YOUR PRIVACY SETTING to PUBLIC and behave accordingly.
PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL, PASSION
For me, there is no separation between personal and professional. Only a limited amount of my private life is on Facebook for this reason. This is mostly a reflection of my workaholic focus. My profession as an artist, is also my passion as a person.
YOUR DECISION.
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