Facebook personal vs. Facebook business: which should you use?

Many real estate agents have used Facebook Profiles when they should be using Facebook Pages instead. Read on to learn what the difference is and why we prefer Facebook Pages for realtors.

But first, what’s the difference between Facebook Profiles and Pages?

The first thing you need to know is that you can’t have a Facebook Page without having a Profile first. When you sign up for Facebook, you create a personal profile and add your family and friends to your network. We repeat: that’s where your family and friends are going to be; therefore, it is not the appropriate place to talk about business stuff like new listings or how many houses you’ve sold this month.

Not only will your friends find it annoying, but it’s actually against Facebook’s terms of service — if your business is set up as a Profile, you could have your Profile removed without any notice.

So where do you talk about business? That’s where Facebook Pages comes in. With Pages, you have an outlet specific for your real estate biz. And what’s more, the people who have ‘liked’ your Page actually expect to get industry-related updates from you. That’s (usually) why they liked the Page in the first place.

Here are 8 more advantages that Pages have over Profiles:

Pages will turn up in searches on Google and Bing — Profile posts won’t. Even your daily status update is searchable on your Page.
Pages can be seen by people not logged into Facebook so you can link to your Page from other places. Not so with Profiles.
Facebook tracks user analytics for Pages so you can see how many people have seen your post and and how they responded (clicks, comments, shares) as well as tracking the activities of your Page. Then you can tailor future posts to solicit the most engagement and interaction.
Likes are unlimited on Facebook Pages but Profiles are limited to 5000 friends.
The Page creates widgets and like buttons that are easy to embed into your website and blog. In other words, Facebook creates the code for you to promote your Business Page on your website. (You know…those little “Like” icons — when was the last time you saw a “Friend” icon. Doesn’t exist!)
You can set up additional Page admins to manage your Page without sharing passwords. You can’t do that with a Profile.
People who “like” your page won’t see the Page admins and they won’t have access to your personal account
You can have any number of Pages — so if you have different markets, service areas or customer segments, you can do one for each.

Source: Nicki Kriel / Social Media Coach and Trainer

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Profiles do play a role — referrals

Although we feel that Pages are your best bet if you’re truly trying to build your business, your Facebook Profile of course plays a role in your brand. It’s natural that by communicating about your life on your Profile, you’ll engage your friends…and perhaps their friends. The end result? If you’re thoughtful about what you share (and don’t share!) on your Facebook Profile, you’re bound to increase referrals in the long run.

And still the debate goes on…

In this video, real estate technology gurus Katie Lance and Chris Smith discuss which they prefer and why. Katie points out, for example, that with Profiles, you can tag your clients in photos and videos so that your clients’ friends might see it, and their friends might see it, and so on. Take a look and see what you think.

Convinced that you need a Facebook Page. What’s next?

Once your have created your Facebook Page or converted your Facebook Profile into a Page, it’s imperative that you use it for the right reasons: to build relationships and interact with your clients on a personal level. With the right kind of engagement, eventually you may be able to convert your ‘likes’ into leads and into referrals down the line. Focusing on your community, not yourself, is key. It takes work to build relationships online. But that’s a topic for another blog post 😉