Facebook Marketing: Friends VS Prospects

Facebook marketing is still frustrating to a lot of entrepreneurs and marketers who face a moral dilemma: How to do Facebook marketing without ticking off their friends and family. Even big corporations deal with this, as somebody in the corporation has to have a real profile, just to open the corporate page. Who volunteers for that?

What some entrepreneurs do is open two accounts. This is how many home based business people are dealing with the issue. They have their “real” account in which they use Facebook exactly as it was originally intended, then they have a “marketing” account, in which they friend as many niche specific “friends” as possible, often maxing out their 5,000 friends, and then, unfortunately, they then go about spamming them to death.

The problem with this approach is that Facebook has a strict “one account per person” rule. And, take it from somebody who had an account shut down in the earlier days of Facebook, it’s not a good idea to take a chance on this. You are at a high risk of having both accounts shut down. My recommendation is that you open a personal account, then create a business page, and post all of your business stuff there, with occasional posts in your personal page, so those real friends of yours at least know you have a business, and give them a chance to see what you’re doing. Who knows, some of them could become great customers.

Another approach is to open one account, and treat it purely as a marketing account. This is also being done by a lot of marketers. It’s usually a tactic employed by those who really don’t care about the true purpose of Facebook (re-uniting with old friends, or connecting live with current friends and family), they they just want to market their business.

This strategy falls down when they realize just how many real friends they have, and how cool Facebook really is for what it is intended to be (a great way to connect with friends and family) and then, when they find out how great it really is, it’s too late. Their newsfeed is so cluttered by all the crap from their 5,000 “friends” that they miss birthdays, weddings, photos, and other great, personal posts from their real friends and family.

Again, the problem is solved with a business page, and some “light” marketing to the real friends and family. Besides, business pages are unlimited, can be customized, have their own unique URL, and are much more business friendly than friend pages.

If you treat your personal profile as a real friends and family connecting tool, and spend time ramping up your business page, you can keep your friends, and grow your business at the same time. It’s cleaner, easier, and completely within the terms set by Facebook. At the same time, your real friends will be interested in your business activities, a few “businessy” posts a week are perfectly acceptable, especially if they are offering freebies, special offers, and giving true value, which your social postings should all be doing anyway!