Old Friends / New Fans

You’ve been on Facebook for a little while and now that you have a wonderful new Facebook Business Page, suddenly you have questions.  How does this new Business Page effect your Peeps?

Congratulations!  You’re now separating your personal side from your professional side.  Yeah for you!  But what to do about all those past, present and future clients you added as a “Friend”?  It seemed like the right thing to do back then but now…? Now that you have the proper place for them, are they Friends, Fans or Members?  Can you move them or do they have to move themselves?  What about new peeps?  If they find me on Facebook and want to be a friend what should I do?  Questions, questions questions!

Let’s Start with your Existing Peeps

First of all, no you cannot move them.  They could move themselves but that’s highly unlikely.  Why not let them stay your Friend but also join your page as Fan.  A quick update in your status might do the trick.

You could always un-friend them but why the hard feelings?  Simply put them all in one list  and then set the privacy high.  They won’t see wall posts and pictures from your family, and your family won’t see anything from them.

Here’s a side question I have for you…

As for these “fellow professionals” you added as Friends, do you really want them as Fans?  Are they your clients?  Just thinking…

Now for the New Peeps

You’ve changed the link on your sidebar to drive traffic to your Page instead of your Profile right?  Good. Added a link to your Page in your email signature?  Great. Bought and wrapped all 46 downtown metro busses with your smiling face, a for sale sign, and a great big “Fan Me Up On Facebook!”  No, Really?

Good for you for driving traffic to your new Page.  The question remains, if someone searches Google or Facebook for “Tom Jones Real Estate” what would they see?  Chances are they would see both you (personal profile) and your Business Page.

One of two things might happen next.

The Friend Option If they choose to be a Friend of yours, you have the option of accepting or declining.

Accept  - You could accept (like I do) and then also ask them to become a Fan as well.

Decline - Don’t be afraid of declining their friendship.

It’s a great opportunity to nicely explain why you have a Business Page on Facebook and would rather have them join you there instead.  Explain that they’ll get no spam from you by joining and that by becoming a Fan they’ll also not be sharing their “private information” like family pictures.  Most people don’t know about the personal privacy settings they have so this could be a big factor for them.

The Fan Option This is what we hope they choose

If they choose to be a Fan of yours, there’s no moderation and they are in.  Remember, they might not become actual “Fans” and they don’t have to in order to read all about you within your Business Page.

BONUS TIP: New viewers don’t have to hit your Page WALL.  Did you know you can predetermine which of your Tabs they are initially sent to within your Page.  For this reason maybe you should have a custom landing tab explaining right from the start:

• The Privacy Aspect of Pages
• Your Spam Policy
• How you work
• Maybe even a nice dialog (video?) about why they should get to know you better…

The catch?  To create a custom landing tab you’ll need a bit of Facebook FBML done.

Order your Custom Designed Facebook Business Page

Just thinking…

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Tagged as: Facebook, Facebook Business Page, Friends, Google, Privacy, Social network, Spam, Twitter