Dear diary

It’s been a while since our last entry.

As we have discovered, having a baby and running a business at the same time was a lofty goal that required at least an hour of ‘mummy time’ and a glass of wine per evening.

Alas, here we are, with a now-toddler sleeping peacefully upside down in her bed with one shoe on.
But we digress.

Let’s talk about the professional social etiquette of social media.

Specifically, Facebook.

Facebook has a reputation for being more on the social side of the social media scale where people share photos of their pets, families, pina coladas, and their innermost thoughts through the complex medium of hashtags.

Facebook has a large network of businesses that successfully operate exclusively on the platform through purpose-built pages to connect with consumers in a professional capacity. In order to operate these pages, they must be linked with a personal Facebook profile as the owner.

Unfortunately, some people begin mixing business pages and personal profiles together. The combo is like wearing double denim. It seems like a good idea, but it’s not, and no one wants to break it to you.

When you use your personal Facebook profile to push professional content, you’re selling to the wrong crowd

Your Facebook friends are probably 2/3 family and friends, and 1/3 randoms you forgot you added, but don’t want to delete because there’s a very real possibility you might see them again in person.  

It’s great to ask for support from your family and friends for your business. It’s not so great when you start bombarding them with irrelevant information or call-to-action sales posts. That’s what your business page should be doing.

Over time, your messages start becoming white noise because your audience are the same group of people who haven’t, won’t, and don’t want to engage with your business.

Also, it’s against Facebook’s own policies to use your personal profile exclusively for a business.
We’ve heard Facebook jail can be pretty ruthless.

Personal profiles are basically invisible to search rankings

Posting great content on your business page can serve you in multiple ways from paid targeted advertising campaigns to the ability to be optimised for Google search rankings.

This isn’t the case for personal Facebook profiles.

It’s pretty much the equivalent of advertising your inner-city cupcake business on a picket sign…in a swamp… in a really small town. You’re just going to annoy the locals, and it’s not serving your business at all.

People become suspicious of your friend requests

If you don’t already have someone on your Facebook page but are thinking to yourself “I might add this person as a friend because they could be a potential customer and I want them to see all of my cool business content!”

Stop.

Stop right there.

Take that thought, roll it up into a ball, set it on fire, put the fire out because it’s dangerous, then lock it in an impenetrable box and toss it in the ocean, Jumanji style.

If you have no other connection to a person aside from you wanting to sell them something, don’t add them as a friend on Facebook. It’s a poor sales tactic and will only cause disrepute to you in a personal and professional capacity.

In conclusion

Our best advice to you is to keep your personal content and professional content separate. Set up a business page and make genuine professional connections with people who will gain value from your content.

Your friends and family will thank you for it.