One of the most common questions I get during seminars and consultations is: “Should I have a Facebook profile for my business life and my personal life to keep them separated?”   Before I answer that, I want to highlight a basic principle of social media: being a real person.  People are tired of dealing with the phony, shallow, and disingenuous.  Few customers use Facebook for the sole purpose of interacting with businesses and very few people are on social networks specifically to generate business, and those that are tend to be viewed as one of the aforementioned undesirables.

Most people are on social networks like Facebook and Twitter to connect with and get to know other people. That being said, sales professionals and small business owners looking to uses social media to generate business will need to learn to interact with and engage their target audience on a personal level. You are a total person and if you seek to add business contacts through a personal social network like Facebook, you should be open to letting your friends experience a controlled version of the total you.

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care

One of the hardest concepts for business people to understand and embrace is the idea of interacting with their current and/or potential clients and customers on a personal level, but in business, before we had mass marketing, we had to build relationships. People want to feel like the businesses they patronize have a desire to be interested in them as an individual and a willingness to invest in their life through social capital. Showing interest in the lives of your clients builds trust and trust builds new and repeat business.

No one cares about your business

Though this is only a partial truth, the reality is that your business is only a small portion of your life overall. People want a snapshot of you and your business is part of that snapshot.  Separating your business from that snapshot robs your sphere of influence of a part of who you are and what you’re doing.

So as you embark on your Facebook business strategy, ask yourself: Does my business have enough personal and engaging content to stand alone?  If the answer to that question is yes, Create your own Facebook business page by clicking here.  If the answer is no, read up on Facebook Terms of Use (scroll to section 4.1 and 4.2).

Registration and Account Security

Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Here are some commitments you make to us relating to registering and maintaining the security of your account:

1. You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.
2. You will not create more than one personal profile.

That being said, Facebook is a personal zone.  Think about how much you would like to be specifically prospected by your Facebook friends, or any friends for that matter, then make your decision on how you plan to use Facebook.