There are still an alarming number of personal profiles created for business pages on Facebook. If you haven’t received a friend request from your local florist or restaurant, you may be among the very few who haven’t, the world over. This common mistake can be detrimental to a business, especially because pages and profiles function completely differently as a result of their functions being for very different purposes. If your presence on Facebook is via a personal profile and not a business specific page, chances are you may be losing out in the long run.

Here are a few other reasons why a Facebook Business Page would work better for you:

1. A business page is categorized based on the type of business, industry etc., which means people can find your business while browsing for something in the category you deal with.

2. Personal Facebook profiles are for people who want make personal contacts and as such are limited to a maximum of 5000 friends. Business pages on the other hand don’t have a limit to the number of people who could like your page.

3. Facebook also offers free insights for business pages that let you know what kind of audiences are viewing your site and the specific number of hits each of your posts make. This feature is not available for personal profiles.

4. Facebook’s terms and conditions don’t allow for businesses to set up personal profiles and as such you are violating policies by using one and as such could be at risk for having you profile removed if discovered. All it takes is one unhappy but social media savvy customer to make a complaint.

5. Once you have more than 50 likes on your Facebook Business Page, you will be entitled to use Facebook Offers which allow you to literally make offers and discounts via your business page that can be redeemed at your store. What’s more, when a customer claims an offer it appears on their friends’ newsfeeds, automatically increasing your visibility on Facebook to like-minded individuals.   

If you have a personal profile set up for your business and don’t want to risk losing the information and content you have been posting there by opening a new business page – fear not. Understanding that many businesses have been set up incorrectly, Facebook now has a profile to page migration option that will automatically take all your details and input them correctly into your business page. The process is that simple, so what are you waiting for?