TRENDING: Move Your Business Online Today
Most of us like to keep separation between work life and personal life. Whenever possible we put up firewalls between those parts of who we are. Almost all of us have different email accounts for personal and work correspondence. So, it’s only natural to want separate social media accounts to represent those different personas.
For many social media platforms, having multiple profiles is no problem. Usually, if you’ve got a second email address or phone number, you’re all set. However, in the world of Facebook, creating a second account is actually a violation of their Terms of Service:
In this case, Facebook has decided to create their own work/life separation through the use of personal “profiles” and business “pages”. Your personal profile can manage a business page as an admin, but it’s supposed to be an accurate representation of who you are in the “real” world and, unless human cloning becomes a thing, there’s only one of you.
Now, you might be saying to yourself, “I don’t really care what Facebook wants. I’m going to make a second account anyway.” And, trust me, I get it. The problem is Facebook can and will eventually shut down one of the accounts. They’re a private company, they own the platform and they get to set the terms defining how we’re allowed to interact with it.
If and when Facebook does shut down one or both of your accounts for ToS violations, you’ll lose access to manage your business page, your ad accounts, Business Manager account, Facebook shop, etc., etc.
With 2.85 Billion monthly active users and some of the most powerful advertising tools out there, getting yourself shut out of the ecosystem has real financial consequences for you and your business and it’s not always possible to get your access restored.
So, what should you do instead?
Step 1: Create a Facebook business manager to house all of your business assets in the Facebook ecosystem. This adds an additional layer of separation between your profile and your work as well as numerous additional benefits.
Step 2: Add someone you trust as an admin in your Business Manager. That way if something happens to impede your access to Facebook, someone will still be able to manage access to everything.
Step 3: Lock down access to your Facebook account with Two Factor Authentication. We’re talking about your livelihood here and the last thing you want is for a hacker to gain control of your account and run amok.
Step 4: If you’ve already created a second account, shut it down ASAP. When Facebook shuts down a duplicate account, you don’t get a say in which one gets the axe and you don’t want it to be the one you’ve set to manage your business.
It’s not always easy and it might not always be our preference, but staying on the right side of Facebook’s rules is crucial to building your business on some of the largest social networks out there.
Need help getting your business in order on Facebook? Contact us to learn more about how we can work together.
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About the Author
Ryan is the VP of Product Development at Engage121. Ryan and team are constantly advancing our products and services to take advantage of the ever-changing digital marketing landscape. Ryan is the in-house expert on all things digital marketing. Outside of work, Ryan is the in-house expert on everything else.
