To reiterate something I said in my webinar a few weeks ago: the first thing you need to do when creating your organization’s Facebook Page is sign in to Facebook.
If you’re accustomed to keeping “work” and “play” very separate in your life, you might be balking at the idea of using your personal Facebook account to administer your organization’s Facebook Page. The trouble is, you have to be a Facebook user to be a Page administrator.
"But Michelle, even when I’m not logged in to Facebook, it says right there at the bottom of the home page, 'To create a page for a celebrity, band or business, click here.'"It's true -- you can click on that link and start the process of creating your page without logging in or even having an account. But once you get past the first screen of information, you'll be taken to a login screen and asked to sign in! This screen will also tell you that if you don't have a personal Facebook account already, you can enter your name and e-mail address and create something called a Business Account.
Huh. What’s a Business Account? A Business Account is a Facebook account with limited functionality, intended to be used by people who just want to administer Facebook Pages without actually "being on Facebook."
Sound goods, right? Does that mean you can create an extra throwaway account to administer your Page without linking it with your person account? NO. Here’s the catch (and I'm pulling this straight from Facebook's Help section):
"Please be aware that managing multiple accounts is a serious violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If we determine that an individual has more than one account, we reserve the right to terminate all of their accounts."Yes, maintaining your personal Facebook account ("look, pictures of my cat!") and a separate Business Account ("nothing to see here, just running my organization's Page...") COUNTS AS HAVING MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS.
Can you get away with it anyway? Possibly. I know that some people do. I just don't think it's worth the risk. If you're sneaking around with multiple accounts, and Facebook decides they don't like it, they'll probably delete BOTH of your accounts, and then you're out of luck in regard to administering your Page.
Now, that was a whole lot of words to talk about something that, frankly, I don’t think is a big deal.
First of all, I’m assuming that everyone reading this blog has a personal account on Facebook already. I can't imagine why you'd want the job of being a Page admin if you're not on Facebook yourself -- if you're not part of the community, you're going to have a tough time understanding how the community works.
This is just common sense: you wouldn't try to serve as the creator of your organization's e-mail newsletters without ever having read an e-mail, would you? (And, incidentally, this is the main point of my colleague Allison's article about Twitter that came out last week – check it out if you missed it!)
Secondly, regarding the work/play separation: the actions you perform as a Page administrator are not linked to your personal account anyway! So even if you want privacy, you don't have to jump through hoops and try to game the system. Just keep these lists in mind:
Actions that will show up as Page actions:
* Posting pictures
* Creating events
* Posting on the Wall
* Sending Updates
Actions that will be linked to your personal account:
* Sending Event INVITATIONS
* “Sharing” things (directly inviting people to become fans, and reposting events)
As long as you stick to actions on that first list, you’re in the clear.
This post is already epically long, but I have one last thing to add: from my own perspective, all the things I've written here are not all that important. As you may have noticed, I'm all over the place already -- I’m Facebook friends with many people I've met only through work (hi!). Facebook's privacy settings work well enough that I feel very comfortable using my personal account for all sorts of work purposes, and letting people see that I'm a real person behind the blog and webinars.
I am interested to hear what you think, though. How do you manage your professional Facebook presence? Is the idea of work and play separate an important issue to you?
6 comments:
I guess my concern is: what happens to the page when the person who's the administrator leaves the organization? Is there some way the page can be "reassigned" to another Facebook user? The potential for an unhappy ex-employee to sabotage the organization's FB page seems worrisome.
It appears that you can make admins out of any of the fans or any of your friends. MST Houston is controlled by Marketing and Box Office. If one leaves/changes, there is another to make the appropriate changes. That is, assuming, the original admin doesn't have special power!
I've got the exact same question and haven't found the answer. If I create the facebook page for my company using my profile but then change jobs somewhere down the line, what happens to the page?
I see where Facebook's help section says you aren't allowed to have multiple accounts. But where does it say that in the Terms of Use? There doesn't seem to be anything about multiple accounts for the same person there.
Although you can create additional admins the original one has all the power - ie can delete the page, admins etc!! So for a FB business their technical support suggests you create a 'fictitious person' and assign the business email. That way the admin person can change and the account doesn't get mixed up with non business personal info.
@Anonymous
Wow, seriously? I'm surprised to hear that Facebook support suggests that, given the hard line about not creating FB accounts for "fictitious people". Hmm.
@CL -- this is pretty belated, sorry -- but, yes, reading through the TOS it's hard to pinpoint the restriction. This comes closest:
"You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission."
That said, Facebook has in the past deleted "fake" profiles without any rhyme or reason.
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