5 reasons Why You Should Stop Marketing with your Facebook Personal Profile

May 10, 2011 - Last Modified: April 1, 2014 by Faissal Alhaithami 1,869

Nowadays, a lot of marketers are using their Facebook personal profiles for marketing. I think this is a big mistake.

Here are the reasons why you should start you Facebook public profile immediately instead of your personal profile:

1- As you know, Facebook is in millions of homes around the world. In fact, it has more than 550 million active users. With your personal account, it will be impossible to target more than 5000 users. So are you going to settle for 5000 friend proﬁles? Why would you want to limit yourself with 5000 friend proﬁles?

2- Facebook personal proﬁle is personal. I use my personal proﬁle to contact with my friends and family. I upload my pictures, and I write status updates about everything. Using your personal proﬁle for your business is a big mistake. By the way, I used to have a separate personal profile for business, as a lot of marketers are doing now, but this didn’t save me and won’t save the rest of the marketers from the other reasons.

3- Facebook public profiles give you so many more marketing abilities. For example, they accomodate custom tabs, info tabs, more wall features, and more applications to really reach out to your fans and get the most of your page. With your personal profile, you will have limited marketing abilities.

4- Building 2 lists: This is one of the great things about Facebook fan pages – that you can get 2 leads at once. We call this the double lead strategy. What’s more, that’s what makes Facebook public proﬁles so proﬁtable, because with the landing pages you can get people to like your page + opt-in to get free stuff you provide. Simply put, you can build your email list and your fan base at the same time. Click here for an example.

5- It is not allowed. You can read the official Facebook’s terms of service, Facebook does not allow people to use their personal profile page for marketing. This is true and there are a lot of examples. I know someone that overnight his page was disabled and the reason was that he has broken the Facebook’s terms of service. Literally, Overnight he lost 4000 friends. Don’t let that happen to you. Your marketing page deserves the respect of the money and the hours you have put into it.

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Are you going to continue marketing with your personal profile? If no is your answer, Here is the free 52 page Facebook Marketing Secrets Guide that I have made to help you know everything you need to know about Facebook Marketing.

If you have any questions, please share them with the others by writing a comment.

About Faissal Alhaithami

Follow @Faissalhaithami

I'm a blogger & Internet entrepreneur. I blog about Facebook Marketing, here is my blog Fans bridge | How to market on facebook. You can subscribe to my blog via RSS or email newsletter to get the latest updates.

{ 82 Responses }

Davor Bomestar says:

I definately agree with this article. The thing is, when people come to Facebook they come to SOCIALize and not to be sold and promote. Well, thats a common knowledge, social media is good for social stuff, but a little less for selling stuff. No wonder FB PPC has low CTR. However, I do think public profile or fanpage are ok, cuz with fans there you can connect, they are fans cuz they WANT to get info about that business "subject". It's not put under there nose just cuz we are friends but because they want to see those. I follow seomoz on facebook and when I see their call to action like getting subscription or conference thats perfectly ok, because I signed up for that, if some friend would send me personal msg to register to something I would block him. Bottom line, people need to learn how to use social media, being friendly in your business doesn't mean doing business with your friends.
- Faissal Alhaithami says:
  
  WOW!! what a great comment we have got here :D Totally agree!! people annoyed by this.. they don't want to her about buying thing from people they don't know?? and yeah as you said we are all there to share knowledge not to share sells. thanks for your awesome!! awesome!! awwwwesome!! comment.
trudy says:

I never really got into using Facebook profiles for my marketing. In fact, since everybody is jumping on the social bandwagon, it leaves much less competition for me in the regular "old school" marketing techniques. Also, marketing through a personal FB profile just reminds me too much of MLM type marketing. Nothing wrongwith it, if thats your thing. Just my .02 cents!
- Faissal Alhaithami says:
  
  ammm!!! I you read my article you gonna know why it's a big mistake ;) to market using a personal profile.. anyway, I still respect you opinion! best of luck.
Argie Monroy says:

Marketing on Facebook using your personal profile would only mess up with your profile. Besides, a Facebook fan page is much more easy to manage and keep track of as compared to a personal profile.
- Faissal Alhaithami says:
  
  Agree with you ;) thanks for the comment ..
Ajith Edassery says:

I has made this mistake :( All my blogs fan pages were started long after my personal FB account was set up and hence people expected blog updates on my main profile itself. At the moment it's in a mess. No branding no differentiation.
- Faissal Alhaithami says:
  
  So what now!? have you started you public profile?
Justin Germino says:

As I was on Facebook long before the pages was even an offering I had a following building up from that on my personal account, I never created a "personal' profile though and my Facebook account was always made to be my blogging profile from day 1. I don't do family/friend communications on Facebook per say, and I make sure nothing I do on Facebook isn't something I wouldn't share with everyone in the world so I make sure every word I post on any wall is something anybody can read. Pages are still limited in how they can find and connect with other users, there is also certain functionality that doesn't work with pages and when signed in as a page it can revert you back to your public profile. The fact that you can't be a page without being signed in as a user first makes it hard to truly keep them independent in my opinion as well as often things that post to your page go on your personal wall (but not vice versa). So I have my 2 intertwined. I do notice though that there is far less interaction from my experience with a page than with an actual user profile, or at least that is my impression.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  I respect your opinion! I guess you have a wrong information here because when you post something to your public profile it doesn't post in your personal wall too ^,^ and use facebook as your page is a new awesome feature from Facebook! in my point of view there is nothing wrong that you need to sign-in to your personal profile to use your facebook as your page ^,^" thanks Mr. Justin Germino for this awesome comment :D
  - Justin Germino says:
    
    As far as I know you still can't use groups as a page, and groups are a key networking thing to do as your public profile. I am not saying don't have a page, but that there is a reason to use your personal profile for public use just as much as your page. Also, when you try to put a "poll" into your page, it makes the poll from your profile not your page so it does post to your profile wall. I found this out by doing a poll I thought would only be from my page, again it only brings me to my point that pages are still limited. I think eventually they will be caught up on features and they should be invested in, but there is still value in having your personal profile be used for your business as well. You can use lists to separate out your friends/family from public contacts and restrict permissions of content so that only the right lists see what you want them to see.
    - faissal alhaithami says:
      
      I can agree with you that public profiles are limited but I guess personal profiles are more limited.. and I do agree with you that personal profiles could be use more than being personal.. actually I do have 2 personal profiles 1 for my family and friends and anther one for marketing my self but not for any businesses. and now I'm trying to move the people i have built a relation with them through my personal profile to like my page as i'm going to delete it as soon as i got the chance. believe me public profiles have facilities way more than personal profiles.
      - Justin Germino says:
        
        The problem is that Facebook wasn't initially designed for anything but personal, so they kept tacking on business/marketing functionality and it still doesn't have a seamless way to work both.
Michael Aulia says:

I realized this a little bit too late. I thought it would be cool to combine them together (professional yet personal friends). In the end, I made a separate Facebook fan page for my blog but I already accepted a few people to join my personal circle. I guess it wouldn't be too nice to delete them :)
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  Do what you think is right :D
SY Tan says:

Hi, thanks for this useful post. I tried downloading your Facebook Marketing Secrets and it shows that page no longer exist.
- Faissal says:
  
  Go here and opt-in to get your copy ^,^ http://www.faissals.com/facebook-marketing-secrets/
Jayant says:

Very well written article. There are many people & bloggers who tend to promote their product or blog through their personnel facebook profile. They should go on creating a facebook page instead. I have many friends in my personnel profile but I never promote anything there.
- Faissal says:
  
  yep this is right! You know even in public profiles we should spend the time promoting our selves instead of products. thanks for the valuable comment.
Morgan Barnhart says:

It's funny, I have gotten more likes simply through marketing through other pages, than I ever have by marketing through my personal page or marketing my FB page through Twitter or any other method. And I admit, I like new pages when I see them post on a page that I like. I think the system would be drastically improved if we could post on our members pages as well, like maybe they could have a little extra section where pages can talk to them on their wall, without actually 'becoming friends'. But anyway, great points to consider here! Thanks for the post!
- Faissal says:
  
  I like the way how you think! Hope Facebook will work on this ^,^ thanks for the awesome comment..
Jitendra Singh says:

yeah i am agreed with you. But it is also a good way if you would like to promote your self as individual. Isn't it ? There are some other tools like writing blogging on engine but still FB is a free publicity tool.
- Faissal says:
  
  Yes it is, you are so right ^,^ thanks a lot for the comment.
Michael says:

The thought of trying to market my business from a personal facebook profile pretty much turns my stomach. It's just such a big no no. As all the businesses I've been involved with have been relatively small, I do know a lot of my clients on a personal level but not to the extent that I would hang out with them. In that respect it's very important for me to keep my personal friends just that personal and business colleagues and customers just that, business.
- Faissal says:
  
  thanks michael for the comment ^,^
Kyle says:

I think as a blogger having a public profile that represents your blog is definitely essential, for all the reasons you mention. But I think marketing with your private profile can still be powerful as well, especially for SEO. In my personal experience, articles shared from my personal profile and then re-shared by my friends have been MUCH more powerful in boosting my various pieces of my content in the SERPs for certain keywords than shared stories from my public page...That's just my personal experience...but I would recommend using a combination of public and private profiles.
- Faissal says:
  
  I won't agree with you as even in SEO the public profiles can work better and you can get you better result. As you may know that Facebook is using Java for the feeds, and Google doesn't count the links in the Java stuff. While in public profiles you have a feature called "Custom Tab" which if you really tried to index it, Google will love show it in the 1st page. I'm a SEO newbie but this is what i know ^,^
ery says:

For me, facebook account is just to find my old friend and family. and I agree with you, that marketing on FB profil is not good. It's better to make public profile or maybe fan page profile. Thanks for sharing Regards Ery
- Faissal says:
  
  just to make everything clearly ( public profile and fan page ) is two terms for 1 mean. latterly they are the same.
Andri says:

Agree with you, personal page is too personal. I use Page for doing marketing.
- Faissal says:
  
  Thumb up!
Sathish says:

Hi Faissal, Thanks for these great tips. Till now, I have used my personal facebook profile for my blog marketing purpose, but I clearly understand now why It won't help me in the long run. Will shift my marketing campaigns to my blog fan page for sure. Thanks again for these useful tips.Sathish
- Faissal says:
  
  GREAT! work for it and get your copy of the free facebook marketing secrets guide! it will help you alot to start correctly and move forward with your page!
Icechen1 says:

True. FB Personal profile is for you and your friends, not to strangers that can compromise your privacy.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  So true! As I have said personal profile is personal ! thanks for the comment :)
Vijayraj Reddy says:

i use facebook for both - personal and business... but will not market my profile anymore...
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  Nice to hear that !! all the best Jijayraj
Tony says:

I agree that personal profile should use for personal purpose such as friend and family. We have fanpages that can help us to promote for our business.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  thanks Tony for the nice comment.
Jonathan Sparco says:

This is really good stuff. Although I have tried marketing my site on Facebook for my friends to read, it still remains in my personal profile. After reading your post, I thing it's about time I opened a public profile so I could take advantage of the marketing potential public Facebook profiles have.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  Great Jonathan! and don't forget to get your Free Facebook marketing secrets guide whenever you need it ^,~
Lyka Ricks says:

Personal and Business are separate entities. If you mixed it up, it will only cause conflicts. Maintain the flow in both ends.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  so true Lyka .. I thought that same too.. anyway, thanks for the great comment.
Jeannette McClennan says:

Very interesting information. It's very easy to create a public profile on Facebook, though FBML is deprecated, there are other applications that make it easy to create one.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  yeah so right. thanks for the comment.
Boutaric says:

I personally prefer to use separate pages for each website i have. This will separate you friends from your customers and increase you conversions. Thanks for the info Faissal
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Thanks.
Eric D. Greene (artist) says:

Really valuable advice - thank you. I am always on the fence on this and I end up not making any decision at all! Which may be worst...
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  U welcome. I hope you make it now ;)
Tuan says:

Thanks for the post, Faissal. I don't know that I am violating Facebook's terms of service. Sometimes I post links from my personal tech blog, I hope that it is not serious enough to be banned.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  Hi I guess sharing links from your blog in your Facebook profile will not make them banned you! eventhough if they are sales posts, but you know when you add to many people to your account or sharing to many things in others wall that will consider you as a spammer and will banned your account!
Fran Aslam the Onlinewriter says:

Nice post about Face book strategies. I did not know about the profile detail as I do not work with this social site, too much. But I know it is the biggest site and being the biggest site, it is not a must for it to be the best. Many people like it so even better Fran A
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  Glad to hear that :) thanks for the comment
Theresa Torres says:

Hi, Faissal, This is an eye-opener! I agree that we should keep our personal profiles separate from our public profiles. No telling what our business associates and clients will see in our personal profiles that may come across as unprofessional. And yes, marketing wise, a public profile will enable us to reach more people out there. Thank you for reminding us of Facebook's terms of service.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  You are so welcome! and thank you for the comment.
Alexis says:

Hey Faissal , You've just got my attention on something I did not notice about Facebook before. I'm marketing with my personal profile. After reading your post I think I'm going to make a change. Thanks for sharing buddy!
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  You are welcome. Take your Time with your changes and get your free copy of my guide. It will help you tons.
chandan says:

Thats completely true Faissal. We should not involve our personal friend with our business. Well for me I create facebook fan page for my blog and just update my blog post on fan page.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  Awesome ! all the best with your Facebook Marketing.
Extreme John says:

A little over six months ago I started the slow process of moving "friends" from my personal profile that were;nt friends and along with that change has come the relaxed Facebook marketing on my personal profile. I like it better this way.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  Great Mr. John and nice to have you here in my post ^,^
Mark says:

I've never even thought about marketing products on my FB profile. I would never try to sell to my friends, that's just me
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  You know that internet marketing isn't all about marketing products. while building relationships is the best ways of marketing online. So it's great that you never thought of it ^,^
AJ Clarke says:

Wow, I didn't realize it wasn't allowed to use your profile for personal marketing. However, it does seem like hard thing to get banned from since a lot of times people do share stuff on their personal profile from websites that they like, not necessarily that they are "marketing". In general I wouldn't recommend it anyway since it's much better to have a facebook page for branding.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  You are right! thanks for the comment.
Karan says:

Wow, I guess I need to work upon my Facebook page. Had been using the personal profile for any kinda marketing, thanks for the reminder, I tend to get a bit lazy when it comes to marketing...#bad!
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  LoL Take your time, and don't forget to get your copy of my Free Guide ;)
  - Karan says:
    
    Thanks for the reminder.... Forgot abt it..sure buddy..will give it a look.
Riya says:

Hi Faisal, Thanks a lot for this post as I've no idea that Facebook personal profile has a limit of 5000 friends. This is very big drawback for all online marketers if they're using their personal profile for promotion. Plus I have also downloaded your free ebook about Facebook Marketing.
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  thanks alot! and I hope that you enjoy reading it.
John says:

Hi Faissal, One important thing which you didn't mention in this post - for any facebook page (profile page or fan page or group/community page) only facebook have ownership, facebook can deactivate any page without any further information. We don't have ownership of facebook page. we can only maintain the page. Otherwise i am agree with you, very nice post Thanks for sharing John
- Faissal Alhaithami says:
  
  This may happen not only in Facebook! but let's be honest Facebook won't deactivate your page if you follow the Terms of use that you agreed with before creating the page. otherwise, Facebook has all the right to deactivate your page. This may happen in other sites such as Twitter and google. and thanks alot for your comment :)
Haru says:

im agree with u..its not for the marketer only, but the bloggers should have their fanpage too..fanpage is a powerful marketing tool..thanks to facebook for this free powerfull too.
- Faissal Alhaithami says:
  
  thumb up Hatu :D latterly we should keep our stuff away from friends and family.
Henway says:

To me, Facebook is just for friends and family, not for business relationships. I rather use LinkedIn for marketing, or even Twitter
- Faissal Alhaithami says:
  
  that why Facebook got the Public profiles. thank you for the comment.
Zac says:

Hi Faissal, these are all legit points, even without them I agree, besides Facebook wanting us to use professional pages instead of our personal profiles it is much better and much easier. keeping our personal things away from the people we want to sell to, convert, is easier with a professional page. This way we don't have to spam our friends with business and we don't have to care about personal things we would originally post on our profiles.
- Faissal Alhaithami says:
  
  well said Zac, and thanks for your comment :)
Bjorn Johansen says:

I have actually not started any marketing on Facebook yet. I was planning to place a badge to my personal profile, but after reading your article I will create a Facebook page instead. Facebook is a large community, but personally I find twitter better for my use. Tanks for a great post
- faissal alhaithami says:
  
  I have the same thought as you! I feel like twitter is better to get traffic really easy! but in the same time we should use as many social accounts as possible to reach out more people! because there are a lot of people who are using Twitter and other use only facebook! but believe me once you get a large fan base. you will enjoy the massive traffic back to your website.

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