For many small businesses who are not already on Facebook, the thought of creating a personal profile on Facebook and then adding a business Page to their personal profile is concerning.
The concern seems to be tied to ‘mixing business with pleasure’, sort of, or having no interest in being on the giant social network personally.
While the concern is natural for those who are new to social networks, it is not accurate. One’s personal Facebook profile is separate and distinct from one’s Page for business. While they are linked together for convenience sake, you are the only one who has access to both. The convenience of combining them from the outset makes it possible for you to access either one with one login, rather than having to login separately for each.
How about friends and fans?
Those who have liked your business Page are not able to view your personal profile, unless:
- They are both fans of your business Page and friends on your personal profile
- You have made your personal profile and some or all of what you post available to the public (your settings).
How about if I create a Facebook Page now and decide to add a personal profile later?
Of course, you can create a business Page first and THEN add a personal profile later, but you’ll lose out on some of the benefits of having both. For one, you won’t be able to ‘like’ other Pages from your Page (according to those who have done this, information like this is often difficult to find and confirm in Facebook’s help section). And this is an important loss, especially when you’re building relationships with other businesses who have Facebook Pages that they would like you to like.
I created a Facebook Page BEFORE I created a personal Facebook profile. How do I combine them together?
If you have a Facebook Page and, after the fact, you create a personal Facebook profile, you will end up with with two distinct sets of login credentials (i.e. usernames and passwords). The steps below will help you combine everything so that your personal login gives you full access to your business Page and the other login (the one for your Page only) is no longer available.
- Open two separate browser windows (e.g. Safari and Firefox, or Chrome and Safari)
- In one browser window open your personal Facebook profile. In the other browser window open your Facebook Page. (The browsers need to be different as you will be using the separate login credentials for your Page and for your personal profile – if you try to open both in one browser window you will only open one or the other but not both.)
- Once your business Page is open, locate the Facebook address (URL) for your business Page and copy it into the other browser window tab, where your personal profile is open, and click enter to open the link.
- When your business Page opens in the browser tab where your personal profile is open, click the ‘like’ button to LIKE the Page personally. (You will be seeing the public view of your business Page from within your personal profile. You will be ‘liking’ your business Page using your personal profile, which you must do for the rest of this process to work.)
- Now, return to the other browser window, where your business Page is open (not the window where you opened your personal profile).
- Look for the ‘Admin Panel’ at the top of your business Page (remember, you should be back in the browser window where you first opened your business Page as an Administrator).
- As soon as the notification that someone has liked your Page (that would be you!) shows up in the Admin Panel of your Facebook Page you’re now ready for the next step.
- From the Admin Panel on your business Page click on ‘Edit Page’. Then, from the list that pops up, scroll down and click on ‘Admin Roles’.
- In the area provided, type in the email address that you use to login to your PERSONAL Facebook profile and hit your keyboard enter key. (The setting ‘Manager’ should be visible just below where you are typing in your email address.)
- You will be prompted to enter in your password – enter your business Page password and hit enter.
- Your personal Facebook profile name should now appear as a ‘Manager’ for your Facebook business Page.
- Next, go back to your PERSONAL Facebook profile and click on the ‘Home’ link in the blue band at the top of your screen.
- Once the ‘Home’ page of your personal profile opens, scan the column that runs down the left side of the page. You should see your business Page name listed there. Click on the Page name/link (from within your personal profile) to go to your Facebook Page view as a Manager.
- Next, return to the browser window where you first logged into your business Page (not the browser window where your personal profile and NOW your business Page can both be accessed).
- Log out of your business Facebook Page – not your personal Facebook profile. Once you do this, your business Page should only be available/open from the window where your personal profile is open.
- Next, from your Facebook Page accessible within your personal profile, open the Admin Panel at the top of your business Page.
- From the Admin Panel on your Page, click on ‘Edit Page’, scroll down and click on ‘Admin Roles’.
- Identify the Manager profile that you used to create the Page originally (the one that is NOT your personal Facebook profile) and delete the profile by clicking on the ‘x’ to the right of it. Be sure you don’t delete your personal profile here or you’ll have to redo this process to be added back on as a Manager.
Once you’ve gone through this process (fun, eh?), your Page access will be exclusively through your personal profile. Once you delete the profile of the Manager (you) who originally set up the Page, you will only be able to access the Page through your personal profile. There are a number of benefits to having everything ‘under one roof’ so to speak. That’s for another soon to be written article.
IMPORTANT:
You do not need to remove your ability to access your Facebook Page through the originally created profile. This information is for those who want to combine both their Page and profile under one profile and eliminate the earlier separate access to their Page. If you would like to keep access to your Facebook Page using both usernames and passwords, follow steps 1 through 13 only.