Should you use a Facebook profile or page for your business? Or maybe both?
Let's discuss that in today's show and I'll talk about how Mari Smith and Amy Porterfield do this very well.

Do you have any Facebook friends who are actually businesses?

Do you have friends with names like “Bob’s Taco Shop” or “Valley View Golf Course”?

Did you know this is against Facebook’s Terms of Service?

Here’s the relevant passage:

You will not use your personal timeline primarily for your own commercial gain, and will use a Facebook Page for such purposes.

Learn more about why using a profile to promote a business is a bad idea here:

Facebook Profile or Fan Page — Which Should I Use for My Business?

In this post, I want to talk about something different.

I want to talk about:

how & when to discuss your work on your personal profile
how to leverage both a profile & fan page when you yourself are the brand
So let’s get started.

How & When to Talk Biz on your Profile

You love your job & want to talk about it on your personal profile — great!

There’s huge value in doing this because it lets your friends know what you’re doing — and also who to call if they need your services.

Word of mouth is the best marketing, right?

I can speak of this 1st hand from my experience working in the auto shipping business.

In 2008 I worked for a car shipping broker helping people move cars around the country — and the globe.

In 2009 I started my own shipping company & ran it for 2 years before rising diesel costs killed my margins… (still miss that business — but oh well).

I wanted my connections on Facebook to know what I was doing in case they needed to move a car or knew someone who did.

So I did something rather simple — but very powerful. And it ended up landing me my largest account ever through an old friend on Facebook!

Here’s what I did:

1. Listed my Fan Page as my Employer on my Profile

This added my employer’s fan page link to my profile so any of my friends could click it.

Today I have a similar link on my profile, but it’s to Post Planner’s fan page.

pp job

2. Mentioned my Work sometimes in my Posts

Maybe once a week I’d share a review from a customer, an award I’d gotten, or a blog/video post I’d made about shipping a car.

It was never “Need a car shipped? Be sure to contact me at 555-555-5555 or go to www.iqtransport.com “.

Doing this just makes you look like a salesy marketing douche!

Anyway, that’s it. That’s all I did.

Pretty simple, right?

The rest of my time on Facebook I was just Scott being Scott — sharing pics of my kids, commenting my friends’ statuses & pics, etc.

The key was not being annoying or salesy.

If every post you make is about your business, people will hide you or unfriend you.

I know, because I do it myself when a friend or family member is over-posting about the latest greatest health product or Scentsy candle!!!

Remember people — pull don’t push!

And if you’re the CEO or “Marketing guy” at your company, you should heed this advice too.

Your family & friends don’t want to hear about your widget every 12 seconds. They want to see pics of your kiddos, your dog, etc.

But What if YOU are the Brand or Company?

What happens when you are the main voice of a brand? Or when you yourself ARE the brand?

This can be tricky. But here’s some advice:

1. Link your profile’s About section to your business page

2. Open your profile to Followers so the world can follow you

But remember that things change when you do this...