In 2007, Facebook introduced their new Facebook Pages for businesses, and marketers were off and running. Business owners now had a legitimate way to reach their audience through Facebook.
There were many differences between business and personal pages, but the most striking difference, and the one I want to discuss, is the fact we are “friends” with people, but we could only “like” businesses (when Facebook started pages, you became fans of the page. Like is now used, so I will continue using that term for simplicity). 
This began to cause a major issue for companies that had previously set-up their Facebook page as an individual (the only option), since businesses were no longer permitted to have friends. What were they supposed to do?
Facebook solved that issue, offering assistance in converting your profile to a business page, simply by visiting their help section. But many business owners, to this day, have not converted their profiles to business pages.
So, Why Should All Businesses Convert Their Profiles to Proper Pages?
- Facebook’s terms of service prohibit maintaining a profile for anything other than an individual person, and if you don’t convert your profile to a page, you risk losing access to the profile and all its content.
- Personal profiles are limited to 5,000 friends. Business pages have no such limit.
- Facebook pages are able to use applications and plug-ins that personal pages are not able to use. Examples of these are applications from Lujure, Wildfire, and Pagemodo.
- Business pages don’t need to approve requests to be liked. People are able to like a page and immediately receive updates.
- Business pages can have several “administrators”, which are people that can control the content and post to the business page. Now you don’t have to share your personal log-in details.
- Business pages can utilize the Facebook Advertising engine to help grow their page and their business.
There is no reason that you should continue with your business page as a profile– to do so only tempts fate. Facebook will eventually delete the improper page, and you will be left with nothing.
How Do I Convert My Page?
The first step should be to visit the Facebook Help Center, which offers detailed steps and tips for converting your page. Most importantly, make sure to download your profile information. Information on downloading your account information can be found here: Facebook Help Center. Once you have downloaded your content, you can begin the process of migrating your profile to a business page. Facebook has the process available here: Facebook Pages.
What Gets Transferred to the New Page?
When you convert your profile to a Page, Facebook transfers your current profile picture, and converts all friends and subscribers to people who “like” your Page. No other content is carried over!
Although none of the content gets transferred, the benefits definitely outweigh the costs. And by keeping the profile, there is no guarantee Facebook won’t delete it!
Have you converted your profile to a page? Have a story to share? Hints and tips to make the process smoother? Share in the comments below!
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