10 Ways You Can Use Your Personal Facebook Profile for Business

I’ll say this up front: my philosophy of how I use my personal Facebook profile, and how I “friend” people, is very different from most. As sole proprietor of my own business, the lines between my personal and business lives are rather blurry. Business contacts become friends, and friends end up being great business contacts. So when I meet someone, either online or in person, I’m quick to friend them. I also get a lot of friend requests, and I have a rather liberal acceptance policy. That doesn’t mean I accept everyone! I look at their profile to see what friends we have in common, or if there is some other point of commonality.

Caveat one: If privacy is a major concern for you, this might not be the proper philosophy. If you begin friending people on a more relaxed basis, you’ll need to be more careful about what you put on Facebook. But remember: you can have different privacy settings for all of your friends, or even create groups with different levels of access to your information. Me? Everything I post can be seen by all of my friends. And while it may seem that I am rather open, I’m also very deliberate about what choose to post or not to post.

Caveat two: Motive is important. I never friend someone solely for the purpose of doing business with them. I genuinely do want to get to know them. I love meeting new people and making friends, and I never solicit my friends for business unless they make the first move. This is not about creating false friendships for the sake of getting the sale. This is about building real relationships which may or may not benefit your business. But it will benefit you personally as you will have more friends whose lives are a part of yours.

Having said that, here are ten ways in which I use my personal Facebook profile as an extension of my business activities and that might be helpful to you.

1) Create that extra touchpoint – by friending your business acquaintances you now have one more way of maintaining contact, and on a much less formal level. Some say they like to keep business and personal separate. But I think we’re more in an age where the two can co-exist nicely. Is there anything wrong with becoming friends with those with whom you do business? I’ll often use Facebook to connect with people I know from Twitter or LinkedIn (and vice versa).

2) Learn about them - This might seem like stalking, but if someone friends you, you have every right to check out their profile and everything that they have left open. They have opened the door and allowed you in to their lives. Find out their interests, check out their pictures, and perhaps you’ll find some areas of commonality. Do you like the same bands or teams? Little things like that are often the basis for deeper relationships.

3) Engage them beyond business – Once you find those common points of interest, begin to engage them. Talk to them about anything BUT business. If they post something that interests you, comment or hit the “like” button. Remember: if someone accepts you as a friend, they are by default allowing you access. Be informal and tread carefully. Their reaction to your engagement will let you know whether or not you can engage them more fully in the future. If they post about the birth of a baby, celebrate with them. If they mention an illness, a death in the family, or some other difficult situation, let them know you are thinking of them, but do so appropriately.

4) Encourage them to engage you – This isn’t a blatant thing, but I often will post a status that generates a lot of discussion on my wall. And many times that discussion will involve people that I barely know. But when someone breaks the ice with me, that is like them opening the door and allowing me to further the discussion.

5) Remember their birthdays - Facebook kindly reminds us each day as to which of our friends are having birthdays. Every day I look at that list and determine which friends I know well enough to extend birthday greetings. That one little gesture can open the door for a greater relationship. People LOVE being remembered on their birthday. They’ll appreciate that you took the time to write a birthday greeting on their wall.

6) Support their endeavors – If you see them talking about favorite causes or posting events, feel free to help them out by sharing those events. Again, this must be done genuinely, but using the “share” function on the things they post sends a very strong signal. It shows that you care about them and their interests. If they invite you to “like” a business page, give it serious thought. Consider attending their events if they are nearby.

7) Reconnecting – Not only do I friend people that I meet in my everyday life, but I’ve also friended a lot of former classmates and coworkers. Some of my classmates might even be people I never really was friends with back in school. With the passage of time those HS and college cliques seem to be less important and the bond of having attended the same school becomes more so. These are great connections to have.

8 ) Find common friends – One of the first places I look when I’m considering friending someone is the “mutual friends” area in the left hand column. I’m often amazed at the connections I already have with someone, and in some cases those connections are just downright odd. Several of my friendships have started as the result of one of us saying, “How the heck do you know so and so?”

9) Extend your reach -I have a Facebook business page. But I also use my personal profile to share certain aspects of my business. Every day my blog posts are published to both of these pages. I’ll also use my personal profile for sharing my upcoming speaking engagements or classes, as well as other events which are important to me.

10) Play matchmaker – I don’t mean this in the romantic sense, but with Facebook we have the ability to suggest friends for people. If I know two people might hit it off or have a reason to relate, I’ll go down to the bottom left hand corner and “Suggest friends for so and so.” And sometimes I’ll write a private Facebook to two or more friends actually introducing them to each other and explaining why I want them to meet. Some rather interesting relationships and project have grown out of that sort of thing. This is one of the ways that Facebook can function a little bit like LinkedIn.

But to wrap this up, remember to be a good citizen in your community. Never, ever sell. Don’t be heavy handed and constantly shove your stuff down their throats. I admit that early on I would invite people to “like” fan pages, etc. and did so indiscriminately. I’ve learned to make sure you pick and choose. If you invite someone to an event, or to “like” a page, make sure it is appropriate. In other words, if there is an event in Lancaster, you might not want to invite your friends in Iowa. In other words, use common sense. Oh, and don’t be one of THOSE Farmville users…enough said.

Tagged as: business, facebook, linkedin, Online Communities, privacy settings, Social Media, Social network, Twitter