When it comes to everyone’s favorite social networking site, to filter or not to filter is the big question asked by many small business owners on especially Facebook. The purpose of a Facebook filter is to weed out and separate who can read what about your private life, your professional life and any other variation you might think of, so that messages verbally and visually are segregated according to whom you would like to inform.
So let’s say, Janie’s playdate fiasco isn’t the most relevant to your new CPA client or last night’s recount of one Chardonnay too many may not enthrall a potential client, setting up a filter can provide an excellent opportunity to keep your personal from your business lists separate.
Of course using filters means taking the time to create “friend lists” where you delegate each individual person to whichever list you prefer to create. Once the friend lists are created you can use the filter on your “home” page to even show which newsfeeds you’d prefer to see. If friends are more important than business colleagues, simply click on your “Friends” filter in the top left-hand corner and drag it to the top of your lists. Facebook will then show only the newsfeeds from this list. Not a bad idea if you’re just starting out on Facebook and want to see your client or potential customer list and be able to respond quickly to some of their posts.
Filters are certainly a great feature on Facebook, but they’re not the only way to go in terms of keeping separation between professional and personal lives. Consider either creating a Fan Page for your business (pros: lots of great features and an easy way to keep interested parties informed; cons: not everyone wants to join and the number is of fan pages is currently reaching almost spam levels) OR creating a separate profile for your business.
While Facebook does not officially favor profiles that are businesses, they do still exist and can be an interesting mix into your social media strategy. For instance, does your brand have a mascot or an interesting character that can be created and become the persona and “voice” of the branded profile? (Think “Jack” of Jack in the Box commercials.) Thinking further outside the box, can you create a fictional character that represents the brand but isn’t necessarily you? This is a tactic that could be employed for larger service or consumer-oriented tactics. (Think “Mac” from Apple’s “I’m a Mac” commercials.)
Of course, if you are your brand (such as a CPA, lawyer, web developer, etc.) being you is perfectly fine as well. The decision to use filters or other tactics to separate personal from professional can only be made by you and should reflect what you are the most comfortable with.
Are you currently employing one of these techniques on Facebook for your small business? Feel free to share your experiences here.
Filed under: small business branding, social media | Tagged: facebook, small business branding, small business marketing, social media
