The question ‘how to keep my personal account and business Facebook pages separate’ can be interpreted in two ways:

One: Is it possible to have a business page without a personal profile linked to it?

(Short answer: No.)

Two: How do I keep content from crossing over between my personal Facebook profile and any connected business page?

In this post, I’m going to try and address both variations of this question.

Can I Have a Business Page Without a Personal Profile?

No, Facebook does not allow you to create a business page without it being linked to a personal profile. Any business page needs an admin, who is a person who manages the page.

However, once you have it set up, you can assign roles and add other accounts as administrators.

So, yeah, the only way you could manage a business page without having created it through your own profile is if someone else made you the admin of his or her page.

Note that people do create a dummy personal profile to set up a business page. However, Facebook frowns upon this practice, and if it finds out you’ve done this, your account and page could be deactivated.

The good news is, even though your personal profile and business page look like they are inextricably connected, no one but you can see that connection. Facebook treats them like two separate entities.

How Do I Create a Business Page?

To create a business page on Facebook, you need to be logged in to your personal profile. Navigate over to facebook.com/business and click on ‘Create a Page’.

You will be taken to a screen where you can choose if it’s a page for a ‘Business or brand’ or a ‘Community or public figure’.

When you select Business or brand, it will prompt you to enter your company details – the company name and category.

Once you have entered the company information, you will be asked to upload a profile picture and a cover photo. It is good practice to use your logo as the profile picture. It helps with brand recognition and provides consistency to your online presence.

After these pictures are uploaded, you can fill in the details of your business in the company ‘About’ section, and that’s all you need to do to create a business page on Facebook!

How Do I Keep My Personal Profile Separate From the Business Page?

The good news is you don’t have to do anything extra to keep your personal profile and business page separate. Facebook treats them as separate entities by default.

Just because you created a business page does not mean the two profiles will show up as linked on the social media platform. Anything you post on your personal page will stay there and not show up on your business page, and vice versa.

When you’ve selected your personal profile, you will be posting, sharing, liking, and commenting as you, the person. If you are on your business page, that’s whom you’ll be posting as, and the laws that govern business page activities will apply to you.

How Do I Post On My Business Page?

Simply go on to your business page and start posting! When you are on your business page, you are automatically assumed to be the business, not the business page owner, and anything you post here will be ‘from’ the business.

If you are an admin on someone else’s business page, just head over to their page. At the top of the page, you’ll see this message: ‘Go to Business Manager to manage this page.’ Click on it, select the account you want to post as and post away.

How Do I Post As Myself On My Business Page?

When you’re on your business page, you will default to posting as your business. However, if you want to reply or comment as ‘yourself’, what do you do?

Just under the post, where you have the ‘Like’, ‘Comment’, and ‘Share’ options, you will find a little circle with your business page profile picture and a dropdown arrow next to it. If you click it, you can select the profile (or page) you want to comment or like from.

In fact, it’s a good idea to keep an eye out for this, no matter what page you’re on. You don’t want to be commenting from the wrong account!

Why Can’t I Comment On My Friends’ Wall Using My Facebook Business Page?

In order to protect people from spam from unscrupulous companies or pages, Facebook does not allow a business page to post on personal profiles.

The reason is quite obvious. Would you like it if any company could come and post on your personal profile willy-nilly?

That’s why a business can only react to a person’s comments, but it cannot initiate a conversation with them.

Additionally, when posting from your business page, you can only write on the walls of other businesses if your page has ‘liked’ them and they’ve enabled public posting.

Why Should I Like Other Business Pages?

Liking other business pages in the same industry as yours, or closely related, gives you access to a larger audience that might be interested in what you offer.

For example, if you’re a pet food supplier, you could connect with companies selling pet supplies, pet owners’ groups, or animal shelters. There is a good chance that people who have joined these groups either need or might be interested in what you have to offer.

However, joining these groups simply to promote your business is a very bad idea. Social media is supposed to be social before it is promotional. It is a place for conversations.

So, what should you do?

Join the conversations!

Respond to people’s questions, share your expertise, and build relationships… as your business.

Will this make people buy your products?

Maybe… Maybe not.

Will it make people trust you and your brand?

Most definitely!

Even if they don’t go out and buy your pet food right away, they will recognise your products when they see them in stores. Once you establish recognition, there is a good chance that people will (eventually) give you a try.

Liking other business pages also gives you access to the content they share.

Again, being in a related industry, a good portion of what they share will be relevant to you as well. It can give you inspiration for fresh content for your own business, as well as an opportunity to interact with the people engaging with the story.

Looking for someone to manage your social media marketing? Get in touch with us! We can help you promote your business on Facebook and help you design your social media strategy.