This
latest development in the ever changing platform which is Facebook is greatly
received whilst to others it may not bring such joy.
As a marketer who regularly posts into Facebook groups on behalf of my small
business clients the new ability to join those groups as their business page
rather than their personal profile means less account switching and a clearer
division between work Facebook and personal Facebook.
Whether you choose to join groups as yourself or your business I have outlined
the 3 key advantages and disadvantages from a marketing and personal
perspective
Advantages
1) Clearer division between the content you see on Facebook as a personal
profile.
2) Your business posts into these groups are now linked back to your business
page so any enquiries will be directed to your business page not to you.
3) If you outsource your group interactions there is no longer the need for
your social media manager to use your personal Facebook account, Once they have
full admin access to your business page they can join groups and post as your
business from their own profile.
Disadvantages
2) It is entirely up to the admins of each group to decide if they wish to
allow businesses to join the group. For some groups which exist purely for the
purpose of business self promotion this now makes perfect sense, however, for
groups which are based on gossip or local chat it is harder to control the integrity
of the group.
3) As above some groups may not accept businesses joining so you are now in
danger of having both a mix of business joins and personal joins so you will
need be fastidious in ensuring you keep a record of which groups you have
joined and whether you are a personal or business member.
So should you switch?
In summary would I recommend joining groups as your business? Yes, I would. The
ability to be able to join groups which exist for business promotion, business
knowledge sharing and networking it makes perfect sense to join these groups as
your business so that all traffic is directed to your business page not your
message requests.
For local groups that exist for gossip remember if you joined that group
because you wanted to know what was going on locally then stay in that group as
your personal profile, if you are regularly engaging in group discussions and
have built up an integrity in that group then any posts you put into that group
to promote your business will be recognised as being from you the member. If
you only joined in the first place for the purpose of advertising on certain
permitted days then switch over to a business membership.(admin allowing)
One thing is for certain this new change to the Facebook landscape will surely
bring more business content however, it may equally enable small business
owners to reclaim their feed and separate their business life from their social
profile and as small business owner myself this can only be good.
Thanks for reading and happy Facebooking!
