Isn't it against Facebook's Terms Of Service to use a personal page for a business. Another words, if my name was "John Smith" and I created an account using the name "ACME Widgets", instead of having a fan page. I cannot find this in the terms. Does anyone know for sure?
I have never heard of such thing. I know of many people that have both, a fan page created tied to their personal profile as well as an entirely new profile specifically for the business. And if you can not find it anywhere in the terms of use, then you are on the safe side. I do recommend that you make a copy of the rules and terms of use. This can come in handy if they try to accuse you of anything and change their terms. You can always say that when you created it the terms of use were different.
I thought personal accounts were for just that...YOUR own personal accounts. I have seen businesses make accounts on personal accounts..I consider it spam. I have not tread their terms of service that closely. I guess you could try it but if too many people report it as spam or offensive then it really doesnt matter. I know one company that has a bunc of personal accounts with names like mike xyzbiz, linda xyzbiz, sarah xyzbiz...if that isn't spam I dont know what is. I reported it once to facebook but its still there. I know they advertise big on facebook so maybe thats why they get away with it. Go figure...
I'm not using a personal page for a business, but some of my friends are. I'd hate to see them shut down. I did read before that is was against facebook's terms Of Service to use any name but your own for a personal page, so I assumed they meant business name as well.
As far as I can tell, Facebook doesn't "search" out these profiles, per-say. However, businesses are not supposed to have the ability to friend users (Business Accounts have these functions removed.) They can mark you as spam, which if that happens, the account is closed immediately.
As far as I know personal accounts are for personal use only. You are not allowed create a standard personal account for promoting a business, eg. ACME Magazine should not be a personal account. But tons of businesses do it anyway and Facebook have so far not been to strict on the implementation of the rule. Businesses are supposed to create fan pages, which is all fine and dandy if you are a large business but for the average website a fan page does very little IMO except to create some backlinks.
Lakeland Printing, Why not just create a fan page for your business? With a fan page, you have unlimited people that can join...on a personal page you are limited to 5000. Plus, on your personal page, you can post your business links as well. Why bother risking setting up a biz on a personal page? The one downside of a fan page I would say is it can be difficult to get people to friend it. In that case, just try to invite people to be fans that are your target market... Another option is to create a group. I dont have much experience with that so I couldnt really advise you, but it is an option.
Lakeland Printing, Why not just create a fan page for your business? With a fan page, you have unlimited people that can join...on a personal page you are limited to 5000. Plus, on your personal page, you can post your business links as well. Why bother risking setting up a biz on a personal page? The one downside of a fan page I would say is it can be difficult to get people to friend it. In that case, just try to invite people to be fans that are your target market... Another option is to create a group. I dont have much experience with that so I couldnt really advise you, but it is an option.
Oh phew.. I just created a fan page for my technology blog on Facebook. Glad I didn't apply for a Facebook account for it
If you have private account, you create page for business and thats it. Everything is legal. People are communicating with you because of who you are, and becoming fans of your page because of what your company does. I don't thing that there will be some kind o issues. In terms it is stated that you can not have multiple accounts - therefore you should use one account for all purposes - fan pages, groups and stuff like that. In my opinion - it is easier for facebook to close you down if you're doing something wrong