How To Remove Facebook Business Page From Personal Account

I set upwardly a Facebook account for my business but I did it every bit a personal page. I then realised my mistake, then I now accept a shortcut link to a business folio. How tin can I delete the personal page, because I simply desire to have one business page? Jenny

You tin't. As I empathise it – which is always fuzzy, given the mode Facebook keeps irresolute things – every page must be linked to a personal profile. However, the link isn't visible to other users, unless you lot add information technology yourself.

In an online answer, Jade from the Facebook Assist Team says: "We will never release your proper name to the full general public stating that you are linked to the Page. Please know that the Personal Contour must represent a real person and can not have the name of a business."

Nevertheless, you tin always fix Facebook'due south privacy command to restrict access to your personal page. Click the downward arrow in the top right, select Settings and and then Privacy. The department on "Who tin see my stuff?" provides options from "Public" to "Friends" to "But me". You don't need to delete your personal contour if merely you tin see information technology.

In full general, I think Friends is the best setting for small-scale and personal businesses, assuming you are active on Facebook. Your friends are about likely to Similar your business page, most likely to comment, and most probable to recommend it to their friends. Large corporations accept other means to generate a following, but friends do information technology without y'all having to pay for it.

Personal profiles v business pages

Facebook creators Mark Zuckerberg and Chris Hughesin 2004. — Facebook creators Mark Zuckerberg and Chris Hughes
in 2004. Photo: Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images

Facebook was launched in 2004 every bit a social networking website, initially for students at Harvard University. It was based on the idea of connecting real people in existent time, and users' identities were based on their university email address. This fundamental concept was maintained as Facebook expanded to other universities, schools and colleges, then to work networks, and somewhen to everyone aged 13 and over.

The only concession is that – following protests from drag queens, amidst others – Facebook at present allows people to use the names they utilise in real life, fifty-fifty if they are not their nativity names. (Lil Miss Hot Mess was "beyond thrilled".)

None the less, it is confronting Facebook's terms of service to set upward a personal account using a business name, or to use a personal business relationship for business. If yous do this, Facebook can and often volition delete your account. Since Facebook knows who you are, it may not be easy to create a new one.

Facebook tried to solve this problem by introducing Facebook Pages for Businesses, which were announced on 6 November 2007. This process is by now pretty much automatic at Create a Page, where Facebook offers set-ups for local businesses, companies and organisations, brands and products, artists and public figures, entertainment, and community causes.

Facebook's Create a Page function — Facebook's Create a Folio function Photograph: Facebook

Pages plusses

Pages have advantages over profiles. For instance, you can have an unlimited number of business pages, with an unlimited number of followers. You lot can cake people, block certain words, and turn on a Profanity Filter. Y'all tin can access Page Insights with demographic information about visitors, and you tin can create advertisements to heave posts. You can also utilise Folio Roles to allow other people to edit, moderate, or even contribute to your business concern page.

The main affair you lose is privacy controls.

Almost individuals, and many small-scale businesses, do not understand the difference between personal profiles and business organisation pages, and some autumn naturally into grey areas, such as pseudonymous users with stage names. Facebook therefore makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to convert personal profiles into pages. For instructions, see: How do I catechumen my personal account to a Facebook Page?

Facebook says "the proper noun on your personal account will become the page's name." This is conspicuously not what you lot want, merely you can change it later. Also note that posts on your personal profile are not carried over to your new page. This volition exist a expert thing for some users and a bad one for others. Some users may need to download the information from their personal profile – that option is under Settings – and re-upload posts to their new page.

Of form, fifty-fifty if you are not planning to create or convert a page, it's always a proficient idea to support your information.

Promoting your page

Facebook has some brusk tutorials on how to Promote Your Business From Your Facebook Page, plus Pattern eLearning, which offers a number of short courses. (In that location's fifty-fifty one for How Journalists Tin can Best Utilize Facebook and Instagram.) These courses include useful data nearly features such as Notes, 360-degree images and broadcasting live video. You will not be surprised when courses encourage yous to spend money on Facebook promotions, simply there's enough information to make them worth a look.

Facebook Business Manager

One style to separate your personal profile and your business pages it to employ Facebook'south Business Director, which covers both Facebook and Instagram accounts, and Facebook apps. Information technology'south also a central program in Facebook'due south mission to sell y'all advertising.

Facebook now has more than 2 billion monthly active users, and losing access to that market could be a blow to many of those who operate business pages. — Facebook now has more than than 2 billion monthly agile users, and losing admission to that market could be a blow to many of those who operate business organisation pages. Photo: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Business Managing director enables multiple people to manage multiple accounts, nether your control. This is manifestly essential in businesses where more than i person updates pages, and in large businesses with external contributors such as graphic artists, photographers and advertisement agencies. It may be overkill for a small business, merely it's worth considering.

Annotation that once a page has been added to Business organization Manager, that folio can only be accessed and managed from Business Managing director.

Facebook rules

Although people generally ignore the "small impress" – if they even know it exists – it's a good idea to read the Facebook Pages Terms page, which specifies what you can and cannot exercise. At that place are even more guidelines for developers who use Facebook as a platform.

Always bear in mind that, like it or non, there is no viable alternative to Facebook, unless you alive in Russia (VKontakte) or People's republic of china (Renren). Facebook writes the laws, operates the police force, and is likewise the estimate and executioner.

Of course, the same things are true of many other web backdrop including Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Reddit. They are all self-regulating. The difference is that about sites allow or even encourage pseudonymous or anonymous users – go thrown off Twitter and you can be dorsum in seconds – whereas Facebook does what it can to tie your account to your personal identity. And it has a huge amount of information about you, including who your friends are.

Information technology's not obligatory to have a Facebook account, and plenty of people survive without one. Simply Facebook at present has more than 2 billion monthly active users, and losing admission to that market could be a blow to many of those who operate business pages.

Have you got a question? Email information technology to Ask.Jack@theguardian.com