When professionals want to use social media as a way to build profile and attract new clients, a personal Facebook profile is probably not a platform they think to use.
Generally people use a personal Facebook page to post pictures of their holidays and keep up-to-date with friends and family.
However, it can also be used as a way to connect more personally with business contacts and clients.
Connections
For me, my personal Facebook profile is a collection of friends, family, clients, journalists and business associates. I choose who I connect with on Facebook; I don’t connect to everyone I know or meet.
My Facebook page provides an opportunity to share my interests outside of my business, so my professional contacts gain an insight into me as a person. I think it leads to stronger relationships and a great opportunity to build rapport.
Style of updates
Using Facebook in a professional way means that you can’t share those drunken photos or bikini shots from your holiday! It is less formal than Twitter or LinkedIn, however it you need to treat it as a professional platform.
Your updates should be a mixture of personal and professional information.
Your professional updates can be on about topics relating to your industry, business or job role. In order to increase your profile as an expertise, share information about what is going on in your industry. You could share links to news stories or blog posts relating to your industry and topics of interest.
Your personal updates can be as personal as you choose. Just because it is Facebook don’t feel as though you have to be overly friendly or share too much. Keep in mind that you want to manage your reputation.
Facebook is a great place to share images such as photos of you doing a presentation, at a work event or doing other work-related activities.
Creating two Facebook profiles
If you don’t want to mix personal and professional you can create two Facebook pages. There is a growing trend of people creating two Facebook profiles, one as a professional page and another as a personal page, allowing them to keep their two identities separate.
For example; one page could be Sally Smith and the professional page could be Sally Smith CEO, to differentiate between the two.
Of course, there is always the option to have just one profile as a professional one if you’re not interested in Facebook for personal use.
Catriona Pollard is the founder and director of CP Communications and the author of From Unknown To Expert.
