When we discussed some of the basics of setting up a Facebook page, we pointed out the mission-critical decision of whether to have a personal page or a business page. Once that decision was made, the features were set and the only way to get the other type of page was to create a separate page.
In the last few weeks, though, Facebook’s programmers have developed a way to move a personal page to a business page. The conversion is one-time and one-way (only personal to business or fan page). But your slew of ‘Friends’ will follow you as ‘Fans’ of you-as-business. Nevertheless, the transition forces some tough decisions about what you hope to accomplish on Facebook.
Sarah Jacobsson Purwall of PCWorld.com points out the fact that though your ‘Friends’ will follow you through the transition, their posts and photos will not:
At the moment, there’s also no way to convert a page back into a profile, so you’d better be sure this is what you want before you give up all of your photo albums, wall posts, and notes. You may also run into some snags: third party apps (Twitter, Tumblr, RSS) disappear completely, you lose your custom URL, and you may be unable to admin your own page if Facebook considers the admin to be your old (now deleted) Facebook profile.
Which is not to say those musings-for-the-ages will be lost. For about six months now, users have had the ability to backup materials on their personal pages. The backup is a one-size-fits-all archive, but at least the stuff is there. Here is how Facebook presents the process:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r0egO0x07g&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Of course, backing up your materials (on Facebook, from your laptop, across your organization’s server…) is paramount for the survival of your work and your sanity. When people challenged me on why I would need to back up my Apple computers (supposedly so much better than PCs), I quipped that even if you drive a Ferrari, Ferrari’s occasionally get flat tires. And you’ll want a spare when that happens.
Or if you decide that your personal page has morphed into a business page. Now you can really make it one, with the features of a business page that could be really useful. We hope you find the links and information here useful, if you indeed decide to make the switch.
Have a great weekend!
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