Wow, I had no idea! While I use Facebook primarily for interacting with people I actually know, I am “friends” with a fair number of businesses! In fact, if you go to almost ANY business website, they have links to their facebook page, too.

Weird.

Basically, create a fan/like/whatever they call it now page. Do not name your regular profile “Soandso Photography”, just leave that for the fan page and create a normal profile like you’d be any other person.

I have a personal page and a fan page. I don’t see what the big deal is. That is the reason I created the fan page for the business.
I thought that was pretty clear when you signed up. One is for personal use the other for business. Just follow the rules and you wont lose your page.

I was just last week considering using my profile page for my business as suggested in a blog i recently read and THANKFULLY I didn’t have time to do that. Now, what isn’t good is on my business blog when i create a new post I have a widget that will update my FB profile page…even though I would prefer it to update to my fan page…now…more than ever I need to find out if there is a way to update the fan page. Last I checked it wasn’t possible. If i blog and forget to uncheck “update facebook” I will run the risk of having too many business related posts on my profile page. One more thing to add to my “to do” list…research new widgets.

Facebook has *stellar* customer service. I contacted them a few weeks ago about a group that stole my copyrighted images from my clients page and then used them on their own website to bash my client. They used their facebook profile to access these images on a privacy protected facebook page (you have to be friends to see their images). Facebook refused to do anything because the copyright infringement was on a third party site. However this third party HAD to use their facebook account to access my clients page. They used facebook as a tool to steal images. Facebook customer service BLOCKED my email address when I tried to dispute this fact. And I was polite, even with my please and thank yous.

Add to that the fact that Facebook strips all metadata from any pictures you upload. It’s as though they’re setting everything up for the illicit use of photos.

Just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean they’re NOT out to get you!

I would think this would be obvious. This is why there are fan pages. I am NOT defending Facebook now…I honestly am in a cycle of abuse with them like everyone else. But I see that they want businesses to have certain restrictions that profiles surpass.

I have to say that while I didn’t know this, I do try to keep business separate from private on facebook. I have two business pages that deal strictly with those businesses and one personal page. Personal announcements don’t go on the business page and vice versa. However, that being said… I am rather pissed off at Facebook and their advertising “standards.” If you go to my facebook fan page for my 11:59 Photography business, you’ll see an ad that was not approved and the ad that was approved. The only explanation for the ad that was not approved I received was that it was “too provocative.” When I asked for an explanation, they said “the woman is laying on a bed.”

People also sleep on beds!

At any rate, if you review their advertising standards they provide very specific examples of copy that is not allowed, like “Are you fat?” instead they suggest “Need to lose weight?” But when it comes to photos they seem to use the same archaic standards that the FCC and MPAA use with approximately the same amount of enforcement. On a single friend’s page I saw an ad for a dating service with a woman and a wanton look on her face with some fairly revealing clothing on. I can only surmise that because this ad likely was a $100,000 ad and mine is a $3.50 a week ad… that mine was not approved.

Please go check out my two ads on my facebook page and let me know your thoughts. http://www.facebook.com/1159photography

thats why i use myspace even though they are far from ideal .. the fact that the mind set of the face book heads was to claim they owned all content posted and it could not be deleted by people leaving the sight was clear. which is what they actually did in real life. even though they backed down for the present you have to understand thier mind set which is they own you or want to own you and your creative content money for nothing because you had a place 4 free.. the story is as old as time itself .. shame on face book nazi”s

I’m with Trudy — I assumed this was the policy all along.

I’ve seen too many photographers use their personal profile to promote their business. Here is the real problem, as I see it. As your personal page, you may put a religious or political view, colorful joke or any other statement of a personal nature that your potential clients may see as crude, inappropriate or otherwise a turn-off to using you as a photographer. Have a business page that is separate and you prevent the risk of offending someone.

I use Tweetdeck to push content specifically where I want it posted (Bus Page, Profile, Twitter, LinkedIn) and this works well. What frustrates me is that many services like PhotoShelter’s photo/gallery upload push all content only to the Profile and not the Bus Page.

This happened to me some time back.. account was deleted completely, lost everything. At the time it felt like a nightmare. Eventually they offered this solution: If you open a new non business related (ie no fiddling with the name, which I think was the trigger) and then open a business page (so they can sell you advertising of course) then they would transfer my friends to my fans list. Hence I started with 300 fans from day one of my business page.

Quite annoying, now I never fiddle with my name, I leave it as my real name.. don’t add Photography or _Photographer etc. Just to be safe. I guess they want the advertising revenue and well as it is an otherwise free service… nothing much I can say. It’s all done and dusted now and I manage to keep it separate. Separate ish considering my personal and work lives overlap.

Just to clarify (I am Brian’s assistant)

Brian did have a personal page (his own name) and a separate “business” page for Luxography. Did he “friend” all of our clients? Of course. We actually do become friends with our clients outside of shooting their weddings. (Were his page still active, you would see pictures from our Sunday brunch this past weekend with a couple we photographed last summer, and a fellow photographer Dave Chang-Sang) Brian would also become friends with several of their friends, attendants, family members, etc… so he could tag them in the pictures he uploaded after we shot their events.

Did he sometimes cross reference to our page? Of course. Don’t we all post links to other sites, pages, etc…? What’s the point of facebook allowing us to link and upload photos, only to damn us when we do? Furthermore, what is the point of Facebook encouraging businesses to set up pages and groups and PAY for advertising, only to turn around and slap us on the wrist when we, god forbid, PROMOTE ourselves??

I can tell you that other than the odd link to the page saying “new pics were uploaded” there was no soliciting done by Brian on his personal profile.

This is beyond ridiculous.

I had a friend with the same issue – ironically his photography page survived when they deleted his account – same reasons I’m hearing that Brian got blocked. Talking with a few others who had similar things happen (all photographers) we think it was the friending and tagging of so many. Ridiculous is right. God forbid people use a socail network to “gasp” network!

@Russ Bishop,
I just want to jump in and correct your comment – PhotoShelter allows you to choose if you want to post images to your personal facebook page OR your fan page, or any other fan page you currently “like”.

So sorry to hear about Brian’s issues – certainly a huge peril that seems indiscriminately regulated by facebook with tons of gray area. If I were to write a blogpost on my company blog, then share it via my personal facebook page, would they close my personal page? Yikes.

The thing is that Fan pages on facebook don’t meet the needs of what businesses need. Fan pages are very limiting and it’s very frustrating to deal with them that the only fix is to get a profile for your business. If FB fan pages were less limiting, there wouldn’t be a reason to create a profile for one’s business. Facebooks needs to get to the root of the issue which is to fix FB fan pages so they offer what business need. Simple as that. FB should create surveys instead of coming up with surprise updates all the time. Maybe then they will know what people want.

“If FB fan pages were less limiting, there wouldn’t be a reason to create a profile for one’s business.”

100% agree with Cyndi.

Personal pages allow for lists of friends, so you can tailor a message to a specific group (other photographers, models, MUAs, etc). Some of the better plugins work with personal accounts, not fan pages.

And until Facebook addresses this, that aforementioned gray area will be tested quite frequently.

The bigger point that you people are missing is this, Facebook is one big waste of time. Only a handful can honestly say their time spent on Fbook actually accomplish anything, other than wasting a lot of time. I don’t need to know what someone is wearing, where they’re going, who they saw last night or what their dog looks like, I could care less. And so does 90%+ of anyone who you think does. Spend some of that money you’re making and buy a print ad somewhere or print some marketing pieces and distribute them, but if you think you’re going to get rich with Fbook, you probably should turn in your license!

Bob, I have to respectively point out that that is strictly your opinion. And that I disagree. Facebook works for some and doesn’t for others. I think it’s all what you put into it. If you go into Facebook with the mindset that “I don’t need to know what someone is wearing, where they’re going, who they saw last night or what their dog looks like, I could care less. And so does 90%+ of anyone who you think does.” then you’re not going to “get” was Facebook does and not see the benefits.

For my business, Facebook has been a really good thing and well worth the few minutes a day we take to update statuses, provide links, and post photos. And the number one reason is that it’s all about connecting with our clients on a personal level. We are a very personable company. And our clients are the type that like/need that personal touch. And to be honest, I’d much rather have clients that care about me as much as I care about them instead of someone who just happened to stumble across an ad somewhere.

I have yet to see a decent return on the thousands I’ve spent on print advertising. Facebook is free. It takes a little more time invested, but if one of your selling points is your personality and your interaction/relationship with your clients, then Facebook is invaluable.

Wes, and I might respectively point out that it sounds like facebook works for you. But, I would ask, with all the print advertising you’ve done, how do you know that hasn’t helped reinforce your other avenues of marketing? Sounds like if not, you chose the wrong places to print market and you did indeed waste that money.

Frank, our market doesn’t have a lot to choose from, so from the handful of bridal publications/kid directories, etcs in our area that we do have and that we’ve advertised in, we haven’t seen a very good return on the investment. We do get exposure and it keeps our name out there, but, for us, we’ve found that word of mouth is king when it comes to getting new clients. And Facebook is one giant watercooler. But Facebook is only one piece in the puzzle of us. Our marketing strategy is frequent (and good) blogging, regular Facebooking, a little Twitter, word of mouth, and few adverts here and there (to keep our name out there). And it works for us.

Again, I really think Facebook, Twitter, blogging, etc. is all about what you put into it. If you don’t understand it and have little interest in social media, then when you do give it a try, you’re not going to get anything out of it. I have friends that have tried to get into Facebook and blogging and after a few weeks, their interest peters out. They give similar responses to Bob’s. And I think it’s because some people are more suited for it than others.

Wes, a small town market is always a challenge, but the bigger problem has been brought up many times and will be brought up many more, how to compete and cope with the mass of people calling themselves photographers who don’t have a license or a clue. You know, the guys doing shoot and burn weddings for a grand. The guys under cutting everything real pros do and giving away the store. The guys who won’t be in business when you and I get up on Christmas morning. Those guys are all hopped up on including the image disk with every thing they sell and are clamoring for just one more social media injection this evening. Well here’s some news you might want to pass along to all the social media lovers out there.

YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are in the final talks of combining product to create the largest media conglomerate in the Universe.
They’re rumored to call it YouTwittFace and it will be guaranteed to be the biggest waste of time, and bandwidth, since Al Gore invented the internet!

[...] Imagine attempting to login to Facebook only to find that your profile has been disabled! DWF Photographer Brian Tao is living in this extra special level of social networking hell right now. Why hell you ask? Because there was no warning and there really is no recourse. If you’re account is disabled by the Facebook powers that be you’re left with really only one option. To contact them via a webform and given Facebook’s track record for customer service (or lack thereof) that’s a sketchy proposition at best………read article [...]

[...] you completely shut down your business page and move to your personal profile, read this: DWF Blog Archive A Facebook Warning for Photographers __________________ Best, Jim Send a mesage to Jim Visit my website My New [...]

Let me clarify the situation, as it appears to have been reported incorrectly in the blog post: my personal profile was NOT suspended because I conducted business activities on it. I have had a business page on Facebook all along. There was NO warning and NO reason given initially when my profile was suspended. I contacted Facebook immediately, and a week later they replied (verbatim):

“Your account was suspended because you uploaded photo content that violated Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. This content has been removed from the site.

After reviewing your situation, we have reactivated your account. You will now be able to log in. For technical and security reasons, Facebook cannot provide you with a description or copy of the removed content.”

Note that Facebook is deliberately vague about what content was removed. They will neither tell you the exact reason, nor which images were affected. They expect compliance without guidance, which is really the crux of the issue: Facebook can and will suspend your personal and/or business profile without warning and without a stated reason, and without a transparent appeals process.

Had 3 pages all got banned this August.
My personal profile with 80 friends, my photography/fan page and a business page with 100+ fans for the hotel I work for. All without a warning or a notice. After several emails and a week or so I received an email with insane accusations.

“Hi,
After reviewing your situation, we have determined that your behavior violated Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. You will no longer be able to use Facebook. This decision is final and cannot be appealed.
Please note that for technical and security reasons, we will not provide you with any further details about this decision.
Thanks,”

I had a separate business page for my photography and for my hotel business but they deleted all. The hotel part actually caused me income loss too… They should at least warn and give a reason like a half decent company would but they can’t prove a thing as it was not true so it’s easier to say no details for security reasons… BS.
It is amazing that FB – after earning billions of dollars still couldn’t manage to produce a Customer Service Dep. who could deal with these kind of issues. In fact it seems like they actually enjoy this “Power” they have.
Hope one day we can collectively sue them for the losses they caused.

This has always been a problem with FB. Heck I would gladly PAY for FB if they fixed their customer service problems!! Most frustrating!!

I stopped using my personal fb page a while back but i wonder if the powers that be would search back to see previous activity and require me to remove it. that would be a daunting task!

[...] After the recent threats of Facebook removing user profiles without warning I decided that I will be using my fan page for buisness and the other one for personal. I wish I could easily move all my followers over but that will take some investigating to see if it’s even possible. Read the recent article that was sent to me by my friend Stan Stearns here. [...]

[...] Facebook does not allow you to use your Personal Facebook Profile to promote your business or run competitions. If you do so, Facebook can shut down your account. [...]

[...] on how to do this the hard way – let me share a little rumour with you. In some forums and in comment sections of blog posts, some people said that Facebook helped them to transfer their friends from a Personal [...]