I wanted to find out if you are changing your Facebook strategies recently.  Do you think a Facebook Group, Page or using the Subscribe button is best for businesses?  Does it matter what business they are in?  Should all business owners or public figures have their Subscribe button open?  

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

The subscribe button is so people can get your updates without becoming your friend, @annfurnivall  You can read more here:  www.facebook.com/about/subscribe

I was just having a discussion about tactics with my co-authors and we were commenting how more people are using their personal profiles and using the subscribe button because pages aren’t always seen in the updates.  Just wanted to find out if others were changing their tactics.

I totally agree to @hildaalanisgonzalez ‘s statement. If a business sets up a personal profile, it’s not only against FB rules but also shows that they don’t know how FB works.

A page is for businesses.

A personal page is for my private relationships. I activate the subscribe button, if I want ‘outsiders’ to receive certain posts as well.

Groups, in my opinion, are for specific discussions or projects limited in time or limited to a specific audience. As a business, I want my (potential) fans to have easy access to my information and I do not want to restrict access and make it a hurdle for them to be informed.

It could be slightly different if the business is all about one specific person, a leader and expert within his/her field. So if the ‘brand’ is a person, a personal page with a subscribe button could work.  But in this case there should be no mix up of personal and professional posts. There is nothing more annyoing when I subscribe to an expert and read what he had for lunch. So in this case, the distinction of ‘public’ or private message within the status update settings is crucial and should not be forgotten…

I personally love groups for the reason shared above.  My groups are really specific clients who have decided to work with me in a group coaching session/workshop.  I now do all my workshops within facebook.  They are all set up as private secret groups for specific coaching clients.  

While I belong to a few open groups they are a mixture of networking groups and spiritual based groups.  Some I have the notifications turned on and others I don’t.  So if I want to know when someone posts in the group – I leave the notifications on.

If I am looking for a specific “group” of people from my fan page – I use event pages.  They allow for specific discussion regarding whatever event we are holding and work far better than groups for me.  An event is open and can be shared.  Anyone can decide to “join” go to the event on there own.  I am not a fan of groups which people can add me to without my permission.

To answer the question, my strategy has shifted slightly in that I use event pages more often and I use groups more often than I did a year ago.mwah

I find there is more conversation in groups so I have groups set up for clients. I also allow subscribers on my profile but use lists to ensure that subscribers aren’t getting irrelevant stuff in their feeds. My pages are generally busy but not necessarily in the way I’d like them to be. One step at a time.

The content of my personal page and my business page, are polar opposites, and for me, having separate accounts are the proper format to maintain. 

While some of my friends may have a casual interest in my business, I wouldn’t want to clutter my business fan’s news with some of the topics I discus on my personal page.  While I understand their intent, I am a bit annoyed when friends constantly market their business through my personal page.

I feel that users should be able to Subscribe to business updates, and I believe the Subscribe button is valuable to businesses.  So, my vote is for all businesses to have the Subscribe button enabled. 

I like the idea of joining and being part of groups, for both business and personal.  My experience has been positive with the couple of personal groups I belong to on facebook,  However, I have found that the business groups on LinkedIn provide me with more serious business-focused interaction than facebook does.  

I agree with @mgoes; it is not appropriate for me to mix business and personal, so my business is a page. It would, however, be appropriate for a musician or artist, maybe a realtor, psychiatrist, some consultants, or anyone who is a single person who is their business, to have a profile. The negetive of a page is that I cannot see, share on or from profiles when using as my page, and profiles have to come to me.

I find that many people don’t understand the subscribe button. Unless I’m missing something, it is only useful to those who created a profile for their business, so they can keep business and personal separate. If they are to use subscribe, the profile must understand that posts to friends must be marked ”friends only/ friends of friends” and posts to subscribers must be marked “public”. If “likes/ friends” don’t understand to use it, they get the annoying mix of business and personal. Subscribe is a little complicated. One reason I might want to create a business profile is for networking groups like this and to be able to comment on profiles as my business. I would like to have you all see me as a business, and keep my personal out of it.

As to groups, I appreciate them being discussions/ notifications on specific topics, like outdoor activity gatherings, creative things to occupy your kids in the summertime, or what @shannawhiteley has done. I also think @carlagoddard is using them well. In most cases, I don’t think it’s appropriate to use them to attempt to gain income for business. On a side note, one thing that bothers me about groups is when the administrator invites me, I’m automatically added, getting emails and notifications before I consent to being a member. I have to go into my settings, notifications, groups, then individual groups to change the automatically marked email notifications for a group I never requested to be involved in.

I am, as a consultant, a single person who is my business, but until people start to understand how to use “subscribe” better, I’m not likely to change my strategy.

Thanks for the great discussion, @andrea-vahl!

I do think that business should have Facebook page, not only because of the insights but because of those clients who don’t have Facebook accounts. Since page is public for everyone to see, it’s nice to give those non-Facebookers a chance to become interested too!

Naturally there is plenty to do with groups too: many of my clients use groups as a sort of extranet and I could see groups used as client service tool too. But the use of groups should be different than page.

The subscribe button is more of a personal branding thing, in my opinion. There is nothing wrong with it, if it is in personal professional use: no company should create personal account, that is just wrong.