Facebook Personal Profile vs. Page

Messy Messy Fail - Remember that delicious garlicky shrimp recipe from this post?  I overcooked the shrimp - there's nothing worse!  I can't recall why I wasn't paying attention, I knew they would cook up quickly.  Chewy chewy chewy.

Tidy Victory - The toddler (who really isn't a toddler anymore, gotta come up with a new title for him) has FINALLY started trying new foods outside of his usual staples which are: dinosaur chicken nuggets, yogurt, cheese sticks, apples, bananas and veggie pasta with parmesan cheese.  My goodness he ate peas the other day!  

If you have been checking out my Facebook transformation as of lately, you will see that I have gone from having a personal Love MyMess profile to a Love MyMess page, and finally with a personal profile with my name and a LoveMy Mess page.  Not to mention my own personal profile for friends and family but we'll keep that out of the mix for now.  Are you confused yet?  

Let me start off by saying I wish I had never changed a thing to begin with.  

This all stemmed from doing research about Facebook business pages (which apparently are encouraged by FB for all businesses) versus keeping a personal profile for my blog.  I like to play by the rules - even though this blog is a hobby for me, I didn't want to violate any regulations and get kicked on my blogging fanny.  Aren't the Facebook police always watching?  Maybe in my paranoid world.....

Anyways, it seemed as though the best way for me to get my blog out there via Facebook was to turn my blog personal profile (Love MyMess) into a page.  There would be a few pros and cons into doing this:

Pros

• Greater visibility (so Facebook said) of my posts
• Access to page promotions
• Access to stats about persons reached, etc.

Cons

• All of my previous posts would be deleted

I really thought this was the way to go for me - I just wanted to have greater access to audience and tools for spreading the word.

So one stressful night, I sat down at my computer, logged into my Facebook Love MyMess personal account and switched over to a page.  I was able to download all of my information and posts onto my computer as it suggested I did.  I assumed I would be able to upload this information and posts to my new page after it was set up.

I now had a bright and beautiful new page.  But wait, where did my wall go?  What do you mean I cannot like other comments or posts of my friends?  Hold on one second here...........

Perhaps it was my naivety or lack of research (I thought I had done enough, but apparently not) but I discovered turning my personal blog profile into a page was NOT a good choice for me.  Here were the new pros and cons:

New Pros:

• a much more professional looking page
• ability to boost a post or promote on Facebook (for a price)
• access to engagement stats, persons reached, etc.

New Cons:

• no more wall for liking, sharing or basically any personal interaction with my friends who were now just "likes" on my page
• no more search access - you are a page not a "person"
• no more personal contact except for messages or direct posts on your page to your friends (which are now "likes")
• your posts do not make it to your "likes" walls or the public walls as easily as you think

I always enjoyed using Facebook to provide personal interaction with people be it through pictures, likes, comments or sharing their posts.  With a page, this type of interaction was no longer possible.  I could display my posts, share things that I found on the internet (not from Facebook, no longer possible) and view stats, but that was about it.

Remember all those posts and information Facebook encouraged me to download onto my computer?  There was no way to upload it back to Facebook.  It was not just a useless folder on my desktop that I could sadly look through whenever I wanted, but that was it.  No restoring any of it.

I tried posting one of my new blog posts to the page and then had my mom, who "liked" my page, look for it on her wall.  This was a huge reason why I wanted to change to a page, better visibility!  No where to be found.  We tried several times - posting on the page wall again, refreshing her window, they weren't showing up.  

I was now doing more research online and finding other bloggers and authors felt the same way - they missed their personal profile.  They regretted making the change and were considering starting over from scratch with a personal profile again.

I did not want to do this and inconvenience all of my "likes" (formerly friends) to have to "like" me again.  I contacted Facebook (which is almost impossible to do, lots of searching to find the correct contact link) and after several correspondences, they reinstated my blog personal profile.  Kicker was, it had to have my real name, I couldn't just use my blog name (personal profiles are representing individuals, not businesses) as I formerly had (which was basically against the rules).

So now, I had a personal profile for my own personal use (friends & family) with my name, a personal profile for my blog with my name and a page for Love MyMess.  

People now get confused between my personal profile and my blog personal profile since they both have my name.  The reason I don't just delete one is because I do not want to have pictures of my sons public on the blog to maintain their own privacy.  I use the blog personal profile for the interaction I lost with just having the page.  

Also, I wasn't too thrilled initially about my last name being associated with the blog, but oh well.  I cannot change the name on either the profiles or the page - Facebook restricts you from making more than one name change over a period of time.

What is the point of this post?  Hopefully to give you a little insight if you are thinking about doing the same thing.  Once you make a drastic change on Facebook it is really difficult to undo, so REALLY make sure you do your research.  You want to make the right change for you.

As I stated before, I wish I had never changed my blog personal profile to a page - all this confusion could have been avoided.  I am sure there are other pros and cons I am missing when it comes to these different options on Facebook.

And now, here is where you come in!

I'd love to see your comments with other points I may have overlooked, so start commenting!  Has anyone else had a similar experience?  Do you use a Facebook personal profile or page?  

Thanks for reading!

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