The distinctive difference between Facebook personal and fan page is to separate private lives from business ventures.

What I love about Facebook personal page is that it can either go public or private. Some people are precise in protecting their inner circles, completely shield off the outside world; while some are interconnecting it with fan page to enhance online presence. It is important to identify the type of personal account you are maintaining now because Facebook privacy is getting vulnerable.

Shall We Combine Personal Account with Fan Page?

It goes back to the core reasons why you setup a personal account in the first place. How Darren Rowse defriending some people on his Facebook personal account months ago was a reasonable act to clear the line between work and leisure. I would suggest you to examine all the people in your friend lists and people who liked your page:

• Who are they?
• What are their behaviors?
• Are they interrelated from one page to another?

If there’s no way to tell, dip your toes in the water with a brief business update and see how your friends reacted. Indirectly bring to their attention that you can be the go-to person if someday they ever felt like using your service. It’s about making your digital name card visible, even on personal account that can be helpful in two reasons:

• people in your inner circles know what you are doing and capable of handling;
• introducing you to their colleagues or friends whoever needed the service;

Curiosity is a good thing. When they are wondering what you are doing, it’s an opportunity to educate. It doesn’t have to be business-oriented all the time, instead bringing a new information to your inner circles and help them to understand. I was among my closest friends who are the first to quit my job and go for freelancing, they know some of my work from my Facebook updates and basically calling me the go-to person for ‘blogging or internet thingy’. Although none of them needed any of my service now, but I had a couple of them who introduced me to their colleagues for blog setups so that’s a really cool and unexpected way to expand the business.

Now here comes the big question: How Can We Indirectly Promote Our Fan Page Without Pissing People Off?

5 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Fan Page on Personal Account

There are ways to not be annoying but keep that fan page visibility alive on your personal account. Again, these methods are not to create controversy but to help those who are in need of extra opportunities. Do not force yourself into doing this if you’re not comfortable with even putting 1% of business info in your private page, no pressure. For the rest of you, here are some suggested methods:

#1 Info Tab

Facebook recent modification of our Info tab into a fan page linking extravaganza forced us to reconsider our online exposures with Facebook. The ability to add extra information to our Info tab is no longer available for any Facebook applications. Therefore, start filling up your work information and Bio all over with extra details about your job scope. Fill up these sections in Info Tab by including your fan page address(es):

i) Contact Information > Websites

Tips: Claim your Facebook Fan Page vanity URL here: http://www.facebook.com/username

ii) Likes & Interests > Other (You need to ‘Like‘ your fan page to have it listed)

#2 Information and Personal Message

The information tab is actually fixed according to what you listed in the ‘website info‘ of Contact Information. Make sure the box is ticked to have them displayed underneath your profile image. Another good idea is to put personal message below your image, making sure you are using every space possible for indirect publicity especially when these two spots are the most visible areas of your sidebar.

#3 Fan Page Badge or Special Announcements

This is my favorite method by far. Customize and place a fan page badge at one of the box tabs won’t hurt. Make sure its position is highly visible, preferably below your friend list or among the tabs. You can have different ways to embed the images and messages to raise their awareness of your fan page. Some people prefer to use contest, announcements or free promotions to draw attention. It’s a good alternative besides sending a personal message to inform them about your existing Facebook fan page. Here are a few Facebook applications you can use to customize a fan page badge that fits right for Facebook tabs:

i) Extended Info

I’m using Extended Info to publicize my fan page badge, along with a brief message. What I love about Extended Info is the variety of ways you can share a fan page message. There are various patterns and styles to choose from, but you do have to take note of the sizes for different tabs. Make sure the image size is properly optimized.

ii) My Info

It’s a pity we cannot customize the title of these tabs like Static FBML does in fan pages. If you are looking for a more personalized name ‘My Info’ can be a good choice. It works the same as any other HTML embedding applications, but the downside is there are advertisements about the application showing up above or below your info. If you don’t mind that then it is a good suggestion for you.

#4 Create A Like Badge

If you are less prone to create a self-promotional badge, a Like badge is a good choice. Instead of saying ‘Come join my page’ directly, you can simply acknowledge it with ‘(your name) Like (fan page name)’. A friendly way to recommend your page to fellow friends. To do that :

i) My favorite Facebook application for the job: Profile HTML

ii) Add it to your fan page and have it authorized as instructed.

iii) Go to your fan page, look for ‘Promote with a Like Box’

iv) Copy the code and paste it to Profile HTML code box. You may need to modify the codes a bit so the image can fit in properly.

Here’s the end result:

#5 Tagging & Sharing

Sometimes you can tag yourself from the fan page, or share the acknowledgment that other friends have given about your work or fan page. This is an extra publicity but not to be overdone. I apply ‘do this ONLY when necessary‘ principle to keep myself from bringing too much noise into my personal page.

Suggested Read : How to Use Status Tagging Successfully on Facebook Pages/Profiles

So there you go, some indirect methods that can help to promote your Facebook fan page even within your personal account. You must be wondering what about ‘Suggest to Friends‘ option in Fan Page? This is a good feature but requires delicate use. I don’t wish to mass-promote it or else its efficiency may be misinterpreted as a spamming tool. Use it when you think the time is right and not periodically with repeating invitations.

Now Is Your Turn

How do you promote your fan page from your personal account? If not, then how do you promote it outside Facebook? Would love to hear your thoughts.

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