Facebook Pages vs. Facebook Profiles
Many people don’t realize it is perfectly possible to create a Facebook Page for your business without having a Personal Profile.
A lot of business owners are not interested in having a Facebook Personal Profile but do like to have their business represented on Facebook. By using a Business Account you can make this happen!
This article was originally posted May 27, 2011, but now (Aug 2nd, 2015) things have changed.
Facebook no longer allows a business page without a personal profile page, however. you can still keep your identity private.
Your personal profile is not explicitly linked (ie. obvious to others) to your Facebook Page unless you choose to in the 'Featured Page Owners' in' settings, so it's not a problem, but to attain the same you can follow these steps:
- Sign up with Facebook* Facebook will create a personal profile of yours as default.
- Convert your personal profile to business page
- Now, you have a business page without a personal profile associated.
We have kept the original article from 2011below.
What is the Difference Between a Personal Profile and a Business Account?
You may create a Business Account if you don't already have a standard Facebook account, a Personal Profile. To get started, you will need to create a Facebook Page (or Facebook Ad) first. A Business Account is meant for individuals who only want to use Facebook to administer Pages and ad campaigns. For this reason, Business Accounts do not have the same functionality by far as Personal Profiles.
Business accounts have limited access to information on Facebook. With a business account you can view all the Pages and Facebook Ads that you created, however, you won’t be able to view any of the Personal Profiles of users on Facebook or other content on Facebook that does not exist on the Pages you run. The Business Account cannot be found in search and cannot send or receive friend requests.
Keep in mind if you set-up a Business Account you will not be allowed to set-up a Personal Profile too. All you can do with a Business Account is create a Page for your business and/or create paid advertisements on Facebook and that’s about it! However, you can “upgrade” your Business Account to a Personal Profile later on, if you wish.
A regular account enables you to maintain a Personal Profile, interact with friends, create and/or join groups, create and manage a Page for your Business, “Like” other Pages AND purchase advertising. A Personal Profile is more flexible which is why, even if you do not want to interact with Friends, you are actually better off with one. You can always limit social interactions on your Personal Profile through the security settings. Nobody forces you to use your Personal Profile as a social medium.
As the administrator of a Page, you have the choice to “reveal” yourself as the admin. People who “Liked” your Page(s) will not know you are connected to the Page unless you choose to show the Page owners. Any actions that you take as a Page admin on your Page will show the Page’s name as the actor and not your personal name.
IMPORTANT Please Read Before Creating a Business Page Without a Personal Profile:
If you have a business account but would like to upgrade it to a personal account, click "Create Your Profile" at the top of your business page. From there, Facebook will walk you through providing additional personal information and will create a personal profile that some other users can find, depending on your privacy settings. You will still be able to manage your Ads and Pages by clicking "Applications" in the left column menu and selecting "Ads and Pages." Your personal name will not be publicly linked to them. Once you create a personal profile, you can't change it back to a business account.
Facebook business accounts exist so that people can administer Facebook Pages and campaigns without a personal profile. Business account users cannot view other users' profiles or pages; they only have access to their own Pages and Ads. These accounts are also not viewable to other users. Personal account users, conversely, have the well-known Facebook capabilities such as creating and sharing a profile, having friends and viewing other profiles and Facebook Pages
Be Cautious of Facebook Account Policies:
When you create a Personal Profile, it is supposed to be in your real name (first and last name). Facebook will delete or deactivate accounts without warning if they are in violation of their policy. If you already have a Personal Profile Facebook does not allow you to create a Business Account as well and if then find out they might close both your Personal Profile and your Business Account without prior warning.
What is right for you? A Personal Profile or a Page (Business Page)?
For a Page (Business Page), go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create to create your Facebook Business Account and set up your first Page for your business. If you prefer a Personal Profile, go to https://www.facebook.com and walk through the set up steps to create your account.
Happy Facebook'n!
About the Author:
The SEO-Alien is a project started in 2009 regarding all things online marketing. The site started out more of a diary of predictions, suggestions and references to things I frequently used for online marketing... before social media marketing was even an option.
I hope you find the information and tools presented here useful and something worth sharing with others.
If there is anything else about online marketing or any online advertising strategy you think would be helpful, please let me know.
I truly love your blog.. Pleasant colors & theme.
Did you create this website yourself? Please reply back as I'm
attempting to create my own site and would like to learn where you got
this from or exactly what the theme is named. Thanks!
Thanks, we use the Divi Theme by Elegant Themes, excellent
I went to the link you shared to create a Business Page without a personal profile. When I click on any of the options, I am asked to log in. I don't have a login. Has FB made it impossible to have a business page without a personal profile now. I know this post is several years old.
You are right, you used to be able to but can't any more. But your personal profile is not explicitly linked (i.e. obvious to others) to your Facebook Page unless you choose to in the 'Featured Page Owners' in' settings, so it's not a problem, but to attain the same you can follow these steps:
* Sign up with Facebook
* Facebook will create a personal profile of yours as default.
* Now, convert your personal profile to business page
* Now, you have a business page without a personal profile associated.
🙂
Hi Mike,
this is the first article which gives me some informations about this issue! Thanks for that. I have looked for a lot, also asked Facebook Support but they are not willing to advise me.
But I have a problem. As you wrote:
"If you have a business account but would like to upgrade it to a
personal account, click “Create Your Profile” at the top of your
business page."
…I can't find that “Create Your Profile” option on my Business Page. Where would it be located?
Thank you.
Thanks, but I guess it didn't give enough… at the time I wrote this post, (2011-05-27) this was correct, and I have updated it a few times… but I guess Facebook has outdone me….
My only 'guess' at this time is to check the page settings and see if you can add an admin… they would have to have a Facebook profile to do so.
Other option I can think of is to be logged in with your business profile and then see if it will allow you to register for a personal profile.. After you have created that personal account, see if it attached your biz page to it (or gives you that option).
Let me know.. if either doesn't work, then I will dive in a little deeper and see if I can find the answer 🙂
Hi Mike,
currently there is no option to create a personal profile when I am logged on my biz page. If I go on the Facebook home page where this option is, then it's automatically redirected on my biz timeline.
So I have tried to log out and start to register a new personal profile with same e-mail. The same, because I need to be interconnected with my biz page under one account. But I got a notice, that the e-mail is already used. When I confirmed it, I was redirected on my biz timeline again.
So I didn't try to create a new profile with a different e-mail, because it probably wouldn't be interconnected.
At that moment I stopped and tried to get some informations what to do. As I said – Facebook Support is passive.
I have also checked out that 'add new admin' option, as you advised, and it is possible. So maybe this way could work. What do you think about it?
Anyway thank you very much for your effort to help.
Maybe.. just maybe, you should try adding me as an admin? Then after that is confirmed. create your personal page, add me as a friend on FB and then I can make you admin and then remove me. Just an idea… if you want to give it a shot, contact me and let me know. I would be happy to help if I can.
Hi Mike,
finally I have created my first personal profile and simply added myself as an admin of my biz page.
It seems ok, but I am still missing some options. E.g. I can't find where to change the url of my biz page. So far, it has the default form of url: facebook.com/pages/something/123XXXXXXXXXX.
I expected, that this option requires the creation of personal profile, but I don't see it neither as a new admin.
Do you know, how to do it?
Thanks
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you, but It should be in your settings on your Page… page->settings-> page info-> Facebook Web address … depending on what type of a page you created, you may have to have a certain amount of followers before they let you change the URL
Hi everyone. Maybe someone could advise on my matter. Got personal profile on FB, recently created business account to which I got access via my personal one. Now I'm leaving the company and would like to ad new manager and delete myself. Is it possible to ad manager without him having personal account. For example to use company email as login?
If you have access to your business page via your personal page you can add another admin to your business page as long as they are a friend of yours on your personal page.
Have the person you want to have admin on that page friend you on FB and then go to your business page. From the top of that page, click the "Edit Page" drop down menu and you will see "Manage Admin Roles" and then type the name of the person you would like to add as admin. It will then ask you to enter you Facebook user/pass to confirm.
Hi Mike,
thanks for the article. I could really use your help, i'm in kind of a unique situation here..
I've never wanted a facebook profile and never made one, but a few years ago some friends with access to my laptop opened an account for me without my knowledge. Finding out that very night, i reset the password and de-activated the account.
So it's been "dormant" for the past 3 years, but i always knew i'd want to open an Artist page one day to promote my portfolio, and this day has come. The de-activated personal profile is, alas, linked to my main email address, the one that my art blog is linked to, so that's the email i want to use for a facebook fan page.
i've read a lot about migrating the profile to a page, but all those articles assume you also want a personal profile.. from your post i realize it is possible to have a page without a regular profile, but because of this already existing profile i think it would be more complicated, if at all possible!
i have zero experience with facebook and its functions, privacy settings, etc… i don't understand what would happen after the conversion.
my personal profile would be gone, right? how do i manage the newly-created artist page?
if i succeed in making the conversion, can i then open the "business account" you discussed here? i'm assuming it would be more complicated since i'm not really starting from scratch.
i know a lot of things are irreversible. Like, if the migration gets screwed, and the page or profile will be deleted, will i ever be able to open an account on that same email address?
and if i do manage to have a business account and an artist page, i really can't be anyone's fan or part of groups? i'd like to show some personality on my page, the stuff i like and artists i admire for example.
it's all so foreign to me..
please help!
thank you so so much!
Maya
Hi Maya,
It seems to me like you should simply login with the personal profile account that is already created and then create a biz page from http://www.facebook.com/pages. Keep it simple! Hope that helps.
I set up a nice business page with my only email / log in, without having a personal profile only to find the lack of functions you discussed, how can I "upgrade" to a personal profile to get more out of my Business Page. Good article but I need help – newbie to FB
Hi Mark, I believe that after you create your personal account you can then claim you page.
I haven't found this function. I created a business account to start a page in behalf of my friend after reading this article. Now she would like to have it upgraded but I can't do it. You shouldn't write this function exists if you only 'believe' it can be done.
See https://www.facebook.com/help/257661877677443
Does your friend have a Facebook account? Simple go to settings on the Page and add them as a admin.
Mark, I just added a new section to this article regarding upgrading to a personal page.
Why are they punitive like that? If I want to keep my business and my personal life seperate, that should NOT be a problem.
Maybe you missed what this article was about .. "It is perfectly possible to create a Facebook Page for your business without having a Personal Profile." and also "As the administrator of a Page you have the choice to “reveal” yourself as the admin. People who “Liked” your Page(s) will not know you are connected to the Page unless you choose to show the Page owners."
I converted my personal profile to a business person page. I know it is possible to request to have my business person page turned back into a personal profile. However, I would just like to create a new personal profile. Is there a way to do it within the same account? I know you technically still have a personal profile but you can't do everything you are able to do with a real personal profile. Are you aware of a way around this?
Nice article thanks. Helped a lot.