If you have a personal Facebook account, you may have a ton of fabulous friends that like to share amazing details about their life. Yet, when we operate a business, the newsfeed and notifications in your personal account can cause missed notifications. There must be a better way to control my newsfeed, separate my business from my personal profile, and give my business the full attention it deserves.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just login to Facebook and get down to business, and focus on that business page you’ve set up?
There’s a solution! Well, a couple. One way is to have a business and ad account that isn’t based on your personal account. Start by visiting business.facebook.com where you will be directed through a setup series of questions, such as: business name, address, business page, etc. This is the business and ad account manager backend with a completely different user-interface that may seem very unfamiliar. This dashboard provides access to your business and ad account, credit card, spending limits, target audiences, and advertising campaigns. It’s very good to get acquainted with it and set up your business and ad account information. Though it is not necessary to have if you want to simply “boost” a post every once in a while.
The best way I’ve found is to create a new personal profile as a separate account; that’s completely separate from your existing or private personal account. This will allow you access to your business page and provide some business boundaries. I also recommend setting up your newsfeed to provide news and monitor partners as well as your competition. Also in this article, we’ll get familiar with your business page settings, insights, and strategy (my favorite) using the Facebook user-interface that you’ve come to know and love.
This strategy can also be useful for Social Media Managers and any office personnel who would like to keep their private accounts unlinked from a business page account.
The following instructions are fitted for those who have a business page set up already.
Step 1: Create A New Account
First, log out of your old account. Then setup a new account on the login page.
Use a name or alias for your new business account. I tend to use different variations of my name. Enter an email address that is different from your private personal account (an email that was previously used on Facebook). Be sure to set your birthday to something that is similar to yours or your target audience age range. And unfortunately, Facebook is binary, so pick the gender that may align more with your business’ target audience.
Facebook will require you to enter a code that will authenticate through a notification on your smart phone’s Facebook app.
Enter in the 6 digit code, click continue, and a pop up notification will show “Account Confirmed”.
Step 2: Make the New Personal Account an Admin of the Business Page
Log out of your newly created personal account, and log into your old or existing personal account.
Go to the business page > Settings tab > Settings dashboard > Page Roles.
Enter the email you used to set up the new account or the username you of the new account. I find that entering the new email works better in this case. Facebook notifications tend to get lost in my experience. Also, there have been times in doing this quickly where the incorrect user was added. If this happens, all you have to do is scroll down, find the incorrect user account and cancel the invitation.
Click the dropdown to assign the new user as a Admin. If this grays out the email, you will need to re-enter the email then click on the Add button.
Important: log out of your old personal account and log into your new personal account.
You got mail! You should receive an email from Facebook. Click on the button in the email which will direct you to the business manager portal.
Type in the name that you would like to be identified as in the business manager. I choose the name that I used on my new account setup. In step 2, Facebook will ask to verify your password of your new account.
Now you can login under your new personal and disconnected account. To disconnect your old personal profile and account, go to settings > page roles and delete your old user profile that’s listed.
DO NOT add anyone as a friend, accept friend requests, or like any posts.
Of course you can add friends if you really wanted to, though that defeats the purpose of having a business-only account. Now if the friend you are adding is an influencer or partner, that could be considered as business. Though, even most influencers have a business page separate from their personal page. Consider if it’s important to add that person and is it going to provide relevant content for your business. You can choose to not use the newsfeed at all. Or use your business account newsfeed strategically. In the next step, I’m going to show you how this newsfeed can act as your go-to source for content curation, cross-promotion, and help you keep your eyes on the competition.
Step 3: Content Curation For Your Business Account Newsfeed
Personally, I enjoy having my business and personal life as separate as possible. I find it hard to focus on my business when there’s so much happening in my newsfeed posted by friends, ads from businesses…there’s so much going on. By following these rules, you will find less commotion in your newsfeed.
- Do not add friends, even if Facebook recommends you do.
- Do not Like any post or page. This can help avoid ads being delivered to your feed.
- Follow pages and channels as opposed to Like-ing them.
As a business, I’m sure you already have a eye on your partners and the competition. So, let’s reinforce that logic by curating your newsfeed in your business profile account.
First, visit a page that you would like to follow. Under the cover photo click on the “Follow” button. If it’s very important that you see every post from that page, select “See First” by clicking on the drop down menu. This way when you log in to your business profile, you will see these posts first before any other.
Do this for every page you would like to follow in your feed. This could be a community group, partner page, or competition page. I also like to add current events and media companies that create content that aligns with my target audience.
Hope this helps you to make your mark and rock it on Facebook. By creating business boundaries, we can be more productive and possibly get inspired along the way.
I love it. Great ideas and exactly what i needed to read. Cheers.
Yay! So glad to hear it was what you needed! Cheers!
Thanks for sharing this wonderful page. It has genuinely helped me.
I’m so glad it helped! Thank you so much for your comment!
Thanks for sharing
You made some very nice facts here. I’ll try to follow your blog as you’ve certainly shown us a few important things fella. Peace and blessing!!
Hi, thank you for the kind words. Glad it was helpful for you!
I want to separate two.already established pages — my personal from my business without starting over…
There may be other ways to do this, but so far, the steps I’ve outlined in this process are the best way to have your personal profile separate from your business page.
Grrr, A blog is had by me personally on my website and it sucks.
I actually
removed it, but may have to bring it back. You gave me inspiration!
Continue writing!
Thank you! Yes, continue writing and glad I inspired you to bring it back.
1 arnt you breaking their rules by having 2 personal accounts?
2. You will need also 2 phone nr ?!
3. If the other account used for business has your real name, people who want to be your friends would not know who is really you.
Hello, thanks for the great questions. 1. I’m not sure where the rules are that say that this is against the rules. I think it’s reasonable to keep my personal and business profiles separate. 2. I didn’t connect my phone number to my personal account. Though I did use my business phone number for my business account. 3. I’ve instant messaged people who asked to be friends (if I knew them) on my business account, and explained that I have a personal account that they connect with. This hasn’t been a problem so far 🙂 Hope this helps and thank you for your comment.
What about your phone number? Should you use a different phone number?.What about IP address?
I’d recommend using a different phone number than your personal phone number.
I have a question, I hope it is ok, if I follow the above steps will I then be able to post to a group from my business profile as I cant at the moment as I cant post from my business page to a group only from my private profile.
I’m not to sure, though I’ve been able to post to a group with my business profile if my business is set up as admin. This Facebook help article may provide more info: https://www.facebook.com/help/465690686905994/
Hi, thanks for guiding through. I yet to set up but do u mind for me to ask few questions see if my understanding correct before I proceed?
1) By logout newly created accounts and login old accounts to set as admin, the purpose of this action is to enable one fb apps to control and view both accounts correct?
(Currently I’m thinking not to remain two accounts because afraid that need both phone to maintain both fb apps)
2) I do have two phone number. Does it means that I can create two fb accounts without going to fb fans page?
(currently I’m having a business page accounts linked to my personal fb accounts, but I’m thinking to split my personal fb to : “personal” & “personal – business”. Reason being, Client sometimes do add our personal fb on top of like our business page. Hence some private trips or private post would like to limit from reaching client hence intends to get one personal – business
My two concerns as above. Can above queries being solved 🙏🏻 Thanks for your time.
You should be able to switch between the business profile and personal profiles on your phone app and on the desktop web versions of Facebook. I’m able to easily login to one and out of the other. I only have my business profile associated with an email address. I’m not sure I can advise on using two different phone numbers and what that looks like in this process. I believe Facebook has now included my phone number to be linked to both profile accounts. So when I tried to disable / delete my personal Facebook page, they locked me out of my business profile (which was a disaster). I hope that I’ve answered question #1 or shed some light. Unfortunately, I do not know the answer to #2.
I have my business page linked to my personal account. Now I want separate them, and be able to operate them independently. Any way to do that without affecting the contents of both accounts.
I recommend having another personal account / profile dedicated to business use by following the steps provided. There may be other ways to do this in the business manager.
I followed all of the steps but I never received the email that has the button to click that directs you to the business manager portal. What am I missing?
Hi Virginia, Thanks for your question. Facebook updates this process quite regularly. I recommend typing in business.facebook.com into your url to see if that directs you to the business manager. Hope this answers your question.
If this new personal account will be connected to the business account, other admins that are added, will they all be able to access just the business account?
My boss has his personal/business under the same email. So by following your steps, others accessing the new personal account will just have access to the business correct? And not my boss’s personal Facebook?
I hope I am making sense of what I am attempting to ask!
Hello! I recommend using two separate email accounts and creating a new profile that is not currently associated with the page. I’m not sure if it will work out the way you like with the same email or phone number on the account.
Hello, I have opened a FB account for business, completely seperate from my old personal account and with different email address and slightly different name. Even though there is no connection (I thought) between the 2, when I close 1, I can see the choice side by side for signing in to 1 or the other. That means that a connection between the 2 has been made automatically. Is this connection only visible to me or to others too? Thanks
Hi Peter,
Sounds like you’re on the right path. It’s true that facebook’s new sign-on allows multiple profiles to be linked and you can now switched back and forth. Though I do not believe the business page is linked to your personal profile in any way that will show the page to your friends. But the other ‘business’ profile that you used to create a business page… Facebook will recommend that your friends from your personal profile add you. So when people tried to add me as a friend, I denied their request and said that it wasn’t a profile profile, it’s for business if you’d like to divulge further. For my business profile, I didn’t want my newsfeed to be personal at all. Hope this helps!
thanks for the info. got a q, fb has banned all adv activity from my personal acct, don’t know why, they don’t explain.
can i set up a totally new acct for my business, using a new gmail address and skype # and, as you said, a modified version of my real name… all this without have a business page in fb? your info at the top said to use it if there already is a business page set up.
I want to use this acct strictly for running ads to a landing page outside of fb.
thanks again.
Kirt
I believe access to ads are only available for businesses and business pages. That’s how you gain access to boosting a post, is through the business page options.
I have been the admin for a business facebook page for 7 years. It is linked to my personal page. I now need to turn over the admin role to another person. But I cannot figure out how to do that since the password for both pages is the same as far as I remember,. I cannot find where on the business page I go to change the admin. Is this possible to do?
Hi Kathy, Please find the business page. If you aren’t logged into the profile associated with the business account, then you will need to log into the account that is linked. If it’s linked, the business page will allow you to follow the steps of changing and deleting admin roles. You can find more info on how to edit admin roles here. Hope this helps! https://www.facebook.com/help/187316341316631
Excellent article!! This approach can be used for professional business and to manage it from the same account. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
OUTSTANDING!!! and Right on Time!!!
Your article covered every question I have arrived at to take the next step in this business venture I have been entered in to.
I thank God for your knowledge and skill. Thank you Jenny Stern for sharing such a wealth of information. Much continued success to you.
Take care and stay safe.