If I could get a dollar for every time someone asks how do I convert my profile to a fanpage, I’d be retired by now. Unfortunately, facebook doesn’t allow you to convert from one to another. I’ve run into many clients lately who create a personal profile for themselves and/or a personal profile for their business and spend countless hours friending everybody they know and don’t know in hopes of networking with them. They do a great job networking and utilizing social media to promote their business with their business profile, but one  becomes limited in capabilities and then you loose most of your “friends” when you start a fanpage for your business.

I can’t blame folks for using their profile for their business, because they see everyone else doing it and it is pretty easy to find some facebook friends by searching for them or checking out your friends friend’s and then friending them – yikes that’s a lot of time friending. What about time management for social media (shelf that subject for another blog post)?

I can’t blame folks because that is the way they were taught to network. After all, if you go to a business networking function that is what you do – hand out your cards and meet/greet as many people as possible. It just seems quicker and easier to sit in front of a computer and speed friend on facebook to make all those connections.

But folks, its time to take a step back and realize what social media truly is and how to use facebook as a tool to engage, entice, and keep the conversation going. For those using their profile for there business, it is time to cut the cord and start developing your facebook fanpage and then update your profile with a note and link to your latest and greatest facebook fan page.

Here is what you can do with a fanpage, but you can’t do with a profile:

1. Custom Landing Page - A landing page is the equivelant to the home page on your website – its the first page users go to. An effective landing page will increase the number of people to “like” your page and keep them updated.

2. Oddles of Applications – A facebook application is like a “plug-in” which you can add to your fan page. There are tons of applications that have been developed and you can decide which ones work best for your business. For example, if you are using Google Calendar you can use that application to add to your fan page. Every time you update the calender the fan page gets updated – voila!

3. Customized Tabs - With a facebook page you can use applications to create new tabs which appear to the right of the wall tab. For example, if  you are a retailer and sell products you could create a tab to sell your merchandise directly from your facebook page. If you are a restaurant, you can post your menu and sell gift cards.

These are just a few things you can do with a facebook page that you can’t do with your business profile. With your creativity, there are a lot more things you can do. So with the end of the year its time to say good bye to the old and welcome in your new fanpage.