Finally…Easy Migration of Facebook Pages

mashable.com

When you set up the Facebook page for your school, did you think you’d be better off using a “Profile” page instead of a fan page? Well, most of us now know that Facebook doesn’t look too kindly on this workaround. And, if they catch businesses masquerading as people, they’ll shut down your page altogether!

But, you’ve spent all this time building up your “friends” and now you can’t imagine having to start over with a new page, right?

If you’ve been playing the waiting game on transitioning your school’s Facebook presence, your procrastination has paid off! Facebook just implemented a tool to make your life MUCH easier.

Facebook just released a tool to help you convert your personal profile to a fan page! This great article from Mashable explains it all.

In addition to being “in compliance” with Facebook, the benefits of a fan page over a profile are things like:

No limit to fans. Facebook profiles have a limit of 5,000 friends.
No game requests. Sorry, Farmville lovers.
Easier for alumni, parents, students, faculty, etc. to get in touch, as you don’t have to approve requests like you do on a profile.
Now that you can post on Facebook fan pages as the organization or as yourself, they’re more flexible than ever!

As the Mashable article indicates, the transition from a profile to a page is not reversible, so make sure you grab anything that can’t be replaced just in case you hit a glitch. But it’s so worth it. It’ll make your Facebook time management much more efficient, and your users’ experiences will be greatly improved!

About the Author

Jennifer Milikien

Jennifer is a graduate of Texas A&M University and has an MBA from The University of Texas at San Antonio. She has worked in the marketing and public relations field for more than 12 years and has extensive experience in non-profit, financial services, education, healthcare and newspapers. She has won awards from the Texas Public Relations Association for public relations tactics and planning and for magazine writing and editing. She serves on the board of the Public Relations Society of America's San Antonio Chapter.

http://twitter.com/wstites William Stites

The one issue with the Profile to Page and the debate we’ve had at our school (We have a Page not a Profile) is the lack of being about to see “Friend” level data with a Page and the limitations this may cause. It also got us talking about the Facebook Terms of Service and what they really say.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1240537697 Jennifer Duplantis Milikien

Fabulous point, Bill. And you’re right…that is one major disadvantage. If you’re an alumni group looking to reconnect with (and, let’s be honest, collect data from) your alumni, then a profile could be a great way to have access to your “friends’” information. I would just reiterate that IF Facebook discovers your profile should, in fact, be a page, you could get shut down, which is decidedly worse than operating a page correctly. I admit I don’t know how aggressive Facebook is being with checking into existing profiles, but personally I wouldn’t want to take any chances. My guess would be you won’t come to Facebook’s attention unless you hit the 5,000-friend limit, though. If anyone has an answer to that would love to know it!