In an era of social media, Facebook has become one of many ways to stay in contact with family and friends or to market your company, product or service while staying in touch with customers. There are millions of users who use different social media websites to interact with their friends and family, and guess who is leading? Yes, Facebook. As a number one social media website in terms of use, and number of users, it has become critical for businesses to have a professional appearance on the most used social media website. Facebook allows businesses to use a more customized Facebook Fan Page while Facebook Personal Page is normally used by the ordinary users. So what is the major difference between the two?

What is the difference?

In simple words a Facebook personal page is for people while a Facebook fan page is for businesses.

Facebook personal accounts are for individuals to connect with family and friends who you know in real life. On your personal page you can join groups, play games and connect with other people.

The Facebook business account is obviously for businesses, small or large. There are many interesting features for businesses to use enticing customers to purchase goods from their website or store. Businesses will not have a personal profile tied to their account.

One thing to note is, you may create a business account if you do not already have a personal Facebook account. Managing multiple accounts on Facebook is a violation of their Terms of Use.

Why Facebook fan Pages are increasing?

It is simple, you may want to share your personal activities with your family or friends but you might not find it comfortable to share certain information with clients or colleagues. In such cases, A Facebook page helps people like bloggers, artists and small business owners to separate personal and business interests. Even popular college teachers, owner of popular local bakeries or a local plumber may have to start a separate fan page to cater to the increasing number of requests.

Marketing tool.

A fan page is designed as an effective marketing tool for any business while personal profiles are just for interacting with friends and families. In fact, if anyone wants to use his personal profile for business promotion, it is a direct violation of Facebook terms. You may try to do this, but sooner or later, Facebook is going to delete your entire profile. So when it comes to business marketing, it is better to use a Facebook fan page. There are hundreds of thousands of Facebook fan pages today owned by nonprofits, businesses, bands, brands, websites, bloggers, sports teams, celebrities, local leaders, etc.

Pages like that become so effective in marketing that even small businesses are hiring professionals to manage and promote their business through a Facebook page. Unlike Facebook groups or personal pages, search engines can index the Facebook Fan page. It is a great way to direct traffic from Facebook to your main website to increase sales.

The number of followers with the Facebook Personal page is limited to only 5000 but a Facebook Fan page can have unlimited number of fans. It also allows you to use the same profile to run several different fan pages for different products or different businesses. In a nutshell, Facebook Personal profile is for social interactions with friends, family and colleagues while Facebook fan page is an effective marketing tool for businesses.