Facebook Pages allow admins to post content as the Page or as a profile. This gives admins the flexibility to express both the brand voice and their personal voice. This can help you develop a public voice without compromising your personal opinions.
For example, admins of the National Wildlife Federation Facebook Page are invested and interested in conservation issues outside of their job description. They participate in nature-related activities on the weekends and after work because they sincerely care about protecting wildlife. As Facebook admins, they can post updates on recent legislation impacting wildlife conservation, and follow up those posts with personal comments as individuals.
How to switch between posting as a profile and posting as a Page
To post as a Page, first go to your Facebook Page and log in. When you log in to Facebook as a person using your profile and visit your Facebook Page, you automatically assume the voice of your Page when posting content to your Page and replying to commenters on your Page.
If you want to switch your voice to your personal profile and post as a person on your Page, simply click the Change to Your Name link.
The feature that allows you to switch between voices on your page is limited to your own Facebook Page. But what about posting on other Pages as your Page? The default setting for all Facebook users is that on Facebook Pages that they do not administrate, they post as people, not as a Page.
How to post as a Page on other Pages
Facebook also allows Facebook admins the ability to completely log out as a profile and log in as a Page. This gives marketers the ability to build a presence throughout Facebook by commenting on, liking, and sharing content from other Pages.
To log in as your Page, simply click the gear icon at the top of Facebook and select the Page that you’d like to log in as.
After making this switch, you can post as the Page you selected. You can comment on, like, and share updates from other Pages, post updates on other Pages, tag other Pages in updates on your Page (you must like their Page first), and tag other Pages in your photos (you must like their Page first).
When logged in as your Page, you can also view your Page’s News Feed. Your Page’s News Feed, which is different from your profile’s News Feed, shows you updates from all the Pages that you’ve liked as a Page. You can also comment on, like, and share updates directly in your Page News Feed in the same way you would if you were logged in with your personal profile.
Note that in the menu bar of Facebook (at the very top of any Facebook page), you can also view the latest notifications about fan activity, notifications about new fans, and even see a high-level overview of your Page Insights.
Posting as a profile should be a personal choice
Deciding whether Facebook admins should post as their personal profile is a choice you should make, not one mandated by your boss. The reason is that when someone posts on a Page as a profile, that person is potentially opening herself up to friend requests from fans, which may be unwanted. Managers should always respect privacy of one’s personal profile.
That said, if an admin is a recognized thought leader, trusted pundit, or well-known member of your Facebook Page community, allowing him to post as a profile will only enhance the relationship fans have with your organization.
The difference between being helpful and being spam
Just because you can post on another Page as a Page doesn’t mean it’s always the smartest thing to do. Many Facebook marketers make the common mistake of posting to another Page in an attempt to promote their business, but the result is that they come across as spam. Two factors can determine whether your post on another Page will be perceived as spam:
The community doesn’t know you. As a web marketer, you may believe that the content you’re posting on another Page is quite obviously useful. For example, an owner of a pet supply store running a promotion on cat food might think it’s harmless to post info about the promotion on a local animal shelter’s Facebook Page. Still, many of that Page’s fans will perceive that post as self-promoting.
The community doesn’t trust you. If Facebook fans on another Page don’t know you, they probably don’t trust you because you haven’t yet established that bond with them.
The obvious solution here is to become a trusted member of that Page community before even thinking about promoting your own agenda.
One way to do this is to reply to posts on that Page in a way that contributes to that post’s topic and supports the Page’s agenda. In the pet supply store example, the store owner could improve his standing on the animal shelter’s Facebook Page by replying to, say, a post about a new dog up for adoption, and in his comments, provide fans useful information about that breed.
The more the pet supply store owner follows the strategy, the more he (and his store) will get noticed by fans of that Page.
Another way to do this is to promote the other Page’s agenda on your own Facebook Page by mentioning that Page in status updates.
