In the presentations at the 2017 ASI conference on online presence, there were various views on using Facebook–a business page or a personal page. Do you have clients on your personal page? Do you have only a business page?

I value my personal Facebook page as a place to have connections with people I don’t see often–other indexers and friends. I do have long-standing clients as friends on my Facebook page. I don’t view that as unprofessional or inappropriate, nor do I view my personal page as a place to get business–though it has happened.

I view my personal page as keeping in contact–like being able to sit down to visit over a cup of coffee (or other beverage). It’s casual. I’m casual, too, but not about business. However, good, repeat clients also become friends. If I were to meet them as I was walking by a cafe I’d be likely to invite them to join me for a cup of coffee or tea or whatever, just to catch up as I would another friend.

I think our choices about using Facebook depend on our business personality–mine is pretty casual and even my blog includes pictures of the cat and comments on my bees; clients on your personal page may be inappropriate for the nature of your business. That’s the great thing about the internet, blogging, and social media–we have a lot of freedom in how we use it in the way best suited for our business.

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