Migrate Your Facebook Profile to a Business (Fan) Page

Facebook has done something that should have probably been done a long time ago. You can now migrate your personal profile to a business or fan page.

Many businesses, and individuals whose business brand is themselves, have used personal profile accounts for their businesses. This has been problematic for them for a number of reasons, one of the most significant being the limitation of 5,000 “friends.” Now that can all go away.

I might mention that from my reading (I haven’t personally migrated a page, so I’m relying on the information of those who have), it appears there’s a loss of much of the data in one’s profile during this process. “Friends” are converted into “Likes,” but past there it seems pictures, posts, and profile data are wiped clean. And there is no reversal of the process once it’s been executed.

For all the details, read this informative blog from InsideFacebook.com and check out Facebook’s Help Center, which offers information on all the facets of the migration. If you choose to migrate your page, you can find the migration tool here.

I’ll watch these migrations with great interest. As with any such change, there will be those who benefit from it greatly, and those who will migrate, only to find myriad reasons they should have stayed with their original profile. I already see hiccups in such a move for the majority of people who have used their profiles for a mix of personal and business use.

Here’s to your social networking success!

Bryan Waldon Pope