How to Convert Facebook Personal Profile to a Fan/Business Page

Facebook added the ability to convert your Personal Profile Page to a business page. The business pages use to be called “Fan Pages.” Although Facebook has officially changed the name, many of us still refer to them as Fan Pages.

This is great news for people who incorrectly setup a personal page as a business page. Setting up and maintaining a profile for anything other than an individual person is a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights & Responsibilities. If you don’t convert your profile to a page you will run the risk of permanently losing access to the profile and all of the associated content.

Below are details you need to know about converting your personal page to a business page. I have included direct links to the Facebook help section and instructions for converting the profile. I highly encourage you to review all of the associated material BEFORE converting your page. It is a permanent action. Do NOT expect help from Facebook if you inadvertently convert a page.

The Scenario:
1. You were new to Facebook and didn’t understand the terms and conditions. You setup a Personal Profile as a business page.
2. The second possibility is that you did understand the Facebook terms and conditions but chose to setup a Personal Profile as your business profile anyway. You assumed the risk and knew at some point you would have to deal with the situation. Well, that time is now friends.

How to Know if You Have a Business Page or a Personal Profile?
The number #1 way you can tell if your page is a personal profile and not an official business page is if you can send and accept friend requests. Only personal profiles are enabled to send and receive friend requests. Business pages can only have “likes”.

How to Convert Your Personal Profile to a Business Page:
1. Review the Facebook Help Section on this Topic here
2. Notify the friends of your personal profile page that you will be converting the page to a business page as required by Facebook terms and conditions.
3. Make a back-up of your personal profile information prior to the conversion. All of your personal profile information will not be transferred to the new business page nor saved by default. It is your responsibility to save and back-up this information if you want to keep a copy. You can learn how to back-up and copy the information here.
4. Complete the conversion process paying close attention to every detail. The conversion is permanent and you will lose data during conversion if you do not perform a back-up.
5. Develop and execute a marketing, engagement and post-like plan on your new business page that supports your business goals and objectives.  Remember, it’s what happens after the like that matters. You may need to work to keep some of your prior “friends” as “likers.”  Communication is key in providing value for them to continue to “like” your new business page.
6. Don’t forget to change any redirect urls and domains you had pointing to your personal page. Make note also of any business cards, email signatures, social networks which included the old url path.

Why Convert the Personal Profile Page You Have Been Using as a Business Page to an Official Facebook Business Page? 
1. Maintaining the business page as a personal profile is a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights & Responsibilities.
2. If you don’t convert your page to a business page you increase your risk of permanently losing all of your content and access to the page all together.

What Happens Upon Conversion?
1. All of your profile pictures will be transferred to the new business page.
2. All of your content will NOT be transferred to the new business page.  Information such as photo albums, profile information will not be transferred.
3. All of your friends on the personal page will automatically become “likers” on the new business page.
4. The account associated with your old personal profile will be converted to a business account.
5. The business account will be the sole admin of your new page until you add another admin.

What Personal Information is Downloaded During the Back-Up Process?

• Personal profile information (groups, information, interests, contacts etc.)
• Photos & videos
• Wall posts
• Status updates
• Content that your friends have uploaded
• Friend lists
• Notes
• Messages sent and received
• Events that you have RSVPd for
• Comments you have received and made on walls, photos etc.

Success Tips & Important Reminders:

1. The conversion is permanent.
2.  You can NOT transfer your personal profile page to an existing business page (fan page).
3. If you are using a personal page as a business page, I highly encourage you to complete the conversion to a business page.  I have seen many people lose their pages due to breaking the terms of personal vs. business pages. Don’t risk it! It is better to do it when you are in control than if Facebook decides to do it for you!


Original Article on Pammarketingnut.com

Facebook Stance on Music Marketing?

@SF Music Tech: Beware of Powerful Online Platforms, Lawyers Say
By Glenn Peoples, San Francisco, CA



Music services may have other issues lurking beneath the copyright mess, explained panelists at the SF Music Tech Summit on Monday. Because a few large companies are dominant access points, they can have the ability to exert a great deal of control over music companies.

For example, Facebook frequently changes its rules, explained Topspin Media’s Jan D’Alessandro. To stay within these rules, service providers need to make sure they are operating on safe ground.

Artists Cannot Incentivize Users Fans on Facebook

“One of the recent changes they made is that you cannot incentivize users to take any action on Facebook. For instance, you can’t say, ‘Become a friend and we’ll give you something for free.’” That means brands, artists and labels need to be careful how they structure promotions and giveaways. “They’re very powerful and they’re very aware of that power.”

That ability to shut off an access point like Facebook can be more powerful -- and move much faster -- than copyright law, explained Milt Olin of Altschul & Olin. A service with broad terms of use -- even broader than copyright law -- can shut off a company in violation of those rules, and in the process shut off vital access to fans and consumers.

“I think one of the things that’s problematic for us as a copyright society is that you’re seeing those limitations be broader (than copyright law) and actually enforceable. All of a sudden, you’ve got terms of use and licensing policies and privacy policies that trump copyright.”

Mark Lemley of Stanford Law School and Durie Tangri concurred with Olin. “As we move to a couple of platforms that you really have to be on in order to succeed on the Internet, the difficulty becomes you can suddenly just not be there anymore.”

Original Article posted on Billboard

Facebook launched "Places" a location feature

Image by Steve Snodgrass

This year has mostly been tagged by bloggers and social media experts as the year of location. This has been proven true as many brands are now spending a considerable amount of their marketing and sales efforts leveraging on its capabilities to their advantage.

With services like Foursquare and Gowalla currently at the top of the geolocation heap, you have to wonder where the usually forward-facing Facebook is in the location ethos. While the company has forayed into other social media avenues, location seems to be a field they have yet to jump into.

Sure, there have been rumors of some location functionality being cooked up in the FB Web dev labs for months but it’s only today that the social networking giant responded with a feature aptly called Facebook Places.
 
Facebook Places does the GPS check-in hoedown with the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla as it lets you specify where you are exactly for all your friends to see. Like these services, you can declare your location with a Check In button from a list of places in your area or add your location if it’s nowhere in the list. You can even add additional info ala-status message along with your check-in.
Unlike the aforementioned services, Places has a tagging feature which lets you identify the people you are with the same way you can tag them on a wall post or photo. Similarly, you can also see a list of friends who happen to be nearby in their People Here Now section.

Once checked in, your check-in will be posted in your friends’ News Feeds and will then appear on the Recent Activity section of that location’s Facebook page.

Naturally, as you will be declaring your location and citing the other people you are with, there will always be privacy concerns that come tied with geolocation, especially given Facebook’s recent privacy debacle. Michael Sharon, Facebook’s product manager for Places addressed this issue when he explained the People Here Now feature in his recent post on the Facebook official blog .

“In the “People Here Now” section, you can see others who are checked in with you at that place. This section is visible for a limited amount of time and only to people who are checked in there.” Sharon said. “If you prefer not to appear in this section, you can control whether you show up by unchecking the “Include me in ‘People Here Now’ after I check in” privacy control.”

To access Facebook Places, you’ll need to download the latest version of Facebook app from the Apple App Store or simply head for their mobile site touch.facebook.com on your iPhone, iPhod touch or iPad and is already available for use within the US. The service will be opened for other mobile platforms and to more countries soon.
With the Zuck and company now attempting to take a chunk out of the geolocation mindshare, they’re obviously stepping on Gowalla and Foursquare’s toes. And it looks like we’ve come to witness what may or may not be the start of both services being dangerously close to getting wolfed down by the social giant.
However, rather than battle it out on the check-in arena, these two services are doing the smart thing: they’re partnering with Facebook. It’s a logical decision as Facebook, needless to say, has an obvious advantage with their number of users; still hot off their recent 500 millionth user milestone celebration.

In fact, both companies were speakers at the Facebook Places unveiling over at the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Both shared how they’re looking forward to working with the social network, mentioning that their interface would remain the same and some of their elements like badges and stamps would also be appearing on Places. Gowalla even prefaced the announcement with a tweet yesterday, saying that check-ins with their service that are allowed to be posted on Facebook will automatically be tagged as check-ins instead of simple status updates.

Also onboard with Places are Yelp , location-based social game developer Booyah! and Bing which will be providing integrations with their Maps property providing cartographic visuals.


Original Article found on Socialmediamarketing.com