Several of our clients have asked if they should use Facebook as a way to connect with clients. If you have a personal Facebook account and like to “share” on it, continue to do so, just not with your clients. For your clients, set up a Facebook Page. The difference is that a Facebook Page is for a business or organization or band, etc. This is where you connect as a professional, so you can separate your personal and professional sides of your life.

I use my Facebook page to keep up with friends, Ribit’s Facebook page is strictly professional. For instance, when I post this blog to the Ribit web site, I will also post a comment on Ribit’s FB Wall (for those that don’t use Facebook, the wall is where you post your comments) that I have posted a new blog and suggest that Ribit’s Fans check it out. Yes, you have friends that connect to your personal account, but you have Fans that connect to your Facebook Page for your business.

I know it is all a little confusing separating personal and professional, but it is worth it. Once you have 1000 Fans for your Page you can get a vanity URL for your Page to make it easier for people to find your Page. A vanity URL is where instead of having a random set of numbers assigned as your page id, you can set your own id as long as no one registered it with Facebook before you did. Ribit still needs several more Fans before we will be getting our very own vanity URL.