We've been reviewing many Facebook accounts recently. The one thing we continue to see is an inconsistency between how jewelers are using their personal Facebook profiles for both business and personal things.
Our view continues to be that you need to pick one or the other. If for personal use, then lock your profile and only allow personal friends, family and other professionals within the jewelry industry to become Facebook friends. But don't allow customers or employees to friend you.
On the other hand, if you choose to keep your personal life off Facebook then go right ahead and allow your customers to friend your personal account.
If customers are connected to your personal account, then avoid political postings and comments, as well as overly posting about your personal life.
Political commentary is okay if it also touches on things which impact your business, like new regulations about cadmium or new money laundering laws which regulate buying or selling gold. But consistently commenting about political views will drive away customers who disagree with you.
Occasionally posting about your family, like a birthday or anniversary announcement, is okay. Other good personal posts could be about your child if you are a proud parent, or giving a speech at some family-related function. But keep them few and far between. You might be a very happy and excited first time parent, but don't overly post every detail about your baby's first diaper, words, steps, etc. Again, this will drive away customers.
We'd love to have a personal profile and a business profile on Facebook to keep our lives separated, but Facebook's Terms of Service says no, not allowed. Only 1 profile per real person.
So make a choice. Do you want to use your personal Facebook profile for professional branding that helps put food on the table? Or do you want to use Facebook to tell your friends how your kid threw the food off the table?
