Converting Your Personal Facebook Account to a Facebook Page

You might be like many business owners who started using a personal Facebook profile to promote there business. Unfortunately this is against Facebook guidelines so you’ll want to address this issue ASAP to avoid the risk of losing your contacts or account all together.

On August 1, 2012 Facebook announced that there are more than 83 Million fake and duplicate accounts, making up nearly 9 percent of its monthly user base. These accounts consist of…

Duplicate Accounts,
Misclassified Accounts and
Undesirable Accounts

Facebook has been very proactive in deleting these accounts so you’ll want to address this issue now if you fall in the Misclassified Account.

Why should I convert my personal account to a Facebook Page?

Since personal accounts are meant for individual people, they aren’t suited to meet your business needs. Pages offer more robust features for organizations, businesses, brands and organizations.The reality is that personal accounts are limiting. Here are 7 great reasons to convert your personal account to a Facebook business page:

Your business page will give you access to Facebook Insights which gives you tons of data about your fans.
With Facebook tabs, you can use apps to express yourself and communicate your brand message by sharing more details about who you are. You can provide a Welcome tab that includes a video introduction, special offers, featured products, contest details, a newsletter opt-in form, etc. You’ll be able to properly position your brand on Facebook for ultimate success.
You can create viral buzz about your business by sharing Facebook Offers. This is the official way to promote your deals and offers to your audience. This strategy has a built in viral factor because when your fans claim your offer, their friends become aware of this activity via their news feed.
You won’t be limited to 5,000 friends or connections like you are with a personal account.
Facebook pages have access to a great tool called ‘Native Facebook Scheduling’. This feature let’s you pre-schedule updates for a future date and time.
Facebook gives you the ability to connect your page to a place and as a result you can list the days and hours of operation which are visible under your Cover Photo. Visitors can also check-in on your page much like checking-in on Four Square.
Avoid having your account shut down by Facebook.

How do I convert my personal account to a Facebook Page?

When you convert your personal account to a Facebook Page, Facebook will transfer your current profile picture and add all your friends and subscribers as people who like your Page. Your personal account’s username will become the username of your new Facebook Page and the name associated with your personal account will become your Page’s name.No other content will be carried over to your new Page, so be sure to save any important content before beginning the conversion:

Log into Facebook using the exact personal account that you wish to migrate to a business page. Please double check this—as the results are permanent and you wouldn’t want to disrupt the wrong personal page.
Download your timeline information. You can download a file that contains all of your sent and received messages and all of the photos and videos you’ve uploaded to Facebook. Click here to learn more about downloading your timeline information.
You’ll want to appoint a new group admin to any groups you manage. You’ll be unable to manage groups once the conversion begins.
Change your profile name and address, if necessary. If you have an active business Page that you’ll eventually want to merge the new Page with, you’ll need to setup the new Page as a duplicate to make the merge process run smoothly later. So you’ll want to change the profile name and physical address of the new Page to be the same as the Page you plan to merge it with. Go to Account Settings to change your name. Go to your profile and click Update Info to access your address. (If you don’t have an already active business Page, you can skip this part.)
Convert your personal Facebook Profile to a business Page.
Merge your new Facebook business Page with any existing Page, if you have one.

Here is how to merge two existing, duplicate Pages, according to Facebook:

Go to the Page with the most likes. This will be the one you’ll keep.
From the top of your Page, click Edit Page
Select Update Info
From the left sidebar, select Resources.
Click the Merge duplicate Pages link. This link will only appear if you admin two Pages with similar names.
A dialogue will show Pages you admin that qualify to be merged. Select the Page(s) you wish to merge. If you’re merging Pages with a location, they must have the same address information.

Will all the content on my timeline be transferred when I convert my personal account to a Page?

When you convert your personal account to a Page, some things will be automatically transferred for you:

All your confirmed friends and subscribers will be converted to people who like your new Page
Your current profile picture will become your Page’s picture.
Your username will become your Page’s username
You’ll remain the admin of any Facebook Pages you managed

When you’re ready, start converting your personal account to a Facebook Page.