Use Separate Accounts
The easiest way to keep your personal and business Facebook pages separate is to create two separate accounts – one for personal use and one for your business. Having distinct accounts allows you to customize the privacy settings, page content, friends/followers, and overall experience for each audience. Many social media experts recommend maintaining this separation.
To create a separate business account:
- Sign up for a new Facebook account using your business email address and information
- Choose a specific page name just for your business (ex: “ABC Company” instead of your personal name)
- Select Facebook’s “Business or Creator” account type when going through the sign-up process
Managing two different accounts takes more time but provides the most clear separation. Log out of your personal account before accessing your business account to post updates, engage with customers, analyze insights, etc.
Adjust Privacy Settings
If you prefer having just one Facebook account, you can still achieve some separation through your privacy settings.
Go to “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings” and scroll down to the “Privacy” section. Here you can control:
- Who can see your friends list
- Who can look you up using your phone number or email address
- Who can see posts you’re tagged in on your timeline
- Who sees the people, pages and lists you follow
- Who can see your future posts
For maximum privacy, limit the audience on future posts to “Only Me” and restrict old posts whenever possible. This ensures only you can view the personal content you share.
Meanwhile, maintain a more open sharing strategy for your business page that followers can see.
Use Lists to Separate Friends & Followers
The Friends List feature on Facebook allows you to group connections into different lists. You could create a “Business Contacts” list separate from your list of close Friends and Family for example.
When sharing personal posts, choose the specific list you want it visible to rather than posting publicly. This lets you share certain info only with your personal connections.
At the same time, you can target business updates to your broader public followers list that includes professional contacts, customers, and coworkers.
Leverage Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups provide more opportunities to segment your audiences. Consider creating:
- A private group just for family members to share personal updates
- A private group for your company employees to discuss internal topics
- A public group for your business brand that customers can join
Use your personal profile to engage with the private family and employee groups. Then switch to your business page to manage the public customer group.
Choose Page Roles Thoughtfully
When you create a Facebook Business page, you can assign different roles to help manage content. Be thoughtful about who fulfills what role based on the personal vs professional separation you want to maintain.
For example, you may want to:
- Assign a social media manager as an Admin on your business page to post updates, respond to customers, analyze data, etc.
- Add yourself as just an Editor so you can make backend changes but aren’t publicly listed as posting on behalf of the business
This allows you to strategically shape your business page while retaining separation from your personal account.
Use Ads Manager for Paid Campaigns
If you want to run paid advertising campaigns for your business, use Facebook Ads Manager instead of boosting posts directly from your personal profile.
Ads Manager allows you to:
- Create and analyze ads under your Facebook Business page identity
- Prevent personal profile information from being associated with business ads
- Add other ad account administrators without granting them full page access
This maintains clearer lines between your personal life and paid business marketing efforts.
Follow Best Practices for Engagement
Even with separate accounts, be mindful of blending too much personal and professional content as you interact with others.
Some best practices include:
- Avoid friending coworkers, customers, vendors on your personal account
- Keep personal conversations off your business page feed
- Post personal updates without tagging your business page
- Comment and like others’ posts “as yourself” not your business
These small steps help reinforce the distinction between your individual vs brand presence. Monitor notifications and be selective in what you engage with from each account.
Conclusion
Keeping your personal and business Facebook presences separate takes forethought but has many advantages. Following privacy best practices, using tools like lists and groups strategically, and maintaining different accounts or personas allows you to engage authentically with family and friends as well as build your brand community. Taking the time to segment your digital identities helps shape the appropriate experience for each of your audiences on Facebook.