Is my Facebook business page separate from my personal page?

So now, you have associated your Facebook Profile with a Facebook Page, don’t mind using both platforms to boost your business brand and visibility. It seems like Facebook is doing you a huge favor with its revolution, right? But what if we are to separate private network circle from business page? Is that even possible?

We can modify our privacy level and adhere to several precautions, but there is no 100% satisfactory when it comes to separating the two. Although some people don’t mind adding their Workplace to their Profile’s info, there are still concerns about how private we can get if we are to separate work life from our personal life.

That is, until Facebook Business Manager comes along and changed the ball game entirely.

But, before we go any further…

Table of Contents

• Can You Create a Facebook Page WITHOUT a Personal Profile?
• How to Protect Your Facebook Profile from Facebook Page?
• What is Facebook Business Manager (or Facebook Business Suite/Meta Business Suite) and Why do I Need One?
• How to Create a Facebook Business Manager (Meta Business Suite) Account?
• How to Add Facebook Pages into Business Account?
• How to Invite People to Join Your Business Manager Account?
• How to Resend Business Account Invitation to Someone?
• Where to Find My Business ID?
• How to Delete a Business Account?
• Why I Can’t Create a New Facebook Business Manager Account?
• Workaround: How to Create a Business Manager Account (For New Facebook User)
• How to Protect Your Facebook Profile from Business Contacts (through Privacy Checkup)

Can You Create a Facebook Page WITHOUT a Personal Profile?

The answer is No. If you’re new to Facebook, you will need to sign up a new Facebook account (a.k.a. Facebook Profile) before you can create a Facebook Page. Same goes with a Business Manager account, even if you’re not too keen on getting social on Facebook.

But since having a Facebook Page can be beneficial to promote your business (and it’s SEO-friendly at the same time), it’s worth the effort to setup one while at the same time, learn as much as you can when it comes to securing your personal profile.

How to Protect Your Facebook Profile from Facebook Page?

The easiest way to do this is to create a Facebook Business Manager account to manage your Facebook Page, while at the same time, tighten up the security of your Facebook Profile from public viewing/strangers. Which is why, we’ll be focusing on Part 1 here to setup a Business Account, while Part 2, securing your Facebook Profile from unwanted attention as much as we can.

Part 1:

What is Facebook Business Manager (or Facebook Business Suite/Meta Business Suite) and Why do I Need One?

Simply put, Business Manager (Facebook Business Suite/Meta Business Suite) is a tool to manage your business or assets, this includes your Facebook Pages or (linked) Instagram business account.

Meta Business Manager makes it super convenient if you have multiple Facebook pages and would like to manage them with other people; assigning different roles and even creating more than one ad account. Other advantages including:

• Easy to manage if you have multiple businesses/pages or Instagram assets and need to create separate ad account for them.
• Assigning roles to people, workers or agency to manage your page without having to given up your personal account details.
• If you are an ad manager who’s actively serving clients and require access to their pages; create different reports to track the performance of your ads, or even using different payment methods for different ad accounts.

Business Manager is a secure way to manage your Facebook Pages if you would like to keep them separated from your personal Facebook Profile. When you joined, your colleagues won’t be able to view your personal Facebook Profile unless they are your Facebook friends. It’s up to you to decide whether or not to accept their friend requests if they ever send you one.

Can they still find your profile on Facebook? Possible. But you will have the control on what they can see with a few settings adjusted (Part 2). Otherwise, they can only see your name, work email address, Facebook Pages/ad account you’re co-managing with them.

Bear in mind, only two Business Manager accounts can be created from one Facebook Profile so do plan wisely.

How to Create a Facebook Business Manager (Meta Business Suite) Account?

The process of creating a business account is quite similar to a personal profile.

1.  Go to Meta Business Suite and create a new account.

You will be asked to log in. Create a new account using ‘Sign up for Facebook’ if you have not owned a Facebook Profile. If you already have one, just ‘Log In’ will do.

2.  Now, create your business account by entering your business name, your (work) name and (work) email address. These are the (public/work) info you’re comfortable to share when cooperating with other people/agencies.

Enter your business details, then click ‘Submit’.

Now, you will need to confirm your email address before you can receive full access to your Business account. Once you’re done, you can start adding Facebook Pages to your business account before assigning roles to other people in managing it.

3.  Go to Meta Business Suite and in the left column, click the drop down menu and look for the newly created Business Account.

(Note: If you haven’t confirmed your email add, your Business account will remain dormant and you won’t be directed to the Business setting page.)

How to Add Facebook Pages into Business Account?

In ‘Business Settings‘, you can either add your Facebook Page or invite people on board first.

To add Facebook Pages (or assets) to your business account, go to Business settings > Accounts > Pages > Add a Page

As long as you’re the Page admin, you can add the Page without hassle. You can also Request Access to a Page or Create a New Page here as well.

How to Invite People to Join Your Business Manager Account?

Now that you’ve already added your page to the business account, if you’d like to add other Page admins to join you in this business account, you can do so on the spot:

1.  Business settings > Page > (Your Page Name) > in the ‘People‘ section, look for the Page admin and once you found him/her, click the down caret arrow to reveal ‘Invite to Business Account‘.

2.  If you’d like to invite someone who’s other than the Page admin, you can do so through their Business ID or email address. So here, as an example, I’m adding someone using their email address since that person is not the Page admin:

Go to Business settings > Users > People > then click ‘Add‘. (Choose ‘Partners‘ instead of ‘People‘ if you’d like to add business partner to your Business account)

3.  Enter the email address of the person you’re inviting and assign his/her business role. Select between Employee access or Admin access. Or, feel free to explore other additional roles that meet your requirement.

4.  Click ‘Invite‘ when you’re done assigning.

Let’s say if you’re employing someone to monitor your Page’s performance & comments but not posting, you can assign the person to do just that. That’s a major advantage since you don’t have to worry about them accessing too much info than they’re allowed to.

How to Resend Business Account Invitation to Someone?

Sometimes, due to technical error, the invitation email never reach the person you’re trying to invite. Another workaround to this is to send the person the invitation link directly.

To do so, go to Business Settings > People > look for the pending employee and click ‘Resend‘.

Here, you will be able to find the invitation link. You can either choose to ‘Resend Invitation‘ by email or, simply Copy the invitation link and send to your employee via chat, own email etc.

I find this to be an easier, more convenient method to solve the ‘waiting’ issue.

Where to Find My Business ID?

Sometimes you might be requested to provide your Business ID before you’re invited to another Business account. If so, you can look for your Business ID here:

Go to Facebook Business settings > Business info > (right column) Business Manager ID (Business ID)

How to Delete a Business Account?

Just in case you no longer need the Business Manager account, you can delete it. There are certain scenarios in which you won’t be able to do so right away, check through that and once the issues are resolved, you may proceed to delete it permanently.

Go to Facebook Business settings > Business info (at the left column) > Permanently Delete Business

Once the business account has been deleted, all connected accounts/tools will be returned to respective owners while some content will be deleted, permanently.

If you changed your mind, you can still cancel the deletion within 24 hours. After that, you will no longer be able to access the deleted business.

Go back to Facebook Business settings > Don’t Delete Business

Why I Can’t Create a New Facebook Business Manager Account?

If you are a brand new Facebook user, it’s likely that you won’t be able to create a new Business Manager account right away. This will work, for most cases, for existing/older Facebook Profiles.

If you’re sure that you’re not violating any naming regulations on Facebook and yet still unable to create a Business Manager account, it’s possible that your account is either unverified (via phone number) or just simply too new.

Why? Perhaps Facebook would like to make sure you’re a real person before you can create a Business Manager account. You may need to prove that by interacting and securing your account. Yes, I mean sending/receiving friend requests, liking, commenting, uploading pictures etc., and even adding a phone number to it. You’re telling Facebook you’re real, and it’s possible, they may allow you to create an account soon. But I can’t guarantee this will 100% work but one thing for sure, is that if you remain inactive on Facebook, there are features you won’t be able to access, even after a long wait.

Workaround: How to Create a Business Manager Account (For New Facebook User)

When a Facebook account is too new, it’s possible that one cannot immediately create a business account. This can be a bummer, surely. Even though you can’t create one, doesn’t mean you can’t be invited to one.

Here is a solution to this problem: ask your business partner who has already owned an active Facebook account to create a Business Account on behalf of your business, then invite you to it.

What I love about this, is that you get to choose what name and which email address you get to use when joining a business account, but not through a Facebook Profile. That way, you can keep your work separated from your personal profile and disclosing as little personal info as possible.

Once you’ve accepted the invitation, you will be able to access Facebook Business Suite, showing both ‘Your account’ and ‘Business account’ you joined.

(Note: In Business Suite, ‘Your account’ will consist of ALL your Facebook Pages; while ‘Business account’ is for you to handle selected Pages while separating your personal profile from it and limit personal info-sharing with colleagues/business partners.)

After that, you can have the opportunity to tour within the Facebook Business Suite and get familiar with this handy tool; at the same time, enjoy the benefits of handling your business matters with partners, colleagues or other agencies without worrying the exposure of your personal life.

Part 2:

How to Protect Your Facebook Profile from Business Contacts (through Privacy Checkup)

Nowadays, Facebook has made it easy for users to go through basic privacy settings to protect their info from been exposed to strangers: go to Settings & Privacy > Privacy Checkup

For security, it’s wise to go through all the checkups, including how to keep your account secure, data setting etc. However, since we’re only focusing on keeping your profile from being found easily, therefore I’ll skip the security part for now. But do go back and finish them whenever you can for maximum security.

Here we go:

1.  How people can find you on Facebook

This includes your Profile information, posts and stories. Set the visibility to ‘Only Me’ for all the info you wish to remain private (or for certain people’s eye only, it’s up to you).

I will advise to keep your phone number and email address concealed if you don’t want business contacts to reach you easily.

For Posts and stories, you can set visibility for Future posts, Stories and even Limit past posts (make it convenient for you to switch all Public posts to ‘Friends’ only). However, people who were tagged in your previous posts, their friends may still see these posts regardless of your settings. Either to remove those tags or keep them, it’s your call.

Blocking allows you to prevent someone from seeing your posts, tagging you, inviting you to groups/events and of course, adding you as a friend. You can unblock someone anytime if you changed your mind.

2.  How people can find you on Facebook

You won’t be able to prevent people from sending you friend requests completely, but you will have the ability to reject or simply block the person instead.

It’s advisable to not publicize your work phone number or work email address unless you want to be found by those who’ve already gotten one of your business cards.

Search engines are powerful so be sure to turn off the setting if you don’t want Google linking to your profile from its search results. Bear in mind, Facebook search is different from search engines, so this setting won’t stop people from seeing your profile if they look you up via Facebook search.

3.  Your ad preferences on Facebook

What seems to be a harmless social interaction may lead to people knowing you’ve endorsed a Page, due to Facebook ads.

For instance, when a Facebook page you liked is running ads across Facebook, your Facebook friends may know you liked the Page when they see the ad. To prevent that from happening, you can limit the visibility of this information to ‘Only Me’.

Precautions can save you from major headaches. Watch out for 15 Practical Ways to Protect Your Facebook Profile from Facebook Page in which we will be discussing more ways to separate business pages from personal profile, besides tighten up your security and private information.

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