Great News for TV Talent from Facebook

UPDATE: You might want to wait a while before trying this. Facebook To Help Users Burned By Profile-To-Page Migration http://t.co/XElYegb

For TV stations and On-Air Talent, Facebook is no longer about how many ‘Friends’ you have… it’s about who ‘Likes’ you. Yet there are dozens of stations and personalities around the country who are still stuck with a “Profile Page” because they never migrated their “Friends” over to a “Fan Page.” (Click Here if you don’t know the difference.) Thankfully, Facebook has just announced a new tool which will allow you to easily change your existing Profile into a Like Page (aka Fan Page). In case you need convincing, here’s why this is a must:

1. You can FINALLY post those Party Pics!

If you were one of the early adopters of Facebook, chances are you built up a ton of “Friends” (aka viewers you’ve never actually met) on your Personal Facebook Profile. And even if you started a second Fan Page, you probably weren’t terribly successful migrating your Friends to it. 

If you fall into this group, here’s what I recommend: First, turn your Profile into a Fan Page, even if it means you now have TWO Fan Pages. Second, create a NEW Profile for your own PERSONAL use (insert party pics here) and only add “Friends” you’ve actually met!

2. Just because they’re not your Friend, doesn’t mean they don’t Like you.

Beginning in 2009, Facebook put a 5,000 Friend limit on Profile Pages. For popular talent (and what talent isn’t)…this limit places a false cap on their fan base. And this isn’t just for on-air talent… Stations like WIBW hit the 5,000 Friend limit years ago. And they are no longer accepting new “Friends”… (ahem, awkward!)

To this day, WIBW maintains its original Profile Page in addition to its main Like Page. However, it seems they didn’t learn their lesson about splintering Fans. The station has 5,000 “Friends” on its Profile Page and around 6,000 Likes on its main Like Page. But if you add up all Likes and Friends across the station’s whopping 35 separate Facebook Pages they have more than 38,000 connections.

3. Job Security

There have been tons of examples of on-air talent getting themselves into trouble with Social Media. Florida newspaper writer, Pat Dooley had to issue an apology after making an unflattering joke via his Twitter feed earlier this year. Dooley’s explanation was that he sometimes forgets that Twitter is such a public platform. And Washington Post columnist Mike Wise nearly got fired for issuing a “fake tweet”. In both cases, the journalists failed to draw a thick enough line between Personal social media and Professional social media. Migrating your Facebook Profile to a Like Page will be one step in the right direction to ensure you don’t make the same mistake.