How to change my facebook account to a business account

September 22, 2020 by - 206 Comments

Last updated: September 24, 2020

Are you still using a personal Facebook profile to promote your business? Yeah, you might wanna do something about that. It’s time to convert your Facebook profile to a business page.

From the Facebook Help Center:

It’s against the Facebook Terms to use your profile to represent something other than yourself (example: your business), and you could permanently lose access to your account if you don’t convert it to a Page.

You can’t play ignorance anymore. Facebook has made this clear since at least 2012, if not earlier. And if you still use your profile for business purposes, it just looks like amateur hour.

Enough already. It’s time to behave like a legitimate business on Facebook. Let’s go…

What Happens When You Convert a Profile to a Page?

This was once a scary thing to do. By converting your profile to a page, you’d lose that initial profile, so it was suggested that you first download all of the information in it first to later recreate it. That’s no longer the case.

When you’re done converting your profile to a business page, you’ll end up with both a profile and a page. This is likely what you wanted anyway.

The profile picture, cover photo, and name that you’re using for your personal profile will all be transferred to the new page. These things can all be changed later, of course.

You’ll be able to select the photos and videos you want to move over to your new business page. Of course, none of those old usage stats will move over with them.

The Steps

Go here to start the process of converting your profile to a business page.

How to change my facebook account to a business account

As much as I’d like to show you the rest of the steps, it scares the crap out of me just to get this far. I don’t want to submit anything by accident.

From this image you can see that you’ll do the following…

  1. Choose up to three page categories
  2. Select the friends and followers you want to follow your page
  3. Select the photos and videos you want to move to your new page
  4. Submit for review

You can preview all changes before publishing your new page, so that’s good.

When you’ve finished setting up your new page, Facebook will ask you to check your privacy settings on your profile to make sure you’re sharing what you want to share.

What About Your Friends and Followers?

Upon converting your profile to a page, you won’t have any likes or followers on this new page. You can, however, select from your friends and followers and add them as your new Page’s followers. But, there’s a catch, of course.

While friends you select will automatically follow your page and continue to be connected to your personal profile, the profile followers you select will be moved from your profile to your page.

Be smart with the friends aspect of this. They’ll be notified that you’ve created a page and that they are now automatically following it. Will they appreciate that? Are they actually someone who would want to follow your page? Don’t assume it.

What About Verified Profiles?

If your personal profile had a verified badge, your page won’t automatically be verified, too. You’ll need to resubmit for verification.

Wanting to Merge Pages?

Maybe you don’t want to convert a profile to a page but instead merge two similar business pages. You can do that, too.

Read this post for instructions.

Updated February 2, 2018

Many Facebook users are unaware that it’s against Facebook’s terms to use a personal account to represent a business.  According to Facebook, Pages are designed for businesses (including public figures and “personal brands”) and organizations in order to help businesses connect with customers and reach their business goals.

If your goal is to share updates on your personal profile with a larger network than just friends, you can also allow people to follow you, even if they’re not your friends.

Among other things, with a Page, you have access to Page insights, where you can see important metrics, like which posts people engage with, and visitor demographics like age and location.

Pages can also let you give other people — colleagues — access to your Page so they can also post, and make edits to the Page.

Fortunately, it’s easy to convert a Facebook profile into a Facebook Page. Facebook calls the process a “profile to business Page migration.”

Here are a few things to be aware of prior to converting a profile to a business Page:

  1. You can only convert your profile to a Page one time.
  2. When you convert your personal profile to a page you’ll have a personal account AND a Page after the conversion.
  3. Facebook will transfer your profile picture and your cover photo to the Page. You’ll need to update the Page with images that are appropriate for your business.
  4. The name on your personal account will become the Page’s name.
  5. Facebook provides tool to help you move information from your profile to your Page for 14 days after the conversion.
  6. You can choose friends from your profile to automatically like your new Page, but posts on your profile will not be carried to your Page.
  7. You can manage your Facebook Page from your personal profile.

When the conversion process occurs profile friends will be converted into Page Likes.

If you know a business that has a profile instead of a Facebook Page, or a friend who would like to position themselves as a public figure or personal brand on Facebook, pass this information along and let us know if it helped!

Can you change a personal Facebook account to a business account?

Fortunately, it's easy to convert a Facebook profile into a Facebook Page. Facebook calls the process a “profile to business Page migration.” Here are a few things to be aware of prior to converting a profile to a business Page: You can only convert your profile to a Page one time.

How do I turn my Facebook into a business page?

How to convert a profile into a Page.
Go to Create a Facebook Page Base on Your Profile..
Click “Get Started”.
Follow the on-screen instructions — you will choose the correct categories for your Page, and decide which of your friends, photos, and videos you want to retain..
Review your choices..

How do I change my personal profile to a business account?

To switch your profile to a business account:.
Go to your profile and tap in the upper right corner..
Tap Settings..
Tap Account..
Tap Switch to professional account..
Tap Continue..
Select a Category for your business and tap Done..
Tap OK to confirm..
Tap Business..

How do I change my Facebook page from community to business?

To edit your Page's category:.
Log into Facebook from a computer..
Switch to the Page you want to use, then from your Page, click About..
On the left side, select Contact and Basic Info..
Below Category, click ..
Start typing a category and select an option from the dropdown list that appears. ... .
Click Save..