New FB Practice: Weird, Impersonal or Professional?


I just had to put this to you and ask what you all think about this new Facebook practice.  More and more people are setting up Facebook fan pages.  Companies have one, authors, entertainers...Bubble Wrap!  Everybody has a fan page.  However, the practice of trying to keep your fans "engaged" has taken its toll on the page owners time. I usually post three or four times a day on my fan page, but some people post ten or twenty times a day on their fan pages.  I could see how that might become combersome.  So what's a page owner to do?  Outsource!  Many Facebook fan page owners are now hiring a Virtual Assistant to take care of these daily tasks for them. Sometimes it's not readily apparent.  The VA posts as if she is the page owner and says what that page owner might say the way she might say it.  But other times it's fairly obvious that the person posting isn't the page owner.  At what point is this considered weird or impersonal?  In an effort to be professional, some page owners have hired people that make it fairly obvious the page owner doesn't spend any time on her own fan page. Do you feel cheated if the page owner isn't the one posting?  After all, you "liked" her fan page to find out more about her and what she has to offer.  Or do you feel like it's much more professional to have a third party posting?  After all, you don't expect a busy celebrity to have the time to post on Facebook 20 times a day. What gives it away that it's not really the page owner posting?  Does it bother you?  Would you rather she did all the posting even if it were less often?  Or do you think it's perfectly acceptable or more professional to find someone specifically hired to do all the Facebook fan page postings?  What say you? ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ For detailed articles/tips on various communication topics, free gifts and exclusive offers, subscribe to our newsletter! Subcribe now and get JoJo’s free eBook, Communication Activities: Finding Time to Talk to Your Children is a Busy World.

6 comments


  • Carla

    Hmmm. . . I have mixed emotions on this subject. If someone is very busy and needs their page info maintained, I see no problem with a VA doing it, but I think it should be disclosed. I subscribe to several pages where after a message it says something like ~RH Team so you know it’s his/her publicity people doing it. I’m not a big fan of just doing it and not disclosing because, all of a sudden, you get posts that sound totally different and you know something’s going on. Personally, I feel that is a bit deceptive. These days, you need a FB presence in business and if you can’t do it yourself, you need help. The fact that FB allows it doesn’t surprise me as I just read that FB will soon let you have profile pages with aliases instead of your real name, which has been a staple rule of theirs for years.


  • Bobbie Edgecomb

    This is polite, and could prevent a hapless user from continually retrying a connection attempt that will never work.


  • Valarie N. Springer

    it was greatly riveting to look over your blog, I want to reproduce your post in my blog.


  • Art of Eloquence

    Another great point, Joan. The posts should be relevant.


  • Joan

    Hmmm, I’ve tried looking at this different ways…and I think it depends on what type of fan page it is.

    I think if someone is following a certain person, ‘persona’ I think it’s important for that person to post, and if they have someone else post for them they should say something like "this is Shelly, Marie’s asst " or something to that nature. For example I get postings from Dave Ramsey and I appreciate the fact that his virtual poster identifies himself simply with his first name- Steve:-

    Personally, I don’t like getting a lot of posts from a fan page in one day. 2-3 posts a day is sufficient for me—and please! let it be relevant info! :)


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