Libraries and Facebook pages – Update!

September 10, 2009 · Posted in Facebook

Update 10/20/2009 This update is inaccurate, the orignal warning still stands.

Great news libraries & librarians! Your Facebook page is no longer tied to the account of the person who created it!

When you visit facebook.com you now see an option for “create a page for a celebrity, band or business”. You’ll be required to enter your full name to …” certify that you are an official representative of this brand, organization, or person and that you are permitted to create a Facebook Page for that subject.” There is a little warning about how false representation is a no-no. You will need to enter an email address and confirm it, so use a real one. But the end result is a page not tied to the profile of the person who created it! hurrah!

Rating 3.00 out of 5

Tags: account, business, Facebook, page, profile, settings

Comments

Elizabeth

I just set up a page for our library and did have to put in my name and birthdate. Fine. But it did make me create some kind of personal profile along with it with in order for the page to be published. I wonder why that is, and if I somehow did it wrong. I did go the "create a page for an organization" route and chose library/building as the category.

And when I'm logged in, my name is up in the right corner. But that isn't visible when I access it from the outside, as other people will see it.

Anyway, I know you're not my personal fixer of these things! But I wondered if anyone else has run into this and thought perhaps it still is awfully tied to one individual.

It is not linked to my personal Facebook page that already existed. And it is linked to our library's Yahoo e-mail address.

Elizabeth

I dug through FB help pages today, and it appears that you still have to have a personal profile (or multiple ones) linked to fan pages. The info I read, at least, said they don't stand alone, but that you can have multiple people with administrative powers for the page.

So basically what I did was create a dummy profile for our staff to use, using my name but putting in no more details than were required. I also made that profile unsearchable and unfriendable. (What a word.)

This was what happened when I set it up as library/public building. From what I read, you can instead create a business profile page. Is this perhaps the one that changed?

Bobbi Newman

If you leave the library can you step down as the Admin? That was the main problem, there is no way to remove the original creator of the page from it if they leave the organization. With groups you can promote other then remove yourself or someone can remove you. But with pages there was no way to do it.

Elizabeth

I'm am so happy to hear this from you, since you were the one who taught me to watch out for that set-up issue! We are about to set up a FB page for our library, and we're so lucky on our timing, I guess.

Bobbi Newman

I'm glad I posted it then!I think it's a wise move from Facebook. I think more and more Company pages will run into trouble when the person who created it leaves.

diane

so how about those of us who already have library pages setup that were tied to our personal profiles? did/do these change automatically? or require us to do something?