We all know how important it is to set up social media pages for your business. It’s difficult to engage with loyal customers or find new ones without tools like Instagram Stories and Twitter DMs. Without a social media presence, establishing your brand’s identity is nearly impossible. If you haven’t caught on to the importance of creating and regularly posting on business social media accounts, check out our articles Use Instagram to Engage with Customers and Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses. We’ll help you get all your social media pages set up and looking amazing! 

Although there’s a pretty clear consensus on business social media pages (you need them! they’re important!), it’s less clear whether you should use your personal social media accounts to market your business or not. Some people believe that your personal social media accounts should be kept private. Business and personal life should be kept seperate, and only your friends and family should know about your personal life. Others disagree. Promoting your business on your personal social media accounts can help connect you with customers and important business connections. If you’re trying to decide if you want to utilize your personal social media accounts when marketing your business, we’re here to help! Here’s a guide to some of the benefits and drawbacks of marketing your business on your personal social media. 

Keep in mind who your target audience is 

Knowing your target audience is a marketing fundamental for a reason. If you waste all your time, money, and energy advertising to the wrong people, your business is unlikely to do well. While your loved ones probably support your business and want you to succeed, they aren’t your target audience. Your family and friends may occasionally buy a product or give you a shoutout on social media, but they aren’t the ones you should be advertising to. They already know who you are, what your brand’s identity is, and why your products or services are amazing. If your personal social media accounts are primarily used for connecting with friends and family, it might not be the best idea to constantly promote your business to them. It may make them think that you aren’t really interested in socializing with them and are obsessed with promoting your company. You might even lose some friends. It’s alright to post about your business every now and then, but make sure you’re also posting pictures of family vacations and brunches with your friends. 

Allowing your customers to follow your personal social media can help increase loyalty 

When you decide whether or not to promote your business on your personal social media, it’s important to decide if you’re going to let your customers follow your personal accounts. Allowing your customers to do so has some benefits. It can help show them who the person behind the brand is and make you seem more approachable and friendly. This is especially true for small businesses. Sharing some of your personal life with your customers can help them feel more connected to you. This usually makes them want to support you and leads to the creation of a loyal customer base. Many small business owners tag their personal accounts in their Instagram profiles to show who their business belongs to. 

However, there are some reasons you shouldn’t let your customers follow your personal social media accounts. If you create posts that can make you come across as unprofessional, it might be best to keep you personal accounts private. Content about partying, drugs, or other potentially inappropriate topics are best kept between you and your friends. There’s nothing wrong with a photo of a dinner with a glass of wine. That being said, your customers shouldn’t view the Instagram stories that show that you’re a party animal on the weekends. Unless, of course, your business is in the kind of industry where that kind of behavior might boost your reputation. Like all forms of marketing, posting on your personal social media isn’t one size fits all. If you own a bar or nightclub, it might be fun for your customers to see a video of you taking shots. But if you’re a lawyer and need to keep your online presence professional, it’s best to make sure your clients don’t know how you like to let loose. 

You might be able to make important business connections 

If you keep a professional image (whatever that means in your industry) and occasionally promote your business on your personal social media, you might be able to make some important business connections. People are more comfortable networking when they feel like they’re talking to a person, rather than a faceless brand. Although it’s somewhat unusual to use a personal Facebook account for business purposes in countries like America, it’s quite common in Japan. In fact, it’s fairly common for Japanese people to find jobs via Facebook connections. By participating in groups frequented by others in your industry, you can meet potential collaborators.  You might also be able to do some B2B marketing by talking to owners of other companies as yourself, rather than your brand. Think about how people form connections and market to other companies on LinkedIn. You can do the same on almost any social media platform. To get started, follow hashtags and pages relevant to your industry. Strike up a conversation when you see interesting content. You never know who you’ll meet.