Have you ever wanted to be the "voice" of your brand? Well here's your chance! Facebook has unveiled a new toggling feature called 'Voice' that allows page administrators to easily engage on their page as themselves. You know, with your real name. So as an administrator for the HubSpot Facebook Page, I have the option to easily like, comment, or post updates on our page as "Anum" instead of as "HubSpot."
The 'Voice' feature now allows admins to easily toggle between using their brand page as their brand page, or as their personal Facebook profile.
Why This Is Important for Marketers
Often, your Facebook Page admins include people from your company who aren't in charge of actually "managing" the page, but have a reason to be an admin (they need to update a certain tab, post a certain offer daily, need to access Insights, etc.). These people aren't necessarily the "experts" when it comes to Facebook marketing, and are unaware of the smaller intricacies of the page -- such as the fact that every time they like or comment on your page, they're speaking as your brand and not themselves. There's been times at HubSpot, for example, where admins have seen something from HubSpot in their news feed and liked it, not realizing they liked the post as HubSpot. While this is by no means detrimental, little things like this can make it a little scary to give people at your company administrative rights. But now, you can tell those admins to ensure they select their personal profile as their "voice" once they become an admin.
Why Marketers Also Need to Be Extremely Careful
While it's beneficial to speak to your audience as yourself, you need to be sure you're very aware of what voice you're set on when engaging with your audience. This new update has the potential for the classic Twitter mistake where someone sends a personal tweet through the company handle. For example, you could accidentally get defensive about a certain comment a user left, not realizing until later that you said it as your company, not you. Talk about some embarrassing marketing mistakes.
While this also offers the benefit of being able to respond to a user's comment as (hopefully) a fan of the brand you work for, you simply need to make sure you're aware of who you are speaking as. Although no matter who you're speaking as, you should always be polite, kind, and respectful. At the end of the day, you still represent your brand!
But seriously guys, be careful. I already accidentally posted to HubSpot as "me" instead of as HubSpot in the midst of toggling back and forth to write this post!
Do you manage a Facebook business page? Will you be taking advantage of the 'Voice' feature?
Image credit: yugenro
Inbound Marketing Blog Feed
Anita 12:48 PM on June 28, 2012
Ummm...unless I'm missing something page admins DID have this ability before...it was just a bit harder to make the switch. Previously you had to go into your page settings to switch to posting as yourself. I've been managing many client pages for a while now and some of them I post as me and some of them I post as myself. This isn't new, just a new place to choose.
Meg 12:49 PM on June 28, 2012
Thanks for the information, but I'm a little confused. Previously there was a checkbox in the admin section of Facebook where you could toggle the option to always post to your brand page as your brand on and off. I thought you could always be signed into Facebook as yourself, go to the brand page via typing it into the search bar or clicking the link on the left sidebar of the newsfeed and post as yourself if you had "always post as your page" turned off. This seems to just be a revamped version. Or did I misunderstanding something?
Kim Phillips 12:51 PM on June 28, 2012
So, when you post something to a fan page as your personal self, all your friends see (to the degree that anybody sees anything on Facebook), correct?
Savannah 12:55 PM on June 28, 2012
Does the author have experience as a page admin? Because admins have had this ability for years. All Facebook has done is to move the checkbox to a more visible spot.
AK Stout 12:56 PM on June 28, 2012
This is hardly new. Before today if you wanted to comment or post on your Page as yourself you simply had to go into the 'Edit Page' and un-check the box in settings that said something like, "Always post on Page as the Page even when logged into FB as person." It was cumbersome but doable. Since they changed it now to the "Voice" that option is now gone - but it is simply a restructuring - not a new feature. But perhaps you can answer this questions for me - if I post on my Page as me whether it's a new post or I'm responding in the comments - will people get notified and see the posts in their feed just as if I was posting via the Page? I had always steered away from doing that although I like the personal feel of it because I thought people would not get notified that I was responding to them and that posts would not show up in their news feeds...
Julie 12:59 PM on June 28, 2012
Like the other commenters, I've always been able to post as either the brand or as myself, depending on which setting I had turned on. And, I could change the settings at any time. This is not new functionality, but rather just a new execution.
Anum Hussain 1:03 PM on June 28, 2012
Hi all!
Sorry for the confusion, I suppose I didn't clarify well enough.
The difference here is that you can literally like and comment on your PAGE, not Facebook in general, as yourself.
Previously, when you went into your settings to select "Use Facebook as XXX" you could use Facebook in general as your brand or yourself. However, you could never comment or like something ON a business page as yourself. Meaning, if I put "Use Facebook as Anum Hussain," when it came time to commenting or liking content ON the HubSpot page, I would still be seen as HubSpot -- even though I'm set as myself on Facebook.
Now, I can say "Use Facebook as Anum Hussain" and comment/like ON the HubSpot page as Anum.
I recommend you all trying it out and you'll see the difference here :)
LJ 1:04 PM on June 28, 2012
Looks like the only thing that's actually new is what's shown in your screen print above, the "You are posting, commenting and liking as..." indicator, but how do you get it? I'm not seeing it in my FB in either account...
Adrienne Olds 1:16 PM on June 28, 2012
Loving this new feature! Thank you Facebook!
Andy 2:00 PM on June 28, 2012
No, you're still wrong. I've been commenting on my pages as myself for months now. There was a setting that allowed this feature in the 'your settings' section. That's since been replaced with the new bar, but it most certainly did exist.
Christine 2:30 PM on June 28, 2012
I'm sort of nervous about this...just for the reasons you mentioned in your post...lots of room for error! But it really is a plus to be able to put a face behind the company.
Eddy 3:22 PM on June 28, 2012
You're wrong. This was possible before. This only makes it easier to switch. Correct your article!
Savannah 3:26 PM on June 28, 2012
Annum, despite your clarification, you're still wrong. You were ALWAYS able to comment on your page as yourself by unchecking the box in Edit Page: Your Settings.
Maybe it's time to rewrite this post entirely, since it's factually incorrect. Not what I would expect from Hubspot.
Mark 4:14 PM on June 28, 2012
I have to agree with other commenters - as far as I remember this has 'always' been possible.
A relatively 'new' feature here is that you can post on other pages as your page, rather than yourself. This came in about a year ago I believe.
Pamela Vaughan 4:32 PM on June 28, 2012
Hi Folks,
There seems to be a lot of disappointment here, so let me clear things up a bit.
Before Facebook “Voice,” as an admin of HubSpot’s Facebook page, I’ve never figured out a way to post an update to or comment on HubSpot’s own Facebook page as myself rather than as HubSpot, even when I’d selected to "Use Facebook as Pamela.” Other admins of the HubSpot Facebook page had experienced the same thing, too, so when we saw we had this new capability from Facebook, we believed it to be new, and wanted to share the news with our readers.
That being said, Facebook gradually rolls out new features to users all the time, so it’s possible that some of you have had access to this capability before we did. If this is true for you, we apologize for presenting it as brand new.
While there is obviously no way to travel back in time to figure out whether we at HubSpot (a) just couldn’t figure out how to use the feature in the past, or (b) simply didn’t have access to it until today, I still feel our article is no less valuable to those who never even knew the feature existed, so I’ve decided to leave it up. I’ve also updated the post so it no longer touts the feature to be “new,” just in case it isn’t.
I apologize for any false information we may have provided. We in no way meant to purposely mislead our audience to believe that Facebook had a new feature we didn’t actually believe was new.
Thank you for keeping us on our toes, and we appreciate the honesty of our readers. We hope you’ll continue to read our articles!
Thanks,
Pamela Vaughan | HubSpot Blog Manager
Holly Hall 1:08 AM on June 29, 2012
Love this feature - new or not - it is going to make life a lot easier in the world of Facebook! Thanks HubSpot for making a point of this.
AK Stout 8:38 AM on June 29, 2012
That feature had been a feature for a long time for everyone - you just had to know where to look for it. Here's what it looked like - from Feb 2011. https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=498814952554 Would still love for someone to answer the question I posted in my earlier comment. If people aren't going to be notified when you respond to them on your Page as you, I think it's irresponsible to be suggesting this is a good idea.
Anum Hussain 9:09 AM on June 29, 2012
Hi AK,
When you comment as yourself (you as an AK or me as Anum), you ARE notified when someone likes your comment or comments after you, just like your normal notifications. Already happened to me :)
Anum
Addie 12:57 PM on June 29, 2012
I just saw that little banner at the top of our facebook business page this morning while I was updating our page and was wondering what it was about. Thanks for the explanation!
Carrie Gallagher 4:13 PM on June 29, 2012
I appreciate your article very much - I consider myself pretty tech savvy, but have never been able to figure out how to use my company's Facebook page as anyone but an admin. Thanks for the great information…I heart HubSpot!
Gray 9:03 PM on June 29, 2012
"Voice" sounds good in theory, but ever since they rolled it out I can't access my page (as my page), or access any other pages as long as I'm using Facebook as my page. No replies from Facebook support on the problem. Anyone else experiencing this here?
Dennis Stanley 6:20 PM on July 01, 2012
I was really glad to see your article as I was certain I was losing my mind last night, (June 30 / July 01) when I had arisen from bed in the wee hours to answer a phone call, I checked my new (earlier in June) local business page and I saw the new icon "VOICE" at the top. Never having seen it before I was curious so I clicked it and there was the drop-down which you described. I tried it and it did, indeed change from my business name to my personal, complete with avatar change. Then the "VOICE" button disappeared and has not been seen on either of my pages since. Any ideas on how I might look at getting it back? I would love to have this feature as I sometimes tend to get a wee bit (ahem) political and would not like to alienate my current, or potential customers. I was going to paste the above text into a message to FB but I fear that my grandchildren's lifespan may be too short to wait for a response.
Dennis Stanley 7:48 PM on July 01, 2012
Problem solved . . .The "Voice" button does not appear on the menu bar of my business page when I initially open it but in the "Edit Page" pull-down, when I select "Use Facebook as..." then it switches to my personal ID and the "Voice" menu appears, as does the toggle sub-menu which allows back and forth ID change and arrogantly robs yet another small slice of precious screen real estate, but WTH, it's Facebook after all, right?
Anum 10:39 PM on July 01, 2012
Hey Dennis,
Thanks for sharing! Good to know if someone in the future asks :)
Anum
Anthony 10:10 AM on July 02, 2012
This does make my life a little easier and quicker. Thank you Facebook!
Alissa 10:17 AM on July 02, 2012
Regardless of whether or not there were "work-arounds" for posting on your own page previously, this is a great addition and I appreciate the fact that this blog drew my attention to it! Bonus - the passion of all the "allow me to correct you" comments above gave me a morning giggle ;-)
Hugh Briss 8:55 AM on July 03, 2012
The simple solution to make it obvious which voice we're posting as would be for Facebook to add a profile icon next to the "status update" box just like it shows next to the comment field.
Erin 7:51 PM on July 03, 2012
yeah I love the new/old feature, at least its easy to find now, my question is why have FB not included it in mobile app, its really painful to have to go to computer all the time, the mobile app is hopeless. Unless someone has found a workaround?
Coren 9:44 AM on July 05, 2012
I noticed "Voice" a few weeks ago, and for me it's very useful and wish there was something in my Twitter client that would remind me I'm Tweeting from a company account rather than my personal account. Managing personal, company and client social media profiles may seem like a simple task, but it's very easy to get carried away and post from the same place sometimes.