Kate Bould | @Kate_Bould

Let’s not deny it, everybody’s online these days. So whether you’re the biggest company on Wall Street or running a family-owned shop in a tiny town, it’s important to have a social media presence and to put yourself on the map. This can help you connect with more potential customers, businesses you could benefit from, and locations that need your services. Being online is about a lot more than sending out posts and funny memes. It’s about creating a brand and helping people get to know who you are as a company.

One of the biggest and easiest ways to get started on this process is through Facebook. Even if you’re still totally confused by the idea, Facebook Business Manager takes you step-by-step and makes it easy for you to manage your page. Of course, not all aspects are positive, so before you get started, here are the pros and cons of using Facebook Business Manager and whether it’s the right tool for your business.

Starting with the pros, one of the biggest changes is the ability to have a variety of people working on the account in designated positions. One person, the admin (which can be easily changed), can control who can edit the account and in what way. This is a big win because you’re not having to give out your personal Facebook info to your co-workers anymore, and without a large number of people using that login, Facebook won’t confuse it as hacking.

Facebook insight analytics show you tons of data about viewers that helps you hone your marketing strategy, and Facebook tabs allow you to say more about your company through videos, products, and even newsletters. Also with Facebook Business Manager, you can run contests. Through Facebook analytics, you can have an unlimited number of friends and can create relevant ads revolved around target groups. Facebook Business Manager also allows you to reach more friends than a normal profile because profiles are not designed for everyone to see your posts.

While so far it sounds pretty good, a few common trends in reviews and comment threads show some significant downsides. A lot of complaints discussed the confusion between personal and business accounts. If you have logged into a page through a personal account and share something onto your page, it comes from your personal account. This issue also occurs when trying to respond to and monitor comments as well as posting. This can obviously be a huge issue for companies handling other pages. It also causes concern that if you’re posting personal items on your personal page, Facebook could get confused and post that onto your business page. Additionally, there seems to be trouble when users try to look at their notifications. Apparently you have to click each one individually in order to respond, which makes monitoring comments difficult, especially if you have a page with a lot of comments coming in. What’s more? It’s evidently difficult to remove ad accounts, and another issue is not being able to schedule shared posts.

The details may be confusing if you haven’t yet made the switch, but in the end Facebook Business Manager is a beneficial tool. There are still bugs being worked out and it might not be the easiest thing to use, but it looks more professional and can help promote your business to more than merely your friends.