On Facebook, businesses and brands use Fan Pages (not a personal profile page) to interact with customers. Last week, Facebook rolled out some changes to those pages.

One of the biggest challenges with this new rollout, I believe, is the change that allows a Fan Page to post on Facebook AS THE FAN PAGE. For example, I can comment on another Fan Page as the Social Media Butterfly, rather than Carmen, the administrator of the Social Media Butterfly. (Although, to post on a personal page, I still need to post as Carmen, the person.)

This opens a big ol’ can of worms for social media enthusiasts. I have always held the opinion that social media serves to humanize a brand. A brand shouldn’t have a “poker face” (insert a Lady GaGa song here.) A brand should be up front and honest about who is posting.

So now, Facebook changes the game, and the players have to decide if they’re going to ante up. With the option to now post on other pages as a brand, rather than as a human, should social media managers stick to being human, or become the brand?

So here’s my suggestion to social media marketers. Go all in. Embrace this new feature on Facebook pages, but mold it into what you think it should be. If I post on another page as the Social Media Butterfly, I’m going to also sign my post “~Carmen.” This way, my post comes from both my brand, AND a person.

This works for me, since I am a bit schizo – there’s Carmen with the personal profile on Facebook and there’s Carmen with the Social Media Butterfly page on Facebook. There’s also Carmen with a page called “The List Book” for fans of my novel. There used to be Carmen who maintained the Facebook page for her company. So, just posting as plain old “Carmen” doesn’t add context – it doesn’t tell which hat I’m wearing when I post.

If I want to discuss social media as a social media professional, I will navigate through Facebook as the Social Media Butterfly, signing my posts as ~Carmen. If I want to talk to a publisher or another author as a self-published novelist, I will post as The List Book and sign my post as ~Carmen.

I don’t think this new Facebook deal changes what game we’re playing. I think it changes our strategy, but not the goal of winning in social media.

What do you think of my strategy? Do you agree? Disagree? Have another strategy? Let’s learn from each other!