Enterprise Nation

In 1999, there were 350 million people on the internet. Today, there is more than that many people on Facebook. So if you haven't already added the social network as a friend, you really should, especially since that's where most of your customers will be.

But how do you separate your personal and professional lives on Facebook? And what do you do when you've two professional lives - a day job and a business?

By working '5 to 9', you'll already know something about managing multiple identities, but with Facebook you have the tools to do so too - and it doesn't involve signing up for several different accounts.

To manage your personal life, your day job and your '5 to 9' business on Facebook, all you'll need to do is follow these three simple steps: 1) sign up for a Facebook account (if you haven't already), 2) manage your privacy settings, 3) set up a Facebook Page to promote your '5 to 9' business.

Sign up for Facebook

Signing up for Facebook is dead easy. You'll need to provide your name, email address, gender and birthday, though you can hide some of these things from your profile, if you wish. Just go to www.facebook.com to get started.

Manage your privacy settings

Although running a '5 to 9' business needn't be a cloak and dagger affair, there may be some things that you don't want your friends or colleagues to see - or things that just might not interest them.

You can change how people find and see your profile by choosing Privacy Settings from the Settings drop-down menu in Facebook. Control who can see your profile and post to your wall, who can contact you on Facebook and see your contact details, and how your profile can be found by search engines, like Google.

You can also control who sees the things you post to Facebook, from photos and videos, to events and links. Just look for the padlock icon to adjust settings per post.

Set up a Facebook Page

Facebook Pages may look like regular Profiles, but they're much more powerful as a way to engage with customers and their friends.

Pages are public, so people can see them even without a Facebook account. With one, however, customers can engage with your Facebook Page. As they do, their News Feeds drive word-of-mouth marketing to a wider circle of friends.

To create a Facebook Page look for Ads and Pages in your Applications menu.

This article first appeared in the book Working 5 to 9 by Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones available to buy here.

San Sharma
San is community manager at Enterprise Nation, as well as the voice of @e_nation on Twitter.

Photo credit: ansik