Remington BeggAccording to Inside Facebook, For the first time, Facebook now allows personal user profiles to be converted into official business Pages, turning all their friends into fans. The “Profile To Business Page Migration” tool will help people who either created a personal profile for a business before Pages existed, or accidentally started accumulating fans as friends instead of Likes.
The migration tool should come as exciting news to business owners struggling with the decision of whether to continue a profile with its limited capabilities, or start a Page from scratch with zero fans. Facebook has not formally announced the tool, but it appears to be available worldwide.
Facebook has added a new Help Center article on converting profiles to Pages with details about the migration process. Any user with a verified account can use the migration tool. Once migrated, the user still uses the same login and password to access Facebook. Their profile photo will be transferred, and all their friends will be converted into users who Like their Page.
Things to Know before you convert your profile to a page.
- The transfer is NOT reversible!
- You will lose ALL data other than the profile picture and the friends/fans, Data you WILL lose: wall posts, pictures (gallery, wall posts), messages (no messages for fanpages), friend capabilities etc.
- You CAN NOT Merge an existing page to the "converted page"
- You Will Not be able to change the name of the profile (if over 100 fans/friends)
Update 3/31/2011 11pm EST: The migration tool is no longer accessible at the URL listed above. The removal may be a temporary or a permanent change. We’ll continue to update this article to reflect the return or continued absence of the feature.
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