I no longer use my Facebook profile friends page because I am too popular. However after three years of closing it, I reopened it just to feed my BeBee articles and tweets. I don't interact or grant friend requests. It's too full anyway and everyone is a follower. If you think you are showing off saying that, think again. I have seen many Africans open three Facebook profile pages simply because their popularity had soared and they did not want to leave friends behind. Facebook notified me in 2008 that if your friends become more that 5000, you should opt out and get a fanage.
By the time my personal page was 5012 friends, I simply activated “followers” another Facebook service that allows friends that can’t be in your personal page be able to engage on your posts. Followers became 5,500 giving me close to 10,000 fans and friends. At that point, I closed the page and started an all new fan page in 2013. That page is Facebook.com/HNNAfrica and it’s the page I still maintain today with 78,000 fans and verified by Facebook to prevent impersonation something rampant with my name.
Many popular Nigerians have opened up to 3 accounts and it could be time consuming posting the same status on every personal page. Besides it does not give your friends equal access. Sometimes the page owner forgets to post the same thing or even engage people equally on those pages. Journalists like me are strongly encouraged to open a fan page, I was the only verified active Journalist on Facebook in Nigeria for a 3 year period and now there are three of us. Many don’t even have a fan page let alone verified.
I strongly urge popular personalities to do the same in opening a fan page. Xtian Dela is a Kenyan personality known as the Twitter King in Kenya and a Top 3 Influencer on Social Media Africa, but Dela also has a Facebook page that is verified. Try opening a fan page. You could be more popular that you think and Facebook may verify you. Gather your fans in one place. *winks*
