Facebook now lets page owners use their own ‘voice’

28 Jun 2012

A small tweak that could make a big difference for Facebook page owners now allows users to easily switch between posting, commenting and liking as themselves or as their page.

If you log onto Facebook today and visit a page you manage, you may notice a new addition to your navigation bar. In between the link to your profile and Home is a new link: Voice.

Now, don’t get too excited, as this is not Facebook’s introduction of voice control where you can monotonously spout off ‘likes’ at your computer screen.

The new Voice setting allows page owners to decide whether they want to be the voice of the page or the voice of their profile when posting, liking and commenting on the page wall.

Facebook Voice

This only applies when you are logged in and using Facebook via your personal profile, not when you have selected to use Facebook as a page, in which case all of your activity will come from your page.

The ability to post as yourself on a Facebook page you manage is nothing new, but, until now, switching from one to the other was a lot more convoluted. The Voice setting keeps you informed of who you are representing when on your page and makes switching from one to the other much simpler.

As many page managers opt to make admins’ activity on pages default to the page’s voice, even if they are using Facebook as their personal profiles, this new setting gives admins the opportunity to override this default setting at will.

Along with a Pages Manager app released last month for iOS, this is just another handy add-on that makes handling Facebook pages just that little bit simpler.

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com