What is the “Business Account” Structure in Facebook/Meta?

If you’ve used Facebook for business in the past, no doubt you’ve realized how confusing it can be. There are so many different tools for so many different things. It’s challenging even for marketing professionals to keep up with. But if you’re trying to get a better handle on how it all works, you’ll need to grasp the concept of a “business account.” If you understand what this means, at least basically, you can spend a lot less time in confusion as you try to accomplish tasks to manage and promote your business.

Is it even a real thing?

First of all, there is no actual “business account” that you sign into separately from your personal Facebook account. The login is the same as the one you use to do personal stuff on Facebook. This is because Facebook wants all features and assets (including business assets) to be connected to a real human. Your personal account is your “profile,” and anything you ever do on Facebook — no matter what or who’s business is involved — is supposed to be done while logged in as your real self/ a.k.a., your profile. In fact, doing it any other way is against Facebook policies and might trigger the closing of an account that you’re using.

(Touching on semantics, there is no such thing as a “business account” that’s not associated with your personal Facebook profile account. They should have named it something else, like your “business entity” perhaps, to have avoided the confusion of people thinking there’s a different account.)

Here’s the story

Once you understand the idea that everything you do is connected to your personal login (as your real self), it helps to take a historical view to put the current business structure in context. Here is a short description of how Facebook developed with regard to businesses:

1. 1. Facebook started out as a social network where “friends” could be linked to see posts from one another.
   2. They later added “Pages”, which allowed businesses to have a presence, make posts, etc.
   3. More features were added for businesses, such as tools for advertising, tracking, post scheduling, targeting, and more.
   4. Facebook created the “Business Manager” tool for organizing and controlling access to Pages and other tools related to businesses. It was described as an “umbrella” tool because it covered and consolidated all of the tools and features of a business. (This was badly needed because businesses must be able to assign access to employees and marketing agencies properly.)

So, the Business Manager was the beginning of the “business account” concept at Facebook/Meta. In the past, you would go to www.Business.Facebook.com and click “Create Account” to initiate the setup of the Business Manager tool –i.e., the umbrella that could also be called your “business account .” (Again, this would all be done while logged in with your personal Facebook login.)

In with the new (and the old too)

The Business Manager structure is still needed and intact. But until recently, something was missing. While the Business Manager offered a valuable interface for organizing assets and controlling access to them, it wasn’t helpful for the daily tasks involved in promoting a business on Facebook, such as creating posts, running ads, seeing insights, messaging, etc. For those things, you needed to jump around in what felt like an endless maze of tools and panels. There needed to be a central dashboard interface that would be:

• Where common tasks could be initiated and managed (posting, messaging, etc.)
• A starting-off point for all possible business-related functions (for simplicity and easy navigation)
• Where all Meta platforms could be managed from one place for the business

Enter “Business Suite.” Business Suite is the newest tool built for managing the “business account.” In the new structure, going to www.Business.Facebook.com will take you to Business Suite, not Business Manager.

A look at the new “Business Account” level tool called Business Suite

So, how do Business Suite and Business Manager relate to each other and coexist? What used to be called the Business Manager Settings is now simply called Business Settings. From Business Suite, if you click the gear icon, you’ll go to Business Settings (you may then need to click “More Business Settings”) and see the same interface as before for organizing assets and controlling access to them.

Of course, it’s still confusing. There is still an overwhelming number of tools and panels involved. But having a central place for normal tasks, or a main starting point for accessing tools, is a step in the right direction. Business Suite was long overdue. Also, it was built to incorporate all of the Meta platforms, which makes it even more useful.

Meta Business Suite is also now a mobile app available on IOS and Android. It replaced the Facebook Pages app that was previously available.

Summary

In summary, these are the key things to understand related to Meta business accounts:

• There is no actual “business account” that involves a separate login. Everything related to your business should be managed while logged into your personal Facebook profile. (They chose confusing wording by calling it an “account,” in my opinion.)
• The concept of a business account was established by the creation of the Business Manager, which is an umbrella tool for tying business assets and tools together under one roof, so to speak.
• Meta Business Suite is the new business-account-level tool, which is intended to be an interface for doing common tasks (like posting, messaging), for being a starting-off point for all business related features and tools, and for being a single place where all Meta platforms for the business can be managed.
• When Facebook/Meta refers to your “business,” they are referring that business account defined by the creation of the Business Manager or Business Suite.
• The Business Manager was the first business account tool that allowed business owners to consolidate assets and control access. That interface now exists as the “Business Settings” part of Business Suite.