In today’s digital era, your opinions on internet are as much part of you, as your identity in the real world. With the progression of social media, many avenues have evolved over time, which have become the corner stone for sharing one’s own expressions, with a larger pool of audience.
One such behemoth in the social media space is Facebook, which has already become everybody’s need. Facebook offers so many interesting features in its gambit, that it is just not limited to a platform for connecting with likeminded people in general, anymore.
People today use Facebook to connect with their friends and family, share posts, photos and videos, share updates about daily happenings, play online games, watch movies, create social events like campaigns, fundraisers etc. Facebook even has a crisis response section, to let people know about what crisis are happening around the world.
With so much interactive content available for you, it is imperative that you too want to experience it, by being part of Facebook. And having a Facebook account is probably the first step in this direction.
Most people on Facebook create a single Facebook account for all their needs. Although Facebook has set no limit on the number of accounts that can be opened, it does expect people to have a single account per user. According to Facebook, it is community driven social media platform, where it is expected that people use their authentic identities and maintain one personal account.
However, due to practical reasons, many people prefer to have two or more separate Facebook accounts as per their personal needs, like friends and family related interactions and professional interests with their co-workers.
Since your identity in the Facebook system is tied to your email address or mobile number, a person with different email addresses or mobile numbers can have two or more Facebook accounts.
You can follow the below steps, to open a second Facebook account;
Step - 1
Create a second email address, if you don’t have any. You can use any of the free web-mail services like Gmail to create your second email account, which will only take a couple of minutes.
Step - 2
Open Facebook on your web-browser. If you are logged in from your first account, you can log out from there. This will redirect you to the intro page on Facebook.
Step - 3
Go to the Sign Up form and register for a new Facebook account by entering the new email address you just created, along with other details like Name, Birthday, Gender, Mobile number etc.
It is recommended that you use a slight variation of your Name in the sign-up form. Also don’t use your mobile number, which is already registered with the previous Facebook account.
Step - 4
Once you have filled in all the details, click on ‘Sign up’ green button, located just below the form. If the information filled by you is processed successfully, you would be redirected to the next page, asking you to visit your email address*, as mentioned in the sign-up form, for account activation.
Step - 5
Go to your email account and check the Facebook account activation email. Click on the activation link given in the email and you would be redirected to Facebook again, confirming that your second Facebook account is now active!
*You can also activate account using activation code sent on mobile number, provided you have entered new mobile number in the sign-up form, instead of an email address. But it should not be registered with Facebook, for any of the Facebook accounts.
Many times people face problems with their second Facebook account. Sometimes the issues are related to opening second Facebook account, other times they may create their second account successfully, but later it may get blocked by Facebook, for no particular reason.
Therefore, in order to open and operate a successful second Facebook account, following recommendations should be kept in mind;
1). Although you need a different email address to create the second account, don’t use the same mobile number for both the Facebook accounts.
2). If you have created your second account, via mobile number instead of email address, it should not be same as entered in the first account. If you have only one mobile number, which you have already registered with your first Facebook account, it’s better to either remove that number from first account and then use it with the second account or create a new email address and then register it with the second account.
3). Use slight variations in your name for both the accounts. For example, if the name in your first Facebook account is John C. Smith, you can use JC Smith or John CS as your name in the second account.
4). Use variations in your profile, so that both accounts don’t look similar. Don’t put same birthdays, home towns, places you have lived, places you have travelled, interests and hobbies etc., same in both of your accounts. Idea is both profiles should appear different and not as carbon copies of each other.
5). Don’t use similar photos as your profile or cover photo. Not only it’ll be easy for Facebook’s bots to ascertain that you are having more than one account, it will also be confusing to everyone to keep a track about which profile should they follow and share with.
6). It is also recommended that you don’t post same or almost similar posts from both Facebook accounts. If the posts are important, also try to alter the structure or language of the post. You can also publish posts at different times, to avoid mixing up.
7). Don’t brag about having two Facebook accounts, on Facebook. You should not share or convey account details of both of your accounts, on Facebook. If there are situations, when people are confused, it’s better that you point them to the correct Facebook account, via any other media, rather than a Facebook post.
8). Don’t have communication between both of your accounts. By this we mean don’t have interaction by posting or commenting or liking or sharing content between both of your accounts. This is just to keep both accounts separate from each other, as much as possible.
9). There should be two different personalities, using two different Facebook accounts, for two different purpose. Don’t intermingle it. Your personal side is different from your professional side in reality. You have to maintain the same on Facebook too.
10). Use two different IP addresses, while operating both of your Facebook accounts.
If even after following above recommendations, any of your Facebook account gets locked, have patience and wait for the account to unlock by itself. Sometimes there could be a technical glitch that can prevent access to your Facebook account. These are usually resolved by Facebook on its own, and your account will be active again.
Other times, it could be that your account is randomly checked by Facebook. You might also be asked to submit any ID, which you can provide. Based on information provided by you, your account may get unlocked by Facebook. If you think that providing ID will only jeopardize your Facebook account, then it’s best that you create a new Facebook account, which is altogether different from your previous account.
Creating a second Facebook account is not hard. The real challenge is to make it look different, while maintaining your identity, to fulfill Facebook’s terms.
People also create fake Facebook accounts with bogus values. This is not only unethical but also useless as it doesn’t serve any real purpose, like solving a practical problem of keeping your personal and professional life separate.
If you create a second Facebook account, using above recommendations, chances are, you will be solving that problem.