November 29, 2012 by 21 Comments

How to Easily Add a Facebook Admin to Your Page

Are you having trouble adding an Admin to your Facebook Page?  Even though you may be going about it the correct way, Facebook can be kind of flaky and not work correctly.  (Shocking, I know)

The standard way of adding an Admin is to go to your Admin Panel at the top of your Page, click Edit Page, then select Admin Roles.

 

Once you are there, you can add the e-mail address of the person you want to add as an Admin and select their level of access to your Page.  The e-mail address must be the e-mail address that they use to log in to Facebook.    Make sure you are giving them the appropriate level of access to your Page and that you trust this person!

But sometimes the Admin does not get saved in the Roles area no matter what you do!  So now it’s time to troubleshoot and do things the easy way.

 

 

The quickest and easiest way to add an Admin to your Facebook Page if you are having trouble is to have them unlike your Page and re-Like it so that their name is not at the top of your most recent Likes.  Then click See All next to your New Likes and then click Make Admin next to their name.  Watch the video to see all the steps in action.

 

Then as I mentioned in the video, I highly recommend you have at least one personal profile as an Admin of your Facebook Page, rather than a Business-only Page.  If you don’t, your Business-only Page will have some limitations including:

  • No Search bar at the top of the Facebook Page.  You will not be able to search for and navigate to other Pages when you are logged into this account.
  • No way to Like other Pages as your Page.  If you have a Business only account, you can’t Like another Page to show your support for that Page or connect with that Page.
  • No Page Home Feed.  Since you can’t Like other Pages as your Page, you won’t get updates as your Page through your own Page News Feed.
  • You may have to provide a separate cell number to verify this account.  This feature is different and not consistent but many people who have created a Page this way report that they need a separate cell number that is different from their personal profile account to verify this Business Only Page.  Not everyone has 2 different cell phone numbers.
  • No ability to use the Invite Friends feature on the Admin Panel.  Obviously if you are intent on keeping your Facebook profiles separate then this may not be a feature you are interested in but I think it’s an easy way to connect some of your personal friends to your Page.

I don’t think there is any need to create a Business-only Page.  The Page and the Profile are very separate on a Page that is attached to a personal profile.  No one can see who owns the Page and the limitations of the Business Only Page are significant.

If you have created a Business-only Page and want to rectify the situation, all you need to do is to add a personal profile as an admin and you will have all the functionality of a regular Page.

Hope that helps!  Make sure you sign up for my free report below and you will get helpful blog updates, too!

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Filed Under: facebook
About Grandma Mary

Grandma Mary is a slightly cranky Social Media Edutainer, helping small businesses leverage the power of social media. Learning social media is wayyy more fun with Grandma Mary.

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  • Lee Tina

    omfg thank you sooooo much!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005731175049 Marylynt MK

    You THE BEST, Andrea! I spent so many hours figuring out how to connect my personal and page account! Thank you, thank you!

  • http://www.facebook.com/admincontactwebsite.adminchat Admincontactwebsite Adminchat

    welcome

  • http://twitter.com/philippastagg Philippa Stagg

    Any troubleshooting ideas? Tried all of this but it keeps saying admin has to be a friend and/or liked the page. They have!

  • http://www.AndreaVahl.com/ Andrea Vahl

    That is strange Philippa – even when they unlike the page and re-like it and then you click Make Admin next to their name? That usually is the one that works easiest. I don’t know what to try beyond that! Maybe submit a Facebook help ticket (although they aren’t the most responsive)

  • notjustanotherjones

    Hi,

    I have a business only page/account, but it won’t let me add any additional admins? Any thoughts?

    When I try to add an admin it tells me that user has to be friends or that email has to be friends with their account… even if they already are.

    Thanks,

    Dan

  • Eugenio

    I know that this is a bit offtopic, but I’m just lost the access to my facebook page, dont understand why, it seems like there is access from the “use facebook as” tab… I’ve sent several mails to support with no luck…any idea? Thanks

  • Toni

    I am having the same problem… even doing it this suggested way, it still tells me that the person I am adding must be a friend or have already liked the page, which they have (hence how I clicked the “Make Admin” button in the first place…) HELP!

  • dan

    I actually found a work around. If you go to “Edit Settings” then view blocked users. Then use the drop down to view “People that like this page”. You can see a list of people to make as an admin. ( I was not able to do that from insights. )

    The list of people I can view was not resetting the list order for 3 separate personal accounts when I un-liked and re-liked the page. I had to set up a new user without any privacy settings. This allowed me to make that new personal user the admin and then once I befriended the new user I was able to make myself an admin.

    It appeared to me that facebook is changing somethings with the business only pages to make it harder to fix this. There are many other people on their forums with the same issue.

    Hope that can help someone.

  • http://www.AndreaVahl.com/ Andrea Vahl

    Thanks so much Dan! Yes, now that Facebook has changed the Admin panel, it was harder to find the fans – and that’s interesting that it wasn’t resetting. Thanks for sharing and hopefully that will help others!

  • http://www.AndreaVahl.com/ Andrea Vahl

    Hi Toni – Dan found something and I’m just going to cut and paste his comment here in case you are reading this from your e-mail: “I actually found a work around. If you go to “Edit Settings” then view blocked users. Then use the drop down to view “People that like this page”. You can see a list of people to make as an admin. ( I was not able to do that from insights. )

    The list of people I can view was not resetting the list order for 3 separate personal accounts when I un-liked and re-liked the page. I had to set up a new user without any privacy settings. This allowed me to make that new personal user the admin and then once I befriended the new user I was able to make myself an admin.

    It appeared to me that facebook is changing somethings with the business only pages to make it harder to fix this. There are many other people on their forums with the same issue.

    Hope that can help someone.”

    Hope that helps you too!

  • Adrianna Chrestopoulos

    Hi Dan,
    I tried all of the steps and was successful with everything until I attempted to add myself as an admin, and still came up with the error message. I’m just at a loss as to what to do next, would you mind pointing me towards some of the forums that discuss this issue? Facebook conveniently does not discuss any issue even close to this on any of their help forums… thanks so much for any info you can give me!

  • Jeremy

    So I too have used the “People Who Like This Page” option and clicking the make admin button but it still says cant add admin. any other thoughts or direction to forums that might be helpful? thanks!

  • Jose

    Hi Dan,
    I’m also in the same boat. I tried all of your steps, but I could not add anyone as an admin. I’m assuming everyone also created a business page without a page owner so there is no way to change it. I’m getting the feeling the only real way to fix this is to delete the business account and re-create it from scratch. It would not be a big issue for me since I’m just getting started, my only worry is if I can reuse the same username/company name/email, etc right away or is there a possibility that I could lose it. If anyone has any ideas for a work around, that would be great or suggestions on how to go about deleting the account and recreating it, it would be greatly appreciated!!!

  • David Fernando

    Here’s the answer: If you did not set up the Facebook page in the first place (i.e. you were made an Admin by the person who did), then you will not be able to add an Admin of your choice. You will need to be a personal Facebook friend of the person you wish to make an Admin before the system will allow it.

    Oh, and don’t try to add the new Admin when you are signed in as the page itself – you need to be signed in as your personal profile then navigate to the page and add the Admin from there.

  • http://www.AndreaVahl.com/ Andrea Vahl

    Interesting David! I haven’t had the chance to play with this a lot recently – I know there are a lot of people who are having problems adding Admins right now. Hopefully this will help with some of those issues!

  • Facebook User

    FINALLY figured out how to add another admin to business Facebook page!
    I was trying to add myself as admin so I could link my personal fb page to the business fb page and it kept telling me my personal fb page had to like my business fb page. Well, I had already “liked” the page.
    It took me about a month but I figured it out.
    Go onto your personal fb page.
    Click on privacy
    Change the setting for “allow people to look me up using my email address” from friends (or friends of friends) to public.
    Log back into your business fb page, add yourself as admin and save
    Go back to your personal fb page and change the privacy setting back to your choice…. (Leave it as public, friends or friends of friends)
    That’s it!
    You should be done :-)

  • Veronica

    Thank you David! I thought I had tried everything. It was the signing in to my personal profile first that did the trick. Finally!

  • http://www.alisonelissa.com/ Career Coach, alisonelissa.com

    Signing in from my personal account worked for me too. Thanks!