Social media creates opportunities for you to network on social media, but it is important that you control (as much as technology allows) how people perceive you and the kind of access they can have with you. While some teachers and college instructors are willing to connect with colleagues and even students using their personal social media accounts, many others (myself included) are not so willing. In these cases it can be helpful to have a Facebook Professor Page that becomes your professional presence on the social media platform.
Facebook created fan pages to allow businesses, teachers, authors, recording artists, non-profit organizations, politicians, and more to have a landing page on the platform where they could promote their products or services. As a professor, you can create a fan page that acts as like your personal Facebook account in some ways but is very different in others.