If you use Facebook to promote you or your business

11 replies
NOTICE: This is NOT a bad mouth Facebook thread. If you feel the need to vent about them do it off forum as it will more than likely get this thread deleted and/or yourself timed out or banned from forum.
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I was reading through Facebook's policies and came across this
Help Center | Facebook

I recently had my FB account disabled, they wont tell me anything but honestly it isn't that big of a deal to me. I only used it for research and keeping up with family members that use it. The little under 1200 friends I had on the account I got mostly from organic methods, I actively followed maybe few hundred people but the rest organically befriended me or whatever it is called.

As I was curious about account disable possibilities, I investigated and found a lot of people in similar situations, many hating on FB and whoas me world comes to end doom and gloom... I read through all Facebook's policies on their site, which I didn't really do before and came across something that totally goes against what everyone I have ever seen or heard of that talks about Facebook as a marketer. Apparently most of, if not all of the stuff out there on marketing on facebook actually goes against the FB TOS, they have sub sections within sub sections but here --> Help Center | Facebook is what I am talking about.


Here are few things I got from this:


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You can only have ONE account on FB, period.

You are not allowed to promote any kind of business or professional organization including yourself for name branding purposes.

They have a business account you can get but it is NOT a regular user account, no friends lists or anything like a regular account has. It is mostly for managing paid advertisements you have running on their site.

You can use a business page, I am not sure if it is same as fan pages or seperate through the business account but there are restrictions about what you can and can't use the page for. I didn't get to much into reading about this, the way it sounded to me was either a paid thing or tied to business accounts but I didn't get too much into it so I don't know for sure.

Many of the products and things you read about selling and marketing on facebook point blank goes against their policies.

You can buy advertising on their site, which seems to be the only approved method for promoting yourself or business through FB.

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I did not do ANY of these things with my FB account though but they don't tell you why, I have had no response back from them at all and neither have others I know that had samething happen to them. But like I said it is not a big deal to me at all. The purpose here is to alert those that did not know, if you are using your facebook account for anything other than playing around nonprofessionally then for the most part it is against their TOS and if someone reports a post or activity and they look at your account, it will get terminated more than likely and you may get banned altogether.

I was chatting a bit with Lynn Terry in email about it, she never experienced anything like this but it made me think about possibilities, beyond a hater trying to get back at me for some imagined thing they think I did to them or a member of a clique I torqued off etc... Looking at other possibilities I discovered a lot of what IMers are teaching about FB just isn't cool with Facebook at all. I already figured out some of this on my own but I figured at least a few people here might not know.

I know A LOT of people and you do too, that use FB to do exactly what I am saying isn't kosher with FB. In fact I specifically followed people just because of the content they shared, BUT apparently none of that is ok with FB so it is a matter of time before all these people are shunned by FB.

What are your thoughts on marketing on Facebook and other social media sites? Does possibility of getting your account closed and you possibly banned for life for doing what others here and other places say is cool and is THE way to promote on FB?


Thanks,

- T
#business #facebook #promote
  • Profile picture of the author JoshuaG
    This is really valuable information.
    I'm surprised more people haven't commented.

    Its amazing how prolific self promotion is on facebook, yet it is against TOS.
    I'm really surprised.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rich Struck
    How can self promotion be against their TOS when they have a link that says "Create a Page for My Business" all over their site?
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    • Profile picture of the author Terry Crim
      Originally Posted by Rich Struck View Post

      How can self promotion be against their TOS when they have a link that says "Create a Page for My Business" all over their site?

      Hey Rich.

      This is a quote directly from their site:

      "Per our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, Facebook profiles must represent an individual. Users aren't permitted to maintain an account under the name of their organization, or use personal accounts to advertise or promote themselves professionally."

      The full text can be read here -> Help Center | Facebook


      Personal accounts are the ones with the friends lists, app add-ons and where most people communicate with each other.

      Business accounts and pages are different. What I am saying in my OP that started this thread is that "Regular" accounts are PERSONAL Accounts and if you get caught promoting yourself or business say on your wall, comments etc... they could remove your account without notice and possibly BAN you from creating future accounts.

      Most people I see using FB for their businesses don't limit their promotions to the business pages and include business info in their wall, profile info, messages, communication with others etc....

      I am not Facebook policy enforcer dude, I just took sometime to read through the policies and found the above amoung several other things in there that I thought others should be made aware of. Now If I am reading it wrong let me know because I have been wrong before.

      Thx,

      - T
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      • Profile picture of the author FredJones
        Hey, this is amazing stuff. I had no clue of these condition details on Facebook. Thank goodness I came across this post - I have a couple of "company listings" in Facebook under personal account so shall remove them in the next 10 minutes to save my social profile from getting affected.

        Brilliant post, this one.
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        • Profile picture of the author LilBlackDress
          One of my clients business account was to active on FB last year. All they did was to respond to their many fans comments. Their account was suspended. They did get it back and maybe you can get yours back also.

          Anyway that had me doing some searching and like you I found many unhappy campers who had a disabled account.

          I caution all of my clients to use Facebook for what it is but not get to carried away with it. Retain control and drive traffic to your own website. With 500 million users it is hard to ignore but be smart about it.

          FB is becoming more ingrained into other sites. I noticed that Onlywire for example now requires that you like them on FB to get a new account.
          Other sites allow you to log in via FB to their sites. The more power they get the more control they have....something to consider.
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          • Profile picture of the author Terry Crim
            Originally Posted by LilBlackDress View Post

            One of my clients business account was to active on FB last year. All they did was to respond to their many fans comments. Their account was suspended. They did get it back and maybe you can get yours back also.

            Yeah, I dunno. FB never responded back to my contact about it. My guess is someone reported a comment I made on someone I know personally wall and got my account suspended, revoked, banned or whatever state it is in now. I think I know who did it if that is the case. No big deal though.

            Thanks,

            - T
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  • Profile picture of the author sdentrepreneur
    I think it really depends on how you use Facebook. I know some friends that have 2 personal accounts, 10 Fan Pages and over 20,000 friends/fans. They provide good content, breaking news and local events. They only monetize Facebook after they get them to leave the site. Be smart, no affiliate links, be a leader....not a spam loser....
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  • Profile picture of the author Terry Crim
    Another thing I thought of about this is if you are unsure and want to know, you can always contact FB and ask someone. BUT if you are doing these things already and they see it on your account, you may essentially be turning yourself in...

    Hmmm... Dunno.


    - T
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  • Profile picture of the author balsimon
    Interesting discussion... Let me add, belatedly, to the clarification/confusion...
    Help Center | Facebook

    This should take you to the question: I've been trying to promote my organization/business but now I've been warned for spamming. Is there a way I can spread the word about my organization/business?

    The short answer appears to be that you can create a page to do this. FB even provides a link to get started.

    Not sure if FB's right and left hands know what the other is doing...

    - Bal
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