Facebook Marketing - should I use a fake profile?

by mocca
10 replies
Just a quick question with regards to Facebook Marketing with regards to which profile to use and the limitations of Facebook Pages with regards to communicating with other Facebook users.

As far as I know you can only send a message to someone if you are using Facebook as a person (in other words, under your facebook profile, not using Facebook as a Page) - can someone please verify whether I am correct here?

If that is the case, if you do want to build relationships with people etc to promote, let's say, your client's offline business, it means that you will actually have to do that as 'yourself' unless you set up a fake Facebook account.

And a fake Facebook account is also not 'facebook legal' - correct?

In a lot of FB marketing courses etc it looks as if people who do facebook marketing do so under fake profiles, with pages attached to these profiles. So they then use their pages and their profiles interchangeably - either using Facebook as a page where they can (e.g. by liking other pages through comments that other pages left on pages), or using Facebook as the 'person' to contact page owners or other people who might be interested in their product/service

Am I correct in this assumption?

Now, if I want to promote a client's page, it looks as if the only way to do this, and get the maximum benefit out of Facebook by being able to contact people directly, is by setting up a fake profile and being an admin for the page (which existed already and was set up by the business owner)? Doesn't this run the risk of getting your fake account banned in any case?

Any recommendations for the best way to promote a Facebook page for an offline client (apart from running ads, which I will do in any case) - I am more thinking in the lines of trying to contact people to make them aware of the page through Facebook itself.
#facebook #fake #marketing #profile
  • Profile picture of the author aduttonater
    Unless your business has an established reputation within the public I don't think Facebook is the best marketing tool.

    What I've discovered their are many groups that duplicate the same topic and all of it's members will spam their opportunities to you.

    I just recently deactivated my account yesterday. This way I can get away from the spam and focus on what's important.
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  • Profile picture of the author samusbox
    Facebook show ad sences
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    • Profile picture of the author neighborhub
      Lets take this back a couple notches.

      I would never recommend that you ever make a fake profile to promote an offline customer or dummy pages. The Facebook community is familiar enough with the process to realize a bogus account when they see one.

      Here are some suggestions:

      1. Facebook changed the admin levels for the pages allowing for several tiers. One of the main tricks is the "Advertiser" role. You can only "suggest" a page to a friend as an admin for a page. Allowing people to be "Advertisers" is a simple and quick way to get your "Evangelical" fans to get friends to like the page etc...

      2. Work with the client to see if they have any existing email database or marketing capability. Facebook allows admins to "import" contacts to help spread the word about a page without spending a penny on advertising.

      3. Email marketing as a whole is a great way to push to the Facebook page. With the continuous changes over the last month or 6 weeks with edgerank you will want to get as many people to get connected with the business on Facebook through true avenues as possible.

      4. Custom Applications are a great way to really get a new reach with a page. Building app's that have outside Facebook capability are an awesome way collect the users information for continuous marketing...
      Here is one we build:
      https://www.facebook.com/pemmicanbee...43514289027449


      The biggest mistake with Social Media marketing is to think like a Internet Marketer/SEO... yes, some of the techniques can work... but with Facebook and other media you really need to keep the customer in mind as a "conversation" perspective.

      I would honestly recommend just working as an admin on the page and build via ads, email marketing, friend leverage and network with other pages.

      Hope that helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author johnrone
    Sure you can use a fake Facebook profile. I have tried using a fake Facebook profile to create a fan page for my client's web page. I actually created a Facebook account using my client's real first name and a different surname, and made up a profile. After that, I created a fan page. It works fine and no infractions. Although, at first, when I add other people as friends, I was being warned for adding people I did not know. For that, my account was only disabled for a week, and I cannot add more friends in that period. After a week, it turns out fine again and it's running til now.
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  • Profile picture of the author mocca
    @neighborhub
    Thanks for the advice - the client does have an email list so yes, that will be imported, and I did develop an application much like the one you showed as an example, to build up the email list for the client and get more likes at the same time. I do realise I would have to explore various avenues to promote the page (and the main purpose for promoting the page is actually to get people to enter the sweepstakes draw to enable us to get their email addresses to be able to send them newsletters and mobile updates).
    My problem is that I would like to make use of as many avenues as possible so yes:
    - use facebook ads to promote the competition (Check)
    - upload existing contact list (check)
    - promote competition and page on website (check)
    - promote competition and page to current email list (check)
    - promote competition and page through video marketing (check)
    where I get stuck though is the fact that there seems to be only so much you can do with regards to promoting the page 'as the page' when you are an admin. It really looks as if the 'person' behind the admin will have to emerge somehow if he wants to recommend or invite people to view the page at all. This is the problematic area for me on a technical level since theoretically I want to outsource this to an independent VA, but if this VA has to get involved on a personal level then it is not going to work...
    Can you please elaborate what you mean by:
    "1. Facebook changed the admin levels for the pages allowing for several tiers. One of the main tricks is the "Advertiser" role. You can only "suggest" a page to a friend as an admin for a page. Allowing people to be "Advertisers" is a simple and quick way to get your "Evangelical" fans to get friends to like the page etc..."
    When you say that you can only 'suggest' a page to a friend as an admin for a page, do you mean, as I understand it, that you can only suggest a page to a friend 'as yourself', in other words, I, me, personally, as myself on Facebook, is an admin for a page and then I can suggest the page to my friends..... (which is the problem that I am sitting with, which is that I DON'T want to have to do this from a personal perspective since it might be my VA which has to do this and she has nothing to do with the actual business or the page...) Please let me know if I am interpreting this correctly?

    and then...How do you make someone an 'advertiser' for a page - I am assuming that they first have to 'like' the page, then when you make then an advertiser - what happens then? If they 'like' the page, won't they in any case be able to share info about the page on their wall? What makes being an advertiser so special? (Sorry, I know I can possibly look all of this up but forgive me, I am asking advice from people who might KNOW this, I am not normally lazy like this but I have been going round in circles now for a few days and I just cannot find ANYTHING about the technical side of accounts, and how to use them effectively. All the videos, posts etc about how to get more fans are about ' run ads, put a FB like button on your site, add the FB page to your emails etc etc)

    You also say to work with the page as an admin and do the following:

    "friend leverage and network with other pages."

    This is exactly what I want to do but NOT as myself.... but which I can't seem to do 'as the page' - let me know if I am correct in this assumption?
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    • Profile picture of the author neighborhub
      Originally Posted by mocca View Post

      @neighborhub
      Can you please elaborate what you mean by:
      "1. Facebook changed the admin levels for the pages allowing for several tiers. One of the main tricks is the "Advertiser" role. You can only "suggest" a page to a friend as an admin for a page. Allowing people to be "Advertisers" is a simple and quick way to get your "Evangelical" fans to get friends to like the page etc..."
      When you say that you can only 'suggest' a page to a friend as an admin for a page, do you mean, as I understand it, that you can only suggest a page to a friend 'as yourself', in other words, I, me, personally, as myself on Facebook, is an admin for a page and then I can suggest the page to my friends..... (which is the problem that I am sitting with, which is that I DON'T want to have to do this from a personal perspective since it might be my VA which has to do this and she has nothing to do with the actual business or the page...) Please let me know if I am interpreting this correctly?

      and then...How do you make someone an 'advertiser' for a page - I am assuming that they first have to 'like' the page, then when you make then an advertiser - what happens then? If they 'like' the page, won't they in any case be able to share info about the page on their wall? What makes being an advertiser so special? (Sorry, I know I can possibly look all of this up but forgive me, I am asking advice from people who might KNOW this, I am not normally lazy like this but I have been going round in circles now for a few days and I just cannot find ANYTHING about the technical side of accounts, and how to use them effectively. All the videos, posts etc about how to get more fans are about ' run ads, put a FB like button on your site, add the FB page to your emails etc etc)

      You also say to work with the page as an admin and do the following:

      "friend leverage and network with other pages."

      This is exactly what I want to do but NOT as myself.... but which I can't seem to do 'as the page' - let me know if I am correct in this assumption?
      Thanks for the questions:
      "Advertiser" is just a lower level of admin level of the page. The idea that I have used with some clients and other resellers with us is find the customers who are very active on Facebook but also love the business/products/services as a whole.

      Think of it this way. I run heavy referral programs for my business and reward those who recommend and confirm when someone begins to work with us. Our personal flare is rewarding the customer after 3 referrals and never billing them again for the service they purchased from us for life.

      This is the same idea with the "advertiser" level admin for Facebook. If you can engage customers that are already tied to the business and award bonuses for the people they get involved with your page then you are that much further ahead "without" using your personal profile.

      This is obviously increased when you add email marketing to the mix after a contest or something of that nature is run to continue raising the engagement.


      To answer your second question about the access to the page. You can add someone as an admin (advertiser level) to the page once they like the page by email since you are probably not friends with them. Make sure to double check what they are using as the "voice" of the page or personal profile.

      Hope this helps. Let me know if this works.
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  • Profile picture of the author shahbaz94us
    fake profiles have nothing to do with your site image, you can do this.
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  • Profile picture of the author erica6
    Fake profile does not matter. its ok
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  • Profile picture of the author MobiDev
    Facebook rules are not so strict. If there is a real need, you can use a fake profile, even several of them. The most powerful business network in LinkedIn, you should post only true information about yourself there. You can only send a message to someone if you are using LinkedIn as a person. So if you feel that creating a fake profile is reasonable, then go on.
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