Facebook has its own rules and guidelines on what you are allowed to do and what will get your Brand / Business Page banned. The rules are not too difficult to understand however they end up making you ask what then can you do. Banning of your Page can be a little troublesome for you, reason being that you may find it difficult to get your Page back.
There are Five audiences that can flag you and get you banned:
- Facebook algorithms recognizing your footprints on Facebook as going against their rules
- By Community Members of your Page
- By your Personal Profile Page Network
- By Other Pages where you join
- By Members of the other Pages where you have joined
- On and From your Brand / Business and Profile Page:
- As much you may be tempted do not send out unnecessary and too many newsletters. This is a space where even if Facebook does not ban you - your Community Members will flag you and unsubscribe from your Page.
- Posting too many marketing Links will get you flagged by Facebook. This is done so that Brand and Business Pages do not turn out to be a nuisance to people. Your Community Members have joined you for various reasons - 99% of the time they have not joined you to be bombarded with sales messages.
- Posting too often the same Link will immediate tell the algorithms at Facebook that here is spammer.
- Sending out requests to join via 'Invite Friends' button leaves you very much in the hate list of your Network and Facebook as well.
- Copy and pasting the same information around.
- Your Page for the Brand or Business should be created from your Personal Profile Page not from a pseudo name or corporate name. This Profile Page should be real and not fictitious. In other words you should be traced in the real world if required. Naturally this does not mean you give out too much Personal information that can cause crime.
- You can have multiple Pages for your different Brands and Business all of them should be from that one original real Personal Profile Page.
- You cannot have multiple Profile Pages.
- Do no go on making friends spree from your Personal Profile Page.
- Do not Post Copy-write matter. If you do the give the credit line. Do not claim it as your own in any manner whatsoever. This means that - your not claiming and not giving it a credit line either can be misunderstood as your matter / content is also wrong.
- Your Brand and Business Page name should be real and not general qualifiers like for instance Pizzas. Your campaign name and/or regional or demographic qualifiers are acceptable
- Using your Page as the 'Use Facebook as Page':
- This is great function that Facebook has brought in. However use this wisely.
- Posting your link all over gets you not only on the hit list of Facebook but also by other Pages and Community Members of other Pages.
- Giving unnecessary comment and not adding value to the other Pages that you seem to be trampling on will make your own page get flagged. You will be recognized as spammer by the other Pages and their Community Members as well.
- Copy and Pasting the same information around all Pages that you have joined.
- Running Promotions / Contests / Sweepstakes / Discounts / Offers etc on your Facebook Page:
- Promotions that are leading people to take action on your or their Facebook Page calls for Facebook to cut you out. Examples are:
- Click like and join us and get / win ....
- Post a comment and get / win ....
- Tag the photos and get / win ....
- Get members and get / win .....
- Click like on this Post and get / win ....
- Upload a photo on our Wall and get / win ....
- The 100th Fan will get / win ....
- Mention this Page on your Wall and get / win ....
- Etc
- Promotions should have a open disclosure that in no way Facebook is responsible for the same - its logic, deliverables, content and so on.
- You cannot use any of the Facebook functionality as a voting mechanism
- For instance like and vote your voice
- You cannot notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook Messages, Chat, or Posts on Profiles (timelines) or Pages.
- If you wish to interact / collect any information then you need to have an application for this. The application developed needs to comply to Facebook rules for applications and developers. This means that judging entries, notifying winners, collecting entries, conducting a competition etc all need an application.
- You can randomly select a Community Member - this means that there was no contest or competition etc.
- For third party applications you can get them ready made online or create your own. Both ways the application and the developer needs to comply with the general and special rules of Facebook. Special rules are made for developers to adhere to.
- A simple way to go about is have your contest, competition or discounts and offers run on your Blog or Site. You are allowed to give the Link as a Post. Announce that this is in no way is endorsed, sponsored, administered or associated with or by Facebook.
- Promotions that are leading people to take action on your or their Facebook Page calls for Facebook to cut you out. Examples are:
- If you do collect information from users, the you need to take their consent, and make it very clear that it is you and not Facebook who is collecting their information, and post a privacy policy explaining what information you wish to collect and how you plan to use it.
- Use applications wherein the developers have met with the Facebook terms and conditions meant for developers.
- Any Third party advertisements on Pages are very strictly prohibited. Ads or commercial content on Pages must comply with Facebook Advertising Guideline.
- And finally: Facebook has the right to amend / change the rules anytime.
Bottom line is that Facebook should not be involved directly or indirectly in whatever you do. It is your liability. Simply put if there is winner involved, if there is give away monetary non-monetary then you need to follow the rules tightly.
My Business Page is on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.