Saturday, June 12, 2010

Tips for Keeping Your Facebook Pages Safe

Most people in the world of PR are becoming increasingly aware of the power of social media. However, many people are unaware of the dangers and limitations that accompany the free marketing options that social media sites have to offer.

I was given the opportunity to go through an intensive Facebook marketing program for my job. While many of us are savvy with fan pages, groups and “likes” from our own personal page experience, those who are utilizing Facebook for business need to be aware that certain actions can put their Facebook pages in danger.

As the networking site has expanded from college students to all demographics, their safety measures have tightened. Facebook is constantly looking through pages to find “robots” or “spammers,” and many marketers are unaware that certain actions can get your Facebook page disabled immediately.

Here are some tips for keeping your page safe:
1. Do not copy and paste all of your messages. This makes Facebook believe that you are sending out mass impersonal e-mails.
2. Do not add more than 50 friends in a day, because Facebook may start to track your activity.
3. Do not join over 300 groups- this is the limit, but if you join too fast you may be disabled.
4. Avoid repetitive actions that could make you look like a spammer.
5. Try to restrict posting on more than five people's walls at a time.
6. If you get a warning, DO NOT go on your Facebook for 24 hours.

Some of these rules might seem obvious, but Facebook has the power to delete all of your accounts, groups and fan pages without any warning at all! Take a few minutes to read through Facebook’s Terms of Service. Be careful of the way you use this powerful tool: it can help you but it can also delete you!

This guest blog was written by PRowl staff member Meagan Prescott.