Last week I was placed in Facebook jail. I logged into my account and saw this message on the top of my page. Only I can see this message… my readers can’t.

I quickly learned that other bloggers received the same message on their page. The one thing we all had in common was that we all took part in a Paypal cash flash giveaway right before Christmas. Here is a link to the giveaway post. We did everything according to Facebook rules. We had the correct disclaimer {I actually had 2 disclaimers to make sure I was covered, one in the Rafflecopter and one in the post itself}. There were no mandatory entries. Nothing that was a violation of Facebooks rules.

The more research I did the more I learned about why this happened.

There were two separate reasons that Facebook gave for placing these limitations. Some of us had limitations placed because we were being accused of causing a negative experience for our readers and the others because we were being accused of buying likes and subscriptions.

At the time of the first message we didn’t yet know which issue we were being accused of.

As soon as I saw the restriction message on my page I appealed. I stated that I loved my Facebook page and that I would never do anything to jeopardize it. I promised to never do anything that is against the terms and to please let me know what rule I broke so that I make sure it never happens again. This is the response I got:

This is obviously a “stock” message where I am being accused of buying likes and subscriptions. This giveaway was definitely not a situation where we were buying anything.

I responded to this message with another email that explained that this accusation is false and I explained the giveaway. I again stated that I love my Facebook page and would take any and all necessary steps to make sure that i stay compliant with their rules. I checked my Facebook page again and it now states that my restriction is now permanent and I could no longer appeal.

What started as a 15 bloggers trying to do good and get someone some much needed last minute cash while building our pages turned into something not so great.

Here is what I have been able to figure out about the whole situation and how you can avoid this same problem:

What happened:

• Facebook doesn’t have the manpower to police everything on Facebook. They depend on others to alert them to violations. Someone or some people took it upon themselves to report everyone in this one specific giveaway. They thought they were being sneaky and chose those two specific violations. They used the “negative experience” claim for the smaller blogs and the “buying likes and subscriptions” for the bigger ones. By smaller and bigger I only mean the number of Facebook likes they have. I bet they thought they were really being smart… because in their mind there is no way that someone could legibility have over 30,000 likes… they would have had to have been bought. Unfortunately this person or persons are lacking the knowledge to understand that working for a year straight on one goal can get you that and much more! I know from experience that this is more than possible.
• We will never know who did this {unless they actually fess up, but that’s highly unlikely}. I have been provided some information that leads me to believe that they are fellow bloggers. This makes me extremely sad. We really are a group who can only benefit from working together. This has not hurt my desire to reach out and help other bloggers… but it has reminded me that not everyone feels the same way. For what it’s worth, it’s been said that the giveaway in question was extremely popular and other bloggers wanted to participate but there was no more room… I refuse to believe that they had anything to do with this.
• This giveaway used Rafflecopter and a like page. This made it really easy for our readers to like all the pages. The like page had the like buttons right on one page for all the blogs so that our readers didn’t have to go to multiple Facebook pages and like them individually.
• With this limitation on my Facebook page I can no longer have readers like my page from a button. They have to go to my page and hit the like button.

What you can do to avoid this issue and what changes I’ll be making:

• I’ll be being careful about the giveaways I join. I really like the blogger that organized the giveaway in question. She worked hard and for free. She was not the issue. I also don’t think that the giveaway was the issue. We had done others like that before and they were completely compliant with the rules set by Facebook too… but having said that I will be avoiding cash giveaways {Paypal}. I don’t believe that Facebook found this giveaway and deemed it a violation, but when presented with it and the human behind the computer only having seconds to decide… I think the word “cash” looked bad and that was the reason for the permanent ban.
• All giveaways that I set up will not be using like pages. If Facebook is an entry method it will have a link to the page to hit like.
• I’ll continue to never make anything mandatory on my giveaways. All entries will be optional.
• I’ll be focusing on other ways to drive traffic. I love Facebook and it provides me a whole lot of traffic… but I will be focusing on other ways like SEO and Pinterested, etc. If Facebook can arbitrarily do anything they want {it is their site and it is free, lol} then I need to remember not to put so many eggs in one basket.
• I won’t dwell on this. I know that we were not buying likes. We were doing the same thing that lots of other bloggers and companies do. Facebook has the right to do whatever they want. I will continue to try to play by their rules while building other traffic sources.

I also want to note that one of the Bloggers did get her restriction turned to temporary. She has a 30 day restriction and then it will be removed. The rest of the bloggers are now permanently restricted.

Edited to add: Another blogger got a reply that her restriction will be removed after 30 days and that the reason for her restriction was the “like page”. The like page is where all of the like buttons are on one page. Prior to this letter I had already stated above that I would not be participating in like pages. I have seen the email but since it is not mine and I did not receive it directly from Facebook I will not be posting it.

1/1/13 Edit: I received a message from Facebook that my restriction will be lifted at the end of the month.

1/31/13 Edit: My restriction was lifted.

You are welcome to comment below.

]]> http://socialmarketingmom.com/test-post/feed/ 0 http://socialmarketingmom.com/bridging-businesses-moms/ http://socialmarketingmom.com/bridging-businesses-moms/#comments Sat, 23 Feb 2013 18:29:11 +0000 admin http://socialmarketingmom.com/?p=86 You have a great product, brand or service and you need to spread the word! Great! I’m here to help! I love helping small & medium sized business increase their sales through social media… it’s kind of my “thing”!

Here are a few things to know about me and the way I work:

I don’t run my company like most do. There is no “buy” button here. I’m an outside the box thinker and I focus on each client individually to create a truly unique solution to their social marketing needs. I love to throw ideas out there and see what sticks. I work at weird hours but I’m almost always available via email. I’m committed to my clients 150%! My normal client services hours are 6am-2pm PST, Monday-Friday, but I also answer emails till midnight most nights. Weekends are divided between activities with my family and, you guessed it, working! I love what I do. If you are reading this at an hour when most businesses are closed, feel free to send me an email… most likely I’ll answer you right back!

Mom Products/Services Only Please- I limit my Social Media practice to those whose primary target audience is Women aged 20-60… the majority of which are Moms! Moms and Social Media is what I know. This focus allows me to bring my knowledge of this specialized area to my clients with spectacular results. Having said that I don’t limit my services strictly to things for moms, yet I limit it strictly to what moms want and buy. This includes products and services for the whole family including the kids, the pets and dad!

I want to be partners in your success- Nobody knows your business better than you do! I need your knowledge to do my best. I consider myself your Social Marketing Partner. You focus on running your business, I’ll focus on bringing you sales via social media. I am open to all of your ideas and suggestions… we’ll work together to build the perfect online strategy for your business.

Have a question? Ready to get working? Send me an email!

I had a meeting yesterday with a client that had an established business. He’s already making money and he’s already established in his field of expertise. He offers a profession service so he is not selling a product in a retail or wholesale environment.

His needs are unique to the typical social media needs of a business where success can be measured just in increased sales.

He recognized that he was missing large amounts of potential customers because of his lack of involvement in social media. He has a blog and a strong online presence. But he had a weak social media platform.

Many small business owners are stretched thin. They might have a good amount of employees, but there is only one of them. Entrusting your online image to someone else can be extremely risky. When finding the right person for the job is hard to do many owners take on the task themselves.

My job is to prioritize, strategize and implement a realistic plan for my small business clients to achieve their goals using social media.

Back to my client. He came to me with all the right tools to be successful. He just needed some direction on where to take his social media marketing.

His first question was to ask me my thoughts on using his personal Facebook page for his business. He had valid points on how this would streamline the limited time he had to dedicate to this aspect of his marketing.

Regardless of how easy this would make his life I knew instantly that this was a bad idea.

Here is why using your personal Facebook page for business should be rarely if ever done.

Personal Facebook pages are meant for your recreation use. This is where your funny and somewhat inappropriate uncle posts pictures {maybe of you naked as a toddler?}. Although you know that he is a good guy, others don’t have the “history” with him like you do. Even if you tell him multiple times that this is now a business page, he’ll forget… or he will remember after he writes something that doesn’t mesh with your business image.

What about just deleting unstable friends or family members… that would fix the problem… right? Now so fast. Personal friends and family are prime referrers. Who better than      that crazy uncle to tell his neighbor what a great product or service you sell. By interacting with your friends and family on Facebook you are staying in front of them and reminding them that you are open for business. Removing them from your Facebook page would hurt business, not help it.

How about just immediately removing anything inappropriate that is posted on your page. As many big companies have learned , once something has been posted the damage is done. There is no way to immediately do anything when it comes to social media. Once it’s done it’s done.

Here is another serious issues with using your personal page for business:

Your web presence is your potential clients first meeting with you. This is a real benefit for you. With a well developed online image you can have the perfect answers to their questions. You have their undivided attention. Getting them to consider you (which is what they are doing my researching you) is half the battle. If you make their first interaction with you a personal Facebook page you would need to have your settings set as open to everyone.  This means that every time you say anything on your personal page you need to be extremely careful. Want to let everyone know that you are finally taking that dream vacation to Europe? Think again… now every robber out there will know that there is a “prime” time to rob your house. Thinking of sharing the birth of your new daughter? Think again… now everyone knows your daughters DOB… forever!

After some back and forth we both agreed that this wasn’t the right direction for my client. Have no fear… I developed a great action plan and he is thriving with his online social marketing. I’d love to help you too! Feel free to contact me so we can discuss a great action plan tailored for your goals.

Businesses depend on Facebook to interact with their fans but to also drive traffic back to their website where the money making part of business occurs. So what happens when your posts are Facebook posts are missing from your fans pages? Short answer, less traffic and less sales.

There is a simple fix to never have missing facebook posts again! All you have to do is direct your fans to hover over the like button and then check the “show in news feed” and they should never miss another post from you again.

For many of us Twitter is a great traffic source. Seeing great opportunities be completely passes by leaving the business or blogger with nothing to show for their efforts makes me sad!

Let’s take a quick moment here to deconstruct a post gone wrong.

“Still available — there is a rebate on the site too! (They work great!) {direct link to a site not their own}”

This tweet immediately caught my eye. Why? Because I had no idea what they were talking about! This can either be a very good thing or a very bad thing.

• Best case- a tweet is so provocative that even though you don’t know what it’s about you still feel compelled to click on it. The only downfall to this is that your “mystery” tweet better deliver. No one likes wasting their time. Best part… if you can grab attention and get people to click the link MAKE SURE THE LINK GOES TO YOUR SITE! Get them to your site. Let them see what else you have to offer. Then provide a link to whatever you are talking about.
• Worst case-  Tweet a message to all your followers and just direct link to whatever you are talking about. You have just wasted a great opportunity to get traffic to your site, missed a potential sale via a purchase on your site or through advertising on your site and you also missed the opportunity to show everyone who clikcs through the link just how awesome you or your products are! Getting someone onto your site should always be your number one goal.

Let’s all remember traffic is KING!

Giveaways can be a great way to grown your businesses online presence and thus increase sales.

1. Increase customer loyalty by “thanking” them with a giveaway.
2. Increase potential customer base by offering entries in the giveaway by liking your social media pages
3. Showcase new products or your brand within the giveaway to increase online buzz
4. Collect email address by offering an entry to join your newsletter

So what’s the “secret” to an awesome giveaway… TRAFFIC.

Hands down the #1 element that makes a giveaway successful is getting people to your giveaway page.

How can you accomplish this?

1. When building your giveaway offer entries for people to share your giveaway:

• “Like” this post on Facebook
• Share this post on Twitter

Join forces with other online promoters:

1. Place ads
2. Arrange for advertising posts {sponsored posts}
3. Team up with bloggers

There are unlimited ways to make your giveaway a success. Traffic being the most important. Thinking outside of the box can change the success of your giveaway from ordinary to extraordinary!