As a small business owner, you rely on social media platforms to promote your business and drive clientele to your page or website. Many small businesses rely solely on the interaction created by Facebook ads, page posts and campaigns so it can be frustrating when the powers that be restrict your activity due to misuse of the site. It is increasingly important to understand Facebook’s changing rules and regulations, so you don’t end up getting blocked or, even worse, your account being closed permanently.
The term ‘Facebook Goal’ refers to the punishment of a Facebook profile or business account by disabling the account or partially blocking some of its features for a period of time due to the breaking of Facebook rules. It can range from the restriction of posting for a few days to a week’s days or a complete removal of the profile or page altogether.
How can you avoid Facebook Goal?
Trying to understand the terms and conditions of posting on Facebook can be complex and confusing so here are the major points to remember to avoid ending up in the Facebook Big House.
Don’t Post Too Much or Too Fast
Facebook is always on the lookout for spammers, so don’t act like one. Even if the post you have shared is exciting and time sensitive, resist the urge to post it everywhere, right now. Leave a few minutes, or even hours before posting and sharing on all associated and relevant pages and avoid looking suspicious to the Facebook moderators. This also goes for liking all the pages and commenting on every little post imaginable. Use Facebook’s scheduling function and you can do all your posts in 1 go and then drip feed them out over a time period.
Post Original Content
Got a great article you’ve written yourself but Facebook doesn’t like the image you downloaded from Google to go with it? It’s probably been marked as spam. Keep the integrity of your page and use free stock photos or better still invest some money to get more unique stock images for your blog posts as well as branding authentic images with your business name on website.
Also in line with this strategy is creating original content for your site and not just copy and pasting someone else’s article and claiming it as your own. Use authentic links to reputable sites if you wish to share information to your clientele.
Don’t Friend Everyone
Gone are the days of face-to-face networking being the only method of sourcing contacts and reaching out to prospective clients, however this does not mean you have to confirm everyone who requests the honour of your Facebook friendship, or friend-request every random person on Facebook that may be beneficial to your business. Do what you like with your personal profile, but keep your business ‘friends’ all about quality, not quantity.
Keep People Coming Back
One of the trickiest strategies to master is keeping viewers intrigued with what’s going on with your business. Too much information and your viewers and potential clients will be sick of you, too little and they will lose interest. The idea is to provoke visitors to your page and website to learn more about you and your products or services. Experiment with what works for your business. For example, some find once a day is ideal for engagement whilst others only require 3-4 times per week. Constant online presence is the same as incessant nagging; annoying and will both lose you customers and anger the Facebook bosses.
Remember the most important thing is to add value to people seeing your posts or coming to your page.
Is your post:
- Interesting
- Educational
- Solving a People
- Or just selling?
It is fine to sell sometimes but not every post.
Think about how you treat people in real life, make a connection, get to know them and then offer a solution.
Follow the same principals for Facebook and other social media platforms.
