When it comes to opening a business, starting up your facebook page is pretty high up on the list of things to do. 

It’s where everyone is, right? The best social platform for people who don’t have time/money to invest in a website yet? The answer is yes, it’s a great platform to get your business out there and join in the conversation around your products/services. 

But for a platform that seems to be synonymous with ‘Social Media for Business’, there is a shocking amount of people who are using the platform without being aware of—or choosing to disregard—the terms of use for the platform. 

When it comes to Facebook, I like to think about when my Mom used to ask me ‘if you see your friends jumping off a cliff, are you going to jump too?’ 

Just because you see a similar business doing something on Facebook does NOT mean that you should be doing the same thing in some cases. When you use the platform wrong, you can find yourself in what we Social Media Consultants call ‘Facebook Jail’

To help you avoid the headache, I’ll be chatting about a recent situation where I helped a fellow small business owner who had their business page removed. 

What is Facebook Jail? 

Essentially Facebook's Jail is when a Facebook user (Business or personal page) is blocked or banned by Facebook from accessing their account, due to terms of service violations or spammy behavior. The Worst-case-scenario—which you want to avoid at all costs—is that this "jail"/violation could lead to a Facebook account being deleted entirely. 

How do you stay out of Facebook Jail?

In short: Follow the rules! We all know that no one reads the terms and conditions, but in this instance you should definitely go back and give those a read for your business page. Facebook users can find themselves in hot water if they are caught doing something outside of Facebook's TOS (Terms of services) or guidelines.

Here’s what you can do to avoid Facebook Jail:

Don't Send Friend Requests to People you Don't Know:

If your account is temporarily blocked from sending friend requests, it's because friend requests you have sent have gone unanswered or have been marked as declined. If you don’t know them, then don’t send them a friend request.

Don't Do Things You Shouldn't:

Facebook has some specific things that they don’t allow on their channel and surprisingly  these are closely monitored.

Things NOT to do on FB:

• No nudity or sexually suggestive content

• No hate speech, threats, or direct attacks on an individual/group.

• No content that contains self-harm or excessive content.

• No fake or impostor timelines.

• No SPAM.

Accounts can be deleted if a user is caught engaging in any of the following:

• Continued, prohibited behavior.

• Unsolicited contact with others which includes harassing behavior and constant advertising or promotions as a Facebook profile (not a Page).

• Using a Fake Name to create a fake profile or worse yet; impersonating a person or entity.

Don't Send Too Many Messages: 

The quickest example of sending too many messages is when users are on Facebook messaging about their Multi Level Marketing product. When they copy and paste, word-for-word the same message in 20 chat windows about the latest recipe using their extra special spice—Facebook catches on pretty quickly.

Even if they’re sending messages only to the people they know, they can be marked as SPAM.

Don’t Use Your Personal Profile As A Business  

This has been a big no-no for awhile now, yet there are still businesses who started this practice before Facebook Pages existed and have yet to create an official page for their business. They don’t want to have to start all over as a Facebook Page and have their access to other Facebook users limited as a business.

How do you know if you have a profile or a page? If you have to “Friend” someone you have a profile and if someone has to “Like” the page to see it it’s a business page. 

The reality is that Business Pages on Facebook are there so people can set them up and operate as a business. It gives the business credibility and functionality while offering up an easy way to do business via Facebook. 

As of 2013, Facebook started cracking down on businesses using Facebook as a profile, and the bottom line; you can't have a business name or any other name other than your real name on your personal profile. And you can’t share business information or sales on your profile. 

Once in awhile it’s ok to share from your business page to your personal page but you shouldn’t be using your personal as a sales page.

Hosting an illegal Contest on your business page: 

This is another example where it’s better to read the rules and create a contest based off them rather than copy what someone else has for a contest on their page. 9 out of 10 Facebook contests that I see out there are against Facebook’s term of service and can land you in FB jail if caught! Essentially to do a contest on Facebook you are allowed to ask the participants the following:

1. Like this post

2. Comment on this post

Everything else is against privacy rules.

“Like and Share contest” are against the terms and services agreement and could cause you to lose your page. Boosting a “Like and Share” contest to get extra exposure increases the risk of it being reported since you are asking for more eyeballs on the posts aka more chances for the Facebook moderators to see it!

As a last note, asking your participants to tag their friends is also a violation of the rules, because they weren’t able to give consent to be tagged in the post.

Using random pictures off the internet and using them on your profile especially for a contest:  

Saving an image from google to use for promotions is one of the quickest ways to get in trouble on Facebook, as well as in real life. In my last post, we covered why using images you can’t track the source of is a bad idea. (You can check it out right here)

So How Do You Save Your Page?

Right before the holidays, I was told about a local company who had their Facebook Page blocked. (Aka they were thrown into Facebook Jail.) Their account had been active with a good amount of followers and they were holding a contest and then overnight their page was taken down with no warning or explanation from the Facebook Moderators.

It’s the stuff of nightmares for small business owners.

While I hadn’t been following this account, I decided to message them to find out if I could help. After a few questions, I figured out why they had been blocked.

The Red Flags

• This particular account had been hosting ‘Like and Share’ contests.

• They were putting a budget behind boosting these contests.

• They had prizes including Tim Hortons and Starbucks gift cards, which had images that looked like they belonged on the brands websites. (Used without permission for the contest)

There are two reasons this page was tracked down by the moderators. First was that they were putting money in to boost the post so more people could see it.

The other thing they did was use the images belonging to a large brand, who most likely have a department of people set up to keep their copyright images from being used online. Do they care if it’s just a small like and share contest? No. They would have just flagged the content and moved on.

In the end, someone had reported the contest. Maybe a competitor, or a big brand that saw their images or maybe just someone annoyed by the boosted post. In this case they lost both their Personal Page AND their Business Page.

They were able to retrieve their pages, but in most cases you can expect those assets to be gone for good. My suggestion? Don’t even risk it and make sure that when you’re launching a contest, you should follow the rules.

Conclusion: 

Facebook is still a major hub for small businesses and as a busness owner, it’s best to know the rules of the platform you’ll be using to make your content available. Taking some extra time to read the Facebook Official Rules will save you a headache in the long run.

Still have questions? Book a consultation and I will gladly answer your questions and make sure that you and your business are following Facebook’s Terms of Service.