Last updated on April 13th, 2015 at 01:55 pm

This blog post has been written in response to several conversations that I have had with people and twitter comments that I’ve seen over the past couple of months about Facebook pages.

It seems that there are many marketing experts out there who are advising people to create Facebook pages that break the terms and conditions of use and could lead to the pages being arbitrarily deleted costing the business at the least a little embarrassment and loss of time or could even lead to a loss of reputation.

The best thing, from the marketing experts point of view, is that any comeback falls on their client as they are the ones that are ultimately responsible for the page.  Of course what will happen to the marketing companies reputation when word gets around that they give out bad advice is another matter.

There are two main areas where Facebook pages seem to fall down :-

Cover Images

Most people seem to understand the guidance that says “Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property. You may not encourage or incentivize people to upload your cover image to their personal timelines.” (https://www.facebook.com/help/276329115767498/ and https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php) but where a lot of pages that I’ve see that have taken “professional” advice seem to fall down is on the same pages where it plainly states that  cover pages “may not contain:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”“

It doesn’t matter that (as I’ve heard said) “everyone is doing it” or “all you are doing is pushing the boundaries a little” – if your page is reported, or Facebook finds it, there is every chance that it will be deleted without warning.

The two images above demonstrate some of the problems, they have been taken at random and the web addresses/phone numbers and names have been removed from the screen shots.

Promotions and competitions

How many times have your seen a tweet or a facebook post that says “like our page to win…” ?

If you read the terms and conditions (that you did read before you created your page didn’t you?) at https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php you will see that “You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.” (section E iii).  You would also have seen ”

iv.    You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.

I personally know of several pages that have been closed down simply because they broke the very simple rules above. Imagine the heartache if you have spent ages getting followers to your page and building up a raport with your followers only to wake up one morning to find that the page has been deleted, not to mention the possible damage that it could do to your business reputation.

Differences between timelines and pages

Did you realise that there is a difference between, normal, timelines and pages?  Do you run your business page on your timeline ( something that large businesses may not do but smaller businesses such as crafters may be guilty of)?  According to Facebook there is a large difference between pages and timelines “Timelines are for personal, non-commercial use only. They represent individuals and must be held under an individual name. Pages are for professional or official use, and allow an organization, business, celebrity or band to maintain a presence on Facebook.” (https://www.facebook.com/help/217671661585622/?q=cover%20pages%20terms%20and%20conditions). So, if you are currently using your personal timeline to advertise your business stop doing so now and create a page for it.

Finally…

Remember also, to check the terms and conditions on a regular basis to make sure that the rules haven’t changed since you put your page up (the above is based on the T&Cs as of 15th December 2012), its much better to spend a few minutes checking once in a while than it is to lose months of works.