Setting up a Facebook Page has become a natural step in promoting any small business, but you could risk having your page deleted by breaking Facebook’s rules.
To help you avoid losing your page, we’ve compiled a list of 5 of the most common mistakes:
1. Promotions
Facebook has specific rules when it comes to promotions. The two most important things to remember when running a promotion: it must be administered by an app and must include a disclaimer that Facebook isn’t involved. If you can’t code your own app, there are many services that can help you. (How to Engage Your Audience and Grow Your E-mail List with Facebook Contests)
2. Cover Photos
While the cover image may look like an ad, building it like one can get your page deleted. You can’t include calls to action, contact information (even your url!), special offers, use copyrighted information and there can be no more than 20% text in the image. (Make Sure Facebook Doesn’t Take Down Your Cover Photo)
3. Copyrighted Materials
We mentioned this already when discussing Cover Photos, but this rule applies to all Facebook users all the time. In fact, it applies to everyone, all the time, everywhere.
“If you don’t own the copyright to content you wish to post, posting it without permission of the copyright holder might be a violation of the law.” Read More: Facebook About Copyright
4. Naming Your Page
You may think your page name is your chance to be creative. You may be right, but you’ll still have to follow the guidelines: Facebook names can’t contain generic terms, use excessive capitalisation (except for acronyms), contain character symbols, or include superfluous descriptions or unnecessary qualifiers.
5. Content | Community Standards
We’re sure we don’t have to tell you that certain topics aren’t allowed on Facebook (sexually suggestive, hate speech, and a list of others found in Facebook’s community standards) but there have been cases where this has impacted alternate tobacco products or anything with breastfeeding photos so it’s good to understand the rules and how they might apply to you.
Read More: Facebook Prohibited Content
It can be tempting to break the rules when so many others are! Pages are being deleted on a regular basis and getting your page back is arduous if not impossible.
It’s not worth the risk of losing all the work you put into building a following. Don’t break the rules!
If you have any questions on whether or not what you’re doing is fine please contact us (email: info@wellmanwilson.com)
Related Reading:
Facebook Pages Terms
Is Your Facebook Page in Danger of Deletion? Save Your Fans in 6 Steps
Hat tip goes to Shawna from ReSoMe for letting us know that the Facebook page guidelines have removed all restrictions except for copyrighted material (this will always apply to everything) and 20% text. The change must be relatively recent, despite that the page guidelines show they haven’t been updated since Dec. 17, 2012. Back on that date, they still had the original restrictions in place. Here’s the new wording:
All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your Page will be able to see your cover. Covers can’t be deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines. Covers may not include images with more than 20% text.