3 Ways Facebook Administrators Can Avoid Complicated Situations With Fan Posts

Originally published for Clarkston Chamber of Commerce, Clarkston, WA, August 2010

Almost every week, someone asks me how to deal with the all too common occurrence of unsolicited, wildly off-topic, inappropriate or competing content being published to their Facebook Page Wall.  Here are three tips for avoiding complicated situations on Facebook Pages.
  • First, be proactive.  Write a set of clear, simple Facebook Posting Guidelines that state your Page’s reason for existence, the subject matter you encourage Fans to share, what subject matter you consider to be out of bounds, and how you will deal with Posts or Comments that violate your guidelines.  Perhaps, something along these lines:

    “Hi there, and welcome to the Official Facebook Page for SOUPER SALAD!  We started this Page to share updates on daily menu items for our restaurant, pass along special offers, and hear from you, our Fans.  We’d love to see pictures of you and your friends having a SOUPER SALAD lunch and hear about your favorite things to eat here – if you have a question about what we do, ask us and we’ll get you an answer.  We know many of you are great people who work hard to help promote non-profit causes here in our region – we respect that and want to help share your causes here but ask that, instead of posting your cause or event information to our Wall on your own, you email your request to postmycause@SouperSalad.com.  This will help us make sure everything looks nice and tidy.  Oh, and remember to be nice here – antagonistic, rude or inappropriate Comments and Posts will be deleted; repeated occurrences of these types of items might result in your exclusion from our community.  If you have a restaurant near us, we’d love to have you join us here but request that you not market to our customers directly via our Page – manners, you understand.  If you have a proposal on how we might be able to do some cooperative marketing on Facebook, we’re ready to listen – please introduce yourself to us by sending us an email to introductions@SouperSalad.com and well get back with you.  Thanks for reading, enjoy yourself here and have a SOUPER nice day!”
  • Second, be understanding.  Even after you pen and publish a set of Facebook Posting Guidelines, well-meaning people may share their own information on your Page without permission.  When someone Posts about a hyper-local bake sale that is raising funds for a student trip on to your outdoor recreation Page, remember that not everyone on Facebook understands the demographic makeup of your Fan base or has a degree in Marketing.  More often than not they’re just nice people doing their best to share a message with as many people as possible with little or no budget.   Keep in mind that your Fans will only see other Fan Posts if they visit your Page and choose to view it through the Page + Others Filter.   You have the choice to quietly delete the Post or let it slip into oblivion by giving it no notice whatsoever and posting enough new news to push it farther down the Wall; for the most part, I recommend the latter option as deleting the Post can make your Fan feel unvalued.  If the Fan persists, refer to your Posting Guidelines.
  • Third, avoid online altercations.  Please, do not enter into a public confrontation about the validity of a Fan’s Post or Comment on your Page via Posts and Comments.  Facebook Pages are fully indexed by Google – deleting conversations from your Page does not delete them from the Internet. And the Internet has a very, very long memory.  If possible, take the exchange offline and try to come to an understanding.  If the Fan persists in publishing what you view as objectionable content, a quick and clean cut is the best solution – block his/her access to your Page and deal with the consequences.

Dealing with overzealous, inappropriate and unsolicited posts is part of working in Social Media.  I recommend that determining how to deal with these situations should be addressed, before they occur, in your organization’s Social Media Use Guidelines.

What tips can you share on how to curate a Facebook Page Wall?

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How You Can Avoid Causing Complicated Situations On Facebook

Dress it up any way you want, Spam Musubi is still SPAM

You’re looking for a way to spread the word about a fundraiser and think to yourself, “Hey, I’ll make an Event on my Facebook Profile and all my Friends will see it – I’ll hit 327 pairs of eyeballs in seconds, and their Friends will see it and their Friends, etc.!”  Excellent work, Facebooker – that’s a great use of your Profile.  Then you think to yourself, “Hey, I’m a Fan of SOUPER SALAD and they have tons of Fans, I can post my information to their Page and reach their people, too.”  Hold on there, Facebooker – just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Posting to a Page is just like hanging a poster in a business.  You wouldn’t just walk in and slap up a flyer without asking, would you?  You wouldn’t drop your business cards off on the sales counter of your competitor, would you?  You wouldn’t try to sell your pipe tobacco to people at a homemade lollipop store, would you?  No, you wouldn’t, because that would be rude.  Storefront or Page, the same rules apply – both are professional spaces.
Before posting your information to someone else’s Page, take a moment to consider the audience of the Page you’re posting on – does your information benefit that audience?  If not, then the information most likely doesn’t belong there.
  • If you are a Fan of a gourmet cheese store, sharing about an independent cheese tasting event is appropriate, sharing information about your daughter’s Girl Scout cookie sale is not.
  • If you are a Fan of a local restaurant, commenting that you enjoy an item the Page’s owner has on it’s menu is appropriate, posting an invitation for their Fans to visit your ice cream shop is not.
  • If you are a Fan of a tourism site, posting about the tee time you just scored at a beautiful course in the area is appropriate, posting about your fundraiser car wash at a grocery store in the area is not.
  • If you are a Fan of a membership based business organization, posting about a new blog that has great articles on how to help businesses grow is appropriate, posting about the painting services you offer is not.
It’s not about your business, cause or event being important – they are.  It’s about using someone else’s space to promote your own agenda.  It’s about being polite.  I suggest you introduce yourself to the Page’s owner  - offline if at all possible or by email, form a relationship . . . . then ASK if you can share your information, you never know, they may just offer to share it for you!

These tips are only the beginning, what advice can you offer to help others from becoming unintentional Facebook Spammers?

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FACEBOOK LIKE or OPENLIKE?

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