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greenoak
03-08-2011, 08:38 PM
im getting several friends who are treating their personal page as a business page..... ive hidden 2 of them...one advertizing another antique shop where he consigns and the other an auctioneer putting his auction ad in his post........i thought this was against the rules?
i see a lot of this in sites i want too, mostly new stores who are new at facebook..
..i wonder why they are allowing it...seems very widespread and out in the open.......

Capitalist
03-08-2011, 10:41 PM
To my knowledge, there's nothing wrong with it. It's annoying, though :)

I tend to talk about what I'm doing with my business, but stop short of advertising it. I might say "Just finished working on a new site - this time, I'm selling ice to Eskimos. Let me know what you think: http://sellingicetoeskimos.com".

No, I don't have a site selling ice to Eskimos. If I could find an affiliate program that paid well, though, I might tackle it.

Spider
03-09-2011, 08:48 AM
It is against the Facebook rules.

Click "Report/Block this person" (bottom LH column)
In the dialog box that appears, click "This profile is impersonating someone or is fake."
Another area opens "Choose a type" - click the arrow and a list opens.
Choose "Represetns a business or an organization" or "Does not represent a real person."

Click "Continue"

I didn't go any further because I didn't want to erroneously report someone, but if you are reporting someone, this is how you do it.

As for FB allowing it, they do not, but with (what is it now?) 5 million users, they can only keep on top of this if people like us report offenders. Whenever I come across such abuse I always report it.

Really, we can only keep our own room tidy, but we benefit by helping Mom keep the rest of the house clean!

greenoak
03-09-2011, 09:06 AM
I WANT TO DO THAT..but you know, they are my friends..... would they ever know who reported?....
i do talk about the store on my personal....but hopefully in a normal way...like about my day...i try not to too much...

Spider
03-09-2011, 09:18 AM
According to FB, the person you report is not notified. FB people will probably deal with the offender as if they (FB) discovered the offense. They have no incentive to do otherwise.

Capitalist
03-09-2011, 04:31 PM
Spider - as long as they aren't saying that their profile is for their business, then they aren't misrepresenting.

There are places out there that will pay you to advertise on Facebook for them...

greenoak
03-09-2011, 05:22 PM
even if it is OBVIOUSLY for their busness? that doesnt compute...
.i understood like spider said that it was against the rules.....hmmmm...????? i thought i read that when we signed up....

Spider
03-09-2011, 06:17 PM
It's not for us to decide. FB makes the rules and FB enforces the rules ... or not. If you see something you don't like, report it. FB will deal with it. Either they will ignore your report, if no rules are beinng broken, or they will act on it, if rules *are* being broken. If enough people report something that is not a rule being broken, maybe they'll change the rules.

It's not a problem. Nobody gets into trouble because you reported them and they were abiding by the rules.

Patrysha
03-09-2011, 06:25 PM
I've never reported. I have written messages to people I've noticed are using personal profiles for business. And I give some basic instructions on setting up and maintaing a business page. All so far that I have noticed(I don't keep perfect track) change their approach. I don't think any legitimate business owner wants to break rules, but they can end up doing so by following the wrong advice or by misunderstanding the platform. Of course, that sort of approach fits what I do, but I think I would pass the advice along even if I wasn't.

Capitalist
03-10-2011, 11:41 AM
I guess I just don't understand the concern. If you don't like the updates, hide them or remove them. Dealing with the consequences of that is just part of it.

Then again, I've always been a black-and-white kind of person, and prone to making executive decisions quickly. To each his own.

Harold Mansfield
03-13-2011, 02:21 PM
Technically it is against the rules. It also doesn't make any sense since you can easily make a business page with the name your business. I see a ton of people do it and they will probably skate unless reported or they try to open a second account for personal use.
The downfall of doing that is you can have as many pages as you wish, but you can only have one personal account.
It's not something that I would let upset you, if anything I'd just look at them as if they are stupid.

greenoak
03-14-2011, 09:22 AM
;i know...and they dont want to hear about it...ive tried to get those negatives across to some new storeowners ...and also throw out that its is against the rules and facebook might decide its important sometime.... .
i miss the good parts of the 2 buddies i have put on hide..... their pages are mostly good then wham...they are advertizing on my page....im not distraught over it....but miss them a little...and feel unfriendly about it...

Spider
03-14-2011, 03:50 PM
I know what you mean, Ann. A while back, I used to get cross at someone blatantly advertising their business on my page and would delete it. Then it occurred to me, as long as their advertisements were not actually taking anything away from me, their ads could be considered a benefit to my visitors. AND, I could now comfortably advertise on their page. This is really good if they have more 'likes' than I have because I get more mileage than they do!

He-he! Old and wiley beats young and energetic every time!

greenoak
03-14-2011, 04:42 PM
but i want my friends to spend money with me not him!!! and i sure dont want to help them go to the auction and bid against me....

Spider
03-14-2011, 04:53 PM
But wouldn't you want his friends to spend their money with you? If he has more friends than you, you win. If your advertising is better than his, you win. if your conversion rate is better than his, you win.

In addition - if you have done a better job of maintaining your clients' loyalty, you doubly win!

Harold Mansfield
03-14-2011, 05:26 PM
You have to moderate your wall posts the way you see fit. I let people post on my wall as long as they aren't trying to sell products that I already sell. I don't mind f they promote their event, new track or podcast or anything like that.
But I do draw the line when they post affiliate links and remove those.

AaronConway
04-12-2011, 10:19 AM
I see personal pages used as business pages all the time. Recently, Facebook has been cracking down on some of those but they now have a way to change personal pages to business pages. In the long run they're hurting their own business in my opinion. Remember, personal pages max out at 5000 people where business pages don't have a max.

Aaron