Image by mark_am_kramer via Flickr

So, you tell me:  Can a person have their Facebook account disabled for promoting and marketing their brands, products and services?

SCENARIO 1.

Just the other day, as the anchor for Social Media Television, I had the distinct pleasure interviewing a guest who described what he did to have his Facebook account disabled (unknowingly).  He’d created a business page, but because of SEC rules, and his profession, he had to take it down.  So, he began engaging his community and “promoting” his products and services on his personal profile.  To his horror, one day, Facebook sent him a nice little note that said:  ”Your account has been disabled”!

SCENARIO 2.

Today, I received an exciting note, that a community member had reached 5,000 “friends” on his personal profile and Facebook said, in other words, “time to get a Fan Page” (i.e. Business Page).  He was shocked at the limitation.   Here’s my reply, and I’m curious what you would add to this:

Dear X,

First, Congratulations on reaching this milestone with the equity of your brand!

Can I respond / weigh in?  Just a few thoughts, which I know you “already know” …

You make sense, but think about it:

If your personal profile has nothing to do with your business or profession, then a Business Page (i.e. Fan Page) is the most appropriate.

What I’ve observed is that we start building a personal brand/and or our services or products, and sometimes, we’re promoting them on the personal profile (and thus a violation of the terms of service) and that really isn’t the purpose of FB personal profile.  It’s intended to be, well, personal.

You can determine what you’re promoting by looking at your profile picture.  If it’s a logo, or image and NOT your personal picture, then, you may be tight-walking the “promotion” violation, and risk having your account disabled by Facebook.

If you aren’t doing anything to build your business or brand, and you reach 5,000 “friends”, then I say, you really need to have a “celebrity” page on the the Business side (you know you have a choice when you create your page to be a local business, product/service,  “celebrity”, or public figure, etc.).

At any rate, the content that you publish on your Fan Page will push through to your wall, so your entire community will have visibility.

Just my two cents, unsolicited, but given out of sincerity.

Have a great evening and congratulations again on your “stardom” success!!

Tiffany Odutoye, Social Brand Equity Coach

SCENARIO 3.

My client was sharing their progress to date and had great engagement on their business page.  However, they shared with me the personal profile, which was:

1) In a business name

Violation:  Your personal page must be a “real” first and last name.  A business entity should have a presence on the Business Pages.

2) Highlighting ONLY a business in the “info box” and promoting their products and services

Violation:  Well, this is walking that tightrope again.  I cannot be dogmatic.  However, here is where people come to learn about “you”, not necessarily your business.  If you want to have your business in the URL section, great, but lets stop promoting what we do, and focus more on “who” we are.

We reviewed the Facebook terms of service, they decided to make some changes.

What about you?  What do you think?  Is this approach too strong? Should Facebook ease up and “allow” personal profiles to be whatever we want?  Should they force you to have a business page?  Should they open the limits to the number of “friends” you can have on your personal profile? Since they’ve reached 400M+ users and would not be able to manage enforcement, should we take a chance and promote, promote, promote?

Pick an area and let’s hear from you!