Avoid Getting Banned in Social Media Marketing

Are you breaking any rules in social media marketing without even knowing it?

As you may already know, there are certain rules that businesses all need to adhere to in social media marketing. No it’s not the type that stops users from sharing pictures of what they had for dinner or anything like that.

Rather these are rules that are aimed at improving one’s experience with a certain social media community and stop practices like spamming, unethical marketing strategies and poor quality content.

Surprisingly, a lot of people in the social marketing business are breaking many of these rules without even knowing it.

It’s certainly important for businesses to know for certain that they are not breaking any of these rules so as not to be banned by whatever social media networks they are working with.

We are truly saddened by stories of marketers hard at work to earn their place in social networks suddenly get their business accounts banned without even knowing why.

What not to do in social media marketing

In order to help marketers keep up with the rules and regulations set by some of the most dominant social media networks online, we’ll cover some policies in social marketing that everyone should be well aware of. You’ll find that some networks enforce policies than that of others. If you somehow find that you are breaking any of them, least you can put the lid on it before the issue escalates any further. Let’s jump right to it then!

 

FACEBOOK

As the most dominant social media network online, businesses certainly have a lot to lose if they somehow get their business account banned on Facebook. Well it certainly can happen if they end up committing these violations in Facebook marketing

• Inappropriate business page names – business names must be unique with proper grammar and capitalization.
• Making and making use of fake accounts
• Publishing any copyrighted material and attempting to pass it off as your own
• Inappropriate collection of user data – always let your users know what information your business is collecting and seek their proper consent. Never misrepresent Facebook as the one gathering the information in any way.
• Facebook marketing promotions or contests run outside that of the Facebook app. You can’t also solicit any action other than “Likes”, “Check In” and app connection as a basis or requirement for participation. Also winner notifications can only be done outside of Facebook.  As you can see, running a contest or any other promotional activity on Facebook isn’t as easy as you might think.
• No CTA’s (Call to action) on cover photos which includes among other things, “Like” and “Share” requests and promotional or discount invitations.

 

You can check out the Facebook Page Guidelines for the complete rule book on business pages and Facebook marketing

TWITTER

You can check out the complete Twitter marketing policies directly on their website which they fondly call – The Twitter Rules. Let’s briefly go over a couple of them which specifically concerns social media marketing professionals.

• Stealing trademark usernames and logos – this includes creating usernames that resemble that of your competitors and using it to discredit them. Trademarked usernames are automatically retrieved by Twitter on behalf of its owner.
• Impersonation – claiming to be somebody you’re not in order to misdirect others. Besides, nobody should have to stoop so low.
• Long periods of inactivity and selling of usernames – registering a username and not using it for more than 6 months
• Repeated and duplicate content – tweeting the same post over and over again is never going to get you anywhere in Twitter marketing well except for a one-way trip down suspension alley that is. This includes links and duplicate content targeted towards certain users.
• Creating and using your own Twitter Badge – Twitter rewards verified accounts and promoted products with a special badge that recognizes them as reputable members of the social marketing community. Using false badges and using it in any way is a sure way to get your Twitter marketing campaign suspended.
• Using bots to follow  and stop following a large number of users or simply behaving like one
• Using unethical or underhanded tactics to secure a large number of followers on Twitter
• Topic hijacking – don’t butt in on trending topics posting unrelated  promotional content about yourself or your business or else the cute little bird might just zero in on your account and take it far away where it’ll no longer bother anybody
• Excessive use of links as sole content – there’s just no context to it so don’t be surprised if Twitter finds you account as outright annoying.
• Community reports – It pays to be nice. If a lot of people are reporting a lot of complaints about you and blocked your account off their network. Twitter might just follow through with a permanent suspension of your account.

 

LINKEDIN

Compared to other social media networks, LinkedIn’s policies in social marketing is much less stringent. You can check out the LinkedIn User Agreement  straight from their website or briefly go through the following points outlined below which every social media marketer should know about so as not to get their business account banned:

 

• Establishing connections with random people – you have to know the people you are trying to connect with in the LinkedIn social network. Otherwise, don’t be surprised if the network kicks you out.
• Publishing copyrighted content anywhere on the network – this includes your company page, LinkedIn Answers and groups. Granted violating anybody’s intellectual property rights won’t get your account banned the first time but LinkedIn can shut down your group or company page which can be just as devastating for your social media marketing campaign.
• Utilizing LinkedIn messages as a bulk e-mailing service is seen as a grave misuse of the LinkedIn social network
• Selling your LinkedIn account or monetizing it any way
• Creating fake accounts in an attempt to impersonate and discredit competitors – that’s a low blow
• The use of bots to establish connections, members or flowers and grow one’s network artificially is strictly forbidden.

 

These are but a few of the social media marketing practices that can get you banned in 3 of the most dominant social media networks online. What do you think? Had you broken any of those rules or policies without even knowing it?