Have you gotten thrown in Facebook jail? It seems to come without warning and makes it so you can’t post in groups, send messages or friend requests, or sometimes even post at all!! Let’s talk about how you can avoid going to jail.
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So first, let’s talk about what Facebook jail actually is. If you have been there, you totally know what it is, but if you are new to Paparazzi, maybe you haven’t experienced the “joy” of Facebook jail yet.
Facebook jail basically locks you out of one or several of the features of Facebook. The most common is posting in your groups, requesting friends, sending messages, or sending friend requests. Usually you will get a notification that you are unable to do one or several of these things and/or an email. The length of time you are in jail for varies. Sometimes jail lasts for a few hours, sometimes a few months. It totally depends on what you have done to get put in jail and if you have been there before.
Jail in real life or on Facebook is no good! So let’s talk about some things you can do to avoid jail time….at least on Facebook.
1- Don’t be spammy! So before we talk more about NOT being spammy, let’s talk about what spammy is. Spam can be a lot of things. It can be posting too many places with the exact same message. It could be posting a slight variation of the same message posted in one place repeatedly. It can be posting ALL the time about your business opportunity or sales. It can be copying the same message other consultants are using and posting that. It can be mass messaging people with the same message. Bottom line, it is something that is overly done or overly un-personal.
Think about when you go to get the mail. What do you usually get? Bill, bill, bill. Advertisement, credit card application, ad, and maybe (if you are lucky) another piece of junk mail like a magazine or flyer. Is that fun to get? Not really. It’s more annoying and irritating. It’s not something you want, ask for or even usually inquire back about. It usually just goes into the trash.
Online, people are little more choosy about what they just “throw away”. Sometimes, they will just scroll past a post or 2, but if you continue doing it, your friends are going to get irritated. Soon enough, they will report it as spam. Or if you are posting in groups repeatedly, a group member could also report you as spam. Either way, you are wanting to ATTRACT people to your business and being spammy is going to do the exact opposite.
So how do you avoid being spammy? Listen on!
2- ONE profile per person! – There are a lot of different opinions on this particular piece of advice. Facebook terms and conditions that you agree to when you join Facebook states that there is only ONE profile allowed per PERSON, not per email address. If you are discovered running one, two, or 12 different profiles, Facebook will not put you in jail, they will DELETE all of them. If you are building a business on Facebook, you would loose all your parties, contacts, etc.
It’s also SUPER confusing to your friends, family and team. When I search for someone that has several profiles…which one should I friend? If I need to send a message to them….which profile should you use??
So, I stand by the rules of Facebook. Have only 1 profile. Better to play by the rules than be sorry. I have never made a second profile and I haven’t been put into Facebook jail either…so by following these simple suggestions, your one and only profile will be all you need.
3- Don’t forget to be you! – Facebook really, really wants personal profiles to be just that – PERSONAL. It’s okay to post about your business, but try to add a personal element. Like have a picture of you bagging jewelry orders. Take a selfie of you in your favorite new piece of jewelry. Those kinds of posts show you AND your business, so they don’t raise as many red flags.
If you want to post something that is more business that personal, try to use a 9 to 1 ratio. 9 personal, 1 business. You friends will still love you and so will Facebook.
4- posting in groups – Posting in groups (sales groups, yard sale groups, etc) is a fantastic way to grow your business. First, NEVER, EVER EVER ever add someone to a group without permission. Let me say this again – NEVER add someone to a group without asking and receiving permission first!
The only exception is if you make an event (like for a party) and then adding the people that want to come to the party into the party group (or VIP group) for the actual live event. When the RSVP that they are “going” it is a way of giving permission. Just be sure to put in the event description that they actual event will be in the group and a link to the group so that way they know too.
Okay, so posting in groups – To truly avoid some serious jail time, don’t post graphics or pictures that a lot of other consultants are also posting. A great example is when Paparazzi corporate sends out an email. Sometimes they have some really cool graphics they have in those. DON’T save that image and then post it right into your group. Even if you only post it once, if 30,000 consultants post the same picture within 24 hours, Facebook will see it as spam. Make your own collage or image and then post.
Groups are seen as more of a community by Facebook and they don’t really like people doing a lot of business in them. I personally have a several groups for my team and a VIP sales group and LOVE them! Be sure to post things that get the interaction up (games, contests, etc. ) and keep the conversation going.
5- posting on pages – Another way around this is to post the image directly to your fanpage and then SHARE it to your group, team page or group or personal profile. Let’s look more at pages and why that is okay. Facebook created pages FOR businesses! It is expected that you will post things on your business pages that are less personal. If you MUST post that one image that you got in an email and you have NO way to make your own or modify the image first, post it to your page and then share. Then the “offending party” is the page and not you personally. Even if the post is removed, you shouldn’t be put into jail.
Pages are also an excellent place to upload your albums of items for sale. Even if you are going to post it into your sales group….since the post originated from your page, its not seen as you personally being spammy. If you do load albums to your groups once a week or take them up and down, after a while, Facebook will start to see you as spammy and will flag your albums too. So use your pages as a “gateway” to posting into your groups. I know it’s slightly a hassle, but SO much better than being unable to post for a week or 2 and loosing out on your sales or even a few parties because you aren’t playing by Facebook’s rules.
6- Yard sale pages – These are a great place to find new customers and potential consultants. There are a few things to remember as you are posting in yards ale groups. First, follow the group rules. Be sure to read the group rules before joining and then check them again from time to time. If they sound super serious about no MLM’s or no business posting, keep looking for another group to join.
Second, when posting into groups don’t post the same things again and again. Recently my 5 year old and 3 year old have been telling Knock Knock jokes. They know 1. They tell it again and again and again. And just when you think they are done…they tell it again. I am SO tied of hearing the same joke that I even tried to teach them another one just to get a little variety. Did it work? Nope.
Don’t be like a 5 year old with only 1 knock knock joke. Keep your posts interesting and vary your content
Third, be respectful of the group and the members in the group. Don’t post every single day or even every other day. Remember the knock knock jokes? Even if my kids knew 5 or 10 different jokes, if they were telling them every day at 10 am, I would get pretty tired of it really quick. By spacing out your posts, you are reaching more people and showing that you aren’t going to be a pushy salesperson but that instead, you will respect them. This goes a long ways with people who are seeing you for the first time.
And Fourth, Don’t sell individual items in yard sale pages. If someone comments and wants to buy a specific piece, take the conversation out of the group and into a private message. While selling in yard sale groups isn’t against Facebook policy, it is against Paparazzi policy.
7 – Images and graphics – There are a LOT of great images and graphics available for you to use. In fact, we have an entire section of our website dedicated to images that are free to use and have been made just for you!!
Be careful about using images that a lot of other consultants are using, especially if you are all posting it around the same time (like we talked about before in the sections about posting in groups and posting on pages) Make your own image up if you want to share about a special Paparazzi is running! It is important to be different and keep things fresh so that you don’t look spammy.
Another word of warning, some images that are made by other consultants aren’t made from places that allow the images to be used. There have been consultants who were sued for using copyright protected images. Be careful which images you use and where you get them from. The good new is, all our images are made from Creative Commons Licensed images and modified by yours truly to be simply amazing! (so in English, that I do my homework and try my best to make sure that my images are safe to use to market your business).
8- Messages – You may have seen Facebook already trying to protect you from people sending you messages. It is called “filtered messages”. A lot of times, when you aren’t connected to a person, Facebook with filter the messages and put it in a “special” place. They figure that if you really needed to message that person, you would just be friends. It becomes a big problem for you when you need to message party guests or customers who don’t mind buying from you, but don’t want to be friends either.
To avoid this, be super sure that you need to actually contact and that your message is one they won’t mind getting! Don’t send mass messages or use group messaging to try to book parties, events of find recruits. Group messages get old really quick and is a fast way to get flagged as spam.
9- Friend requests – just like with sending messages, sending bunch all at once will get you thrown into jail. Request people you actually know in real life first and then as you want to connect with other consultants or team members, either let them send the request or request only a few people at a time.
Keep in mind that Facebook for your business is more like a marathon and less like a sprint. Build your business a little bit every day. Reach out a little bit every day! The habit of being consistent and working your business slowly but regularly will be what sets you apart from the crowd!
Show Challenge:
What is 1 way you can tweak what you are doing on Facebook so that you avoid jail time?? Start doing that today!