Did you know that almost half of the entire global population is active on social media? That’s 3.6 billion people. Chances are that you’re part of the 1.82 billion users that log into Facebook every day. Have you ever heard of the term Facebook Jail, though?
As a digital marketing agency, we like to stay on top of all things digital. This includes social media trends, with Facebook currently being the most popular platform.
To get started on creating a serious online presence, a company must have a professionally built Facebook page. This is how you can begin to digitally reach out to consumers.
Be cautious that a poorly planned strategy can lock you into ‘Facebook jail’. In this blog, we will be explaining this term, how to avoid getting there, and ultimately, how to get out of it.
What is Facebook Jail?
Facebook is the biggest social network in the world. It has over 2.7 billion active users every month. It’s not easy handling so many people in one place.
This platform generates over 4 petabytes of information daily. That’s equal to around 4 million gigabytes. Imagine the server machines that should make sense of this kind of traffic.
The moderators at the platform are aware that anything can fly through users’ FB feed. It’s their job to make sure the content is valuable for the users.
In the first quarter of 2018, the network took down 865.8 million posts for breaking various community rules. In 2020, they deleted 7 million Covid-19 misleading posts and sent additional 98 million warnings for the same thing. This was in April and June alone.
The numbers show how much data goes through it every day, and why they try so hard to keep everything under control.
Facebook will ban users who are repeatedly spreading misleading information, post spam content, post hate speech, support terrorists, post nudity, organize illegal activities, and many other things.
When they catch an account doing some of these or other forbidden activities, they block it from the site, hence the term ‘Facebook jail’. It can happen to any account – private or business.
What happens when you are in a Facebook jail?
When the account is banned, the user will receive a note about how long this restriction is going to last. Not all issues are punished equally.
The ban can last a few hours, a few days, or maybe a month. In severe cases, the account may be terminated indefinitely. This famously happened to 45th US president Donald Trump, for spreading misleading information.
If anyone gets into this virtual Facebook prison, they should be more careful in the future. Just like in real life, criminals who were charged, and conducted, will always be under the radar of law enforcement officers.
Every next wrongful posting will result in a more severe punishment until the account is banned for life. If something like this happens, you won’t be able to open another one ever again.
How serious can Facebook jail get?
If your business account gets jailed, then this is a real reason to worry. Companies see a tremendous difference in brand building and lead generation when they have active and successful Facebook pages.
We already explained why it’s crucial to have an active social media campaign in one of our posts called “8 Social media power tips in order to be more successful”. Facebook is without a doubt, the biggest platform with the most users.
Being on Facebook is the first step in building a strong social media presence. In other words, going to FB jail is pretty serious for business owners.
Brand or company pages have an average of 5.2% reach whenever they post. It means that Netflix, with 60 million likes on their official page, gets at least 3.12 million people to see what they post every time.
We say at least because not all pages post regularly. These pull the average number down. Netflix is an enormous brand with social media professionals who most certainly take good care of it and draw much more reach out of their posts.
If Netflix decides to go on an adventure and start spamming about their movies and TV series, or get political and spread fake news, they are going to get jailed by Facebook and lose a ton of organic reach.
How can a digital marketing company help?
Long story short – by doing things right. The key in this story is to learn about Facebook jail, the consequences, and how not to end up there.
Every serious digital marketing agency has a team of people to help. A social media specialist creates content, sets the tone of business, knows when and how to interact on social media. This person leads the general social media campaign.
Some might say this is easy, and one could do it. They’d be right, anyone can do it, but the difference is that the professional social media specialist will keep you out of jail.
Posting as a business on Facebook comes with a lot of responsibility. There are so many tips and tricks that one must know.
The challenge is to be visible and reach new and existing clients, but also make sure that you’re doing things right. This includes publishing business posts, but making sure Facebook isn’t focusing their attention on you for doing something wrong.
Here are some of the things that we at My Digital Ego can do for you when you want an excellent Facebook presence:
Creating original and quality content
Facebook is not a platform where moderators act like cops and open page by page to find out if something wrong is going on there. It’s not busting a party during the curfew.
When we talk about jailing, most of the dirty work is done by bots. The tracking activity is done by software installed inside the platform.
Whenever these bots come across something suspicious, they report it to the moderators who decide if something’s okay or not. That’s where you get jailed.
Promoting original content is one of the things that will keep you out of Facebook jail.
What does this mean? It means that Facebook users are sick and tired of seeing the same posts over and over again. If you post the same joke that 50 other pages posted in the last month, you’re probably going under the radar.
Make sure you provide valuable content for your consumers. Whether it be videos, images, or written posts, make sure it is something people haven’t seen before.
Another issue is posting content that was already marked as spam. Lots of page owners download images from Google and post them as their own thinking that their consumers would like it.
This downloaded image might have already been marked as spam or reported as creative property. Sharing it means you’re stealing someone’s hard work. If it’s on Google, it doesn’t mean it’s free for everyone.
The bots we mentioned love patterns. When you post ten links to your blog, they see this as repetitive behaviour, and it looks like spam to them. If you want to avoid this, try sharing a mix of images, quotes, and then some links.
Shortening the links is highly valuable
You’ve probably noticed how some links on social media won’t show the exact web location you’re headed after you click them. This is done so that bots can’t track your activity. It is also convenient for creating shorter posts. However, on Facebook, social media specialists use link shortening to avoid creating a pattern during their campaigns.
Setting up all details on official public business pages
Before starting to interact as a business page on Facebook, it’s crucial to set all the background details. We’re talking about information on the company location, contact telephone number, what the business is about, and anything else you can provide.
All of this information will show the platform you’re a serious firm. It shows you have nothing to hide, and you care about your business page. Even if you do post something suspicious, you might get off with a warning, rather than a direct ban.
Edit repeated content before posting again
It’s exciting when you have the new video commercial ready. Your business video ad is flawless, and you want to share it over and over. If you want to post it often, you’ll need to find a way to do it the right way. The key is in editing your content. The options are endless, you just need to choose some of them.
You can turn the video into a gif. Make a meme of it. Add another scene to it. Cut a few scenes and make it better. Don’t forget to change the caption for each post. ‘Here’s my new video’ is not a great caption for every new upload.
Rush hour posting
Being stuck in traffic during rush hour is horrible, however being a part of the Facebook rush hour is amazing. There are some unwritten rules in social media management that you should know.
There’s prime time for posting. If you’re trying to get your posts seen, the rush hour on Facebook is between 1 PM and 3 PM. The best day for sharing what you have prepared is Wednesday, meaning that posting on Wednesday at 2 PM is ideal.
At the same time, posting on Sunday will get you no reach. Every weekday after 5 PM until 7 AM the next day is not the best time to publish anything. These things are crucial to know if you want your brand to grow on social media.
What to do if you’re already in Facebook jail
Review guidelines and contact us.
You will be contacted by Facebook with more information regarding your ban. At My Digital Ego, have a team of social media specialists who can provide actionable recommendations. Even better? This is done at seriously affordable prices.
Conclusion
Whatever business you’re running, you must be active on Facebook. With 2.7 billion users, can you afford to lose such a gigantic market?
The options are endless if you work right. Some businesses thrive entirely from posting their services on this platform.
If you want to grow your brand on Facebook professionally and generate sales, it’s time to contact us.
