[facebook_ilike]Getting Facebook Disabled is not a Fun experience in todays Internet focused world. Social Networking sites like Facebook are necessary tools in developing your social presence and personal brand and being banned will obviously interfere with your branding initiatives.

People more and more turn to their social communities before making a decision on purchases or even personal alliances. How many times have you looked for someone on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn to find out more about them? I know I do almost on a daily basis. The fact is you MUST be found online and you Must be in control of your brand otherwise you stand the risk of having your personal brand being built by others whether you like what they have to say or not.

Having been Facebook disabled myself in the past I can tell you with some experience exactly what you MUST avoid so that it doesn’t happen to you. Even though much of these tips are common sense many people do not take the time to either understand or follow them. Believe me, the last thing you want is for Facebook’s hand to come down on you especially after you have built a significant following on your profile and subsequent fan and business pages.

Best ways to avoid being Facebook Disabled

1. Grow Slowly – Build your facebook profile slowly.. I have said it a thousand times it is not about how many connections you have but rather the Quality of those connections. Never add more than 20 – 25 people in a day and try not to add them all from the same pages(it’s what a Bot does and can get you flagged) Probably best to start at adding only 10 per day.. and then slowly increasing it but never more then 25
2. Avoid repetitive actions - If you do the same thing over and over again it can make you look like a spammer. Facebook knows that a regular user is more sporadic in their activities.. A post then… a Message… then a comment… then some surfing around etc… Quickest way to get Facebook Disabled besides adding to many friends.
3. Do Not Copy and Paste – NEVER NEVER NEVER!!! When you copy and paste that means sending the same message to multiple people and is a dead give away to the Facebook Patrol that you very well could be Spamming. Be very very careful.. I have done this in the past not even thinking about it. Facebook is always looking and trying to discover spam and unethical behaviour so bottom line NO Copy & Paste!
4. Don’t Market Aggressively – Just be smart if you over do ANYTHING on Facebook you WILL get disabled. If you want to post your links just do so very intermittently. You can still get your message out just dont be too aggressive. The best thing to do is Make connections and let your profile do your advertising. Save the Real promotions for your Facebook Pages that’s what they are for!
   
5. If you get a FACEBOOK WARNING – Take it very very seriously! If you find yourself staring  at a facebook warning logout of your account and do not go back to it for 48 hours! Seriously!! Best advice I can give.. I’ve had them before and you Absolutely MUST respect them.
6. Limit Your Invites – If you have a Full Profile (5,000) send your Event invites over several days and not to your Whole friends list and for Groups never invite more than 500 friends per day to join your group

There you have it… If you follow these tips you should never have to worry about being Facebook Disabled but Facebook has been known to act without cause. In other words they make mistakes. If you follow these 6 specific points you should stay out of Facebook trouble and build out a successful Social Profile on the most prolific Social Networking site in the World.

Take the time to do it right and you will reap the benefit

Let’s talk about the Do’s of Facebook Marketing.

In the last article on Facebook we looked at the 7 Fatal Sins that will Kill your Facebook Marketing Strategy. In this article I am going to talk about things that You need to focus on to build out a super successful network of people who listen to and respect you. Following is my list of 7 Must Do’s to Maximize your  Facebook Marketing experience… use them and prosper!

1. Relationship first / Business Second - Get this one wrong and you will never build significant influence and your time will be better spent somewhere else.. Your primary goal on Facebook MUST be to build relationships and to build rapport with your new friends. So how do you do this… Simple… Comment on their stuff… interact with them.. get to know them read their profile etc… Show genuine interest
2. Concentrate on Quality not Quantity – many folks get on facebook and try to add as many people as possible.. instead slow down and be sure to build rapport with your new friends.. a smaller more connected group will outperform & more importantly out value a larger less connected following. Please do not underestimate or try to circumvent this part of the process. A good idea is to start with a very small Core group of people that are Influencers in your niche, build a relationship with them first and then build out from there.
3. Protect your Reputation at all Costs – Your most valuable asset in Social Media is your Reputation… Make sure you rise up as the go to person in your industry or niche. 67% of people will consult with social media sites for recommendations BEFORE they buy anything. so you want to build the reputation of someone that people trust and go to for advice. Don’t give into the allure of spamming for a quick buck not only doesn’t it work but you will kill your reputation and a bad reputation is very very hard to turn around. (All though not at all impossible)
4. Be Authentic – Be a real person.. it is ok to be vulnerable and to show your shortcomings… this tells people that you are truthful and genuine.. People will be able to connect with you at a deeper level and the trust will build exponentially. In other words you do not need to be nor should you be Perfect. Be yourself… like attracts like. Believe in YOU.
5. Transparency is Paramount – There is nowhere to hide online anymore so don’t try to… If you don’t like a product or service don’t Promote it just to make a quick buck.. it will come back to haunt you. you will slowly lose your influence and your social power will disappear. You will find less and less response and interaction as people realize that you are not always sharing the full story. In-transparency.. (if there is such a word..lol) will lead to mis-trust.
6. Follow Through – When you set out to do something follow through with it… If you make a statement make sure you see it through.. people are watching you. The great thing is 9 out of 10 people will never see anything through so you jump above 90% by just seeing your task through to the end. It is very important in the eyes of your followers. Be a man or woman of your word.
7. Be Interested not Interesting – The most important person in the world to your follower is YOUR FOLLOWER! so what does that mean.. be interested in them… listen more and preach less.. People are most interested in themselves so indulge a little. Ask people Where are you from / What do you do / Who do you know. This will expose commonalities, connections and similar interests. Think of benefits for THEM in your communication

The following 7 items will ensure you build significant influence. By taking the time to do things right you will be enriching the lives of others and in doing so enriching your own. This represents the Mindset you need to have and the top 7 things to DO on Facebook to build a mutually beneficial relationship with your expanding Facebook Network. In future articles I will get in to the details of exactly what you can do to market yourself on Facebook. Just keep in mind that the preceding points should govern everything else you do.

Developing an Effective Facebook Marketing Strategy for your MLM Business should become a major focus point in building out your Social Presence. While you need to have Marketing on the mind while spending time on Facebook there are many things you need to think about and be aware of. At the end of the day Social Sites like Facebook are all about building ‘Real’ relationships and if the majority of your focus is playing games or self promoting you will not become a person of Influence and your campaign will be all but fruitless as far as building your Network Marketing business goes. Here are a 7 things to keep in mind as you participate on the world’s Most Active Social Space.

Facebook Marketing 7 Fatal Sins

1. Don’t have a Blank Profile – This goes without saying but whenever I have people try to connect with me and they don’t have a photo I will not add them as contacts. It gives the impression that you are a spammer. Upload a photo and make sure that it is You. Don’t upload a picture or something to do with your company. People want to connect with REAL people. Facebook and other Social Sites are about Relationships and Connections.
2. Don’t fill your profile and Feed with Game Scores/Horoscopes etc.. – Mafia Wars, Farmville, High Score this, high score that… DON’T Do it!! it gives the look and feel of someone who is just here to play… It doesn’t allow your personality to shine through. Instead fill your feed with things that are ALL ABOUT YOU!  Photos, what you did onthe weekend, quotes.. anythign that reflects your personality. Think connections here.
3. Don’t Fill your Profile and Page with ADS! – and even worse don’t post ads on your new friends pages either. it’s called SPAM! I have been guilty of this in the past and believe me it is a BAD BAD Idea..
4. Don’t Hide your Business and your Affiliations – You never want to spam or plaster ads but you also don’t want your business to be hiding or hard to find. Display your business on your profile. Be proud of what you do. People want to know.. so make sure they can find what they are looking for. As you go about sharing and building relationships more and more people will seek out what it is you do and offer. Having said that you still want to keep your information brief and curiosity building. (Don’t give it all away)
5. Don’t get into Political or Religious Debates on your Profile - If you get sucked in to this type of communication you can expect to alienate half of your friends so just best to avoid it all together. The last thing you want to do is ‘turn off’ half of your audience.
6. Don’t forget to Interact with  People – the power of Facebook is reserved for those that learn how to interact with their growing list of friends/acquaintances/contacts and future relationships. If you see something you like don’t be shy hit the “LIKE” button. if you see something you believe your audience would like to see SHARE IT. If you find somethign interesting leave comments and interact as often as you can.
7. Don’t Focus on Quantity – Quality Wins the day – too some Facebook and other social sites (Twitter comes to mind) is just a big numbers game…. I can tell you this..  It DOESN’T MATTER HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU HAVE ON YOUR FRIENDS LIST – what matters is How many people KNOW who you are!! In other words the quality of your contacts, the relationships that you build, the value others see in you etc… these are the things that matter most and the way you impact this statistic is not neglecting number 6. INTERACT and Add Value!! You need to focus on building meaningful connections or your huge friends list is useless.

I hope that this list helps you in your Facebook Marketing. developing your own Facebook Marketing Strategy is key and many of the concepts can be carried over in to any social networking property you choose to work with. Pay close attention to this list because many many people are doing exactly what you see listed here and are paying the ultimate price.

Yours in Success,

Roger Silen