Keeping Your Facebook Page Clean
Engagement is great. Building out a robust social presence is more important now than ever before. In fact, as of 1/1/2014, it was reported that there are 1,310,000,000 ACTIVE Facebook users. Let that sink in for a second… That’s 34 times the population of California and 818 times the number of people living in Manhattan. It’s an impressively large amount. While the sheer number of Likes your page has is essential, what’s even more important is keeping your page in check and free from spam and unrelated posts from your “fans.” Here are a few simple tips and tricks to keep your Facebook page clean, void of spam comments and irrelevant “Likers.”
Get a Social Media Manager:
Depending on the nature of your business and the type of content you post, your Facebook fans might feel the need to take it upon themselves to spam the heck out of your page. This can be through posting links to your wall for their businesses or on behalf of third parties that pay them to blast links out anywhere they feel people might not be paying attention.
A good Social Media Manager will monitor all activity on your Facebook page and weed out those legitimately looking to connect with your brand versus those just looking for cheap exposure. The SM Manager will also have a firm grasp of the brand voice and respond appropriately to negative comments left on your posts and wall.
As we’ve stated before, Social Media is not second nature to everyone, so having someone on your team that “gets it” is crucial to your presence on Facebook.
Keep an Eye on Your Use Activity Log:
Facebook makes it easy for anyone to monitor what is happening on your page. The Use Activity Log is accessible through your page’s Edit feature and lets you see who posted what and when, whether internally or from a fan of your Facebook page.
When you get to your Use Activity Log, it’s time to decide whether you will be…
Hiding Activity vs. Deleting Posts vs. Banning Users:
The fail-safe method for keeping your page clean is to hide all posts on your Facebook page left by outside parties. While this is all good, you risk hiding legitimate posts left by users who want to engage with your brand. These people who take the time to leave insightful comments and ask questions about your brand can feel slighted if they finish their post, hit publish, and never see their comments & questions posted. This could result in losing a like… a “Like” that could have taken time to gain.
Hiding all activity also turns your page into an entity that people on social media hate: A business that talks TO people versus talking WITH them. The point of social media is to open the lines of communication, not keep them closed.
Keep a close eye on your Activity Log and delete irrelevant comments that link away from your page or appear spammy. As stated above, Facebook makes it easy to eliminate these comments.
If you have a group of users posting the same links or comments to your page daily/weekly / etc., feel free to ban those users. Chances are they won’t mind, as they probably post the exact links to many pages across Facebook. Keeping the world of Facebook a clean and relevant space for people to connect is everyone’s job. Do your part.
Rinse & Repeat:
Once you’ve done your Facebook monitoring and purging for the day, set a reminder to check out the Use Activity Log daily. If you make it a morning habit, it will become easier to manage and help you better engage on the social media giant that is Facebook.
Questions, comments, spam links? Sound off in the comment section below. Save the spam links for someone else, though.
