Facebook can shut down your page!

Imagine, cranking up the laptop early on a Monday morning.  You check your email before heading over to catch up with your friends on Facebook.  There's a few new interesting posts and a couple of hilarious videos to tuck into.

Lately you've been ramping up your social media marketing.  You've been liking and sharing relevant posts and you've been getting better than usual 'reach' and comments from relevant people.  You've been getting many more fans to like your business page which is really exciting.

You've also scheduled extra posts to pop up when your fans tend to be online so you are getting their attention even when you're busy treating.  You've even liked the pages of your fans too so that you can like and share their interesting posts.

Literally from zero, you've worked hard and got numbers up from there to - how many?  40 people?  110 people?  642 people?  They're all your fans and they are happy to be linked to you and enjoy seeing your posts.

This morning however, you go from your personal profile to your business one BUT something's wrong.  It's not there!  You can't see it!  Where has it gone?

Facebook have shut it down.  They have removed it from their server.  It has gone and with it, all your fans that you had worked so hard to gather.  And honestly, those fans probably won't even spot that you've disappeared.  Life is too busy for them to realise that they no longer see your posts appearing in their news feed.

So what's happened?

The key thing to remember about any social media page is that you do not own it!  It doesn't belong to you; it belongs to the platform itself.  So they have the power to allow your page to remain or to take it down when they please.  A bit scary huh?

Facebook in particular has very strict rules and if they find you contravening any of them then CHOP your page is gone!  All your hard work has gone like a puff of smoke up into the ether.  Gone for good.

Several times I have heard of people's pages being taken down without a word from Facebook.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

What's the main reason this happens?

The biggest reason why Facebook close down a page is because a personal profile page is being used as a business page.  You are not allowed to have more than one profile page, which must be in your own name only.  No matter how many businesses you may have, you MUST only use proper fan pages created via your main profile.

So if you have 'friends' on your page rather than 'likes' you are using the wrong type of page for your business.  I would highly recommend that you check this just to make sure so that you don't inadvertently lose all your valuable contacts.  Just create a new business page via your home page news feed and in the left hand list simply click on 'Create page' and off you go!

What can you do about it?

We've established that you don't own any of your social media pages and profiles.  So the key thing you need to be doing is to open the lines of communication with your fans.

And the number one way of doing this is to drive those fans to your website and encourage them to sign up for your monthly newsletter and/or blog.  Over time, as people get to know, like and trust you, they will convert into new patients.  It is a steady process taking anywhere from three to six months to happen.  That is why your ongoing marketing is critical to bringing in a steady flow of new patients.

How can you get that traffic flowing from Facebook to your website?

There are several 'hooks' you can deploy to encourage engagement from your social media fans.

• My philosophy is a 'give to get' mentality.  I put a great deal of energy and work into creating blogs which are either enlightening or engaging.  Many say they are inspiring too which is a real bonus!  Posting these on my page links people back to my website to read the content and there are options to sign up to my regular e-newsletter whilst they're there.
• I also work hard to create free gifts to give my subscribers in exchange for their email address.  For instance I have a new ebook '21 Quick Osteobiz Tips' which is currently going down a storm!  It's very easy to create something useful to potential patients and house it on your website.
• You can also run a competition on your page and, again, gather their email addresses in exchange for the chance of winning something useful.  Search for woobox.com or rafflecopter.com

Whatever you do, make sure that Facebook and other social media platforms are working hard for you and getting you in front of many more potential patients.