One thing all Facebook page owners/admins need to remember is that we are all at the mercy of Facebook itself. We do not technically own our page on Facebook, because Facebook owns it – as easy as it is to create a page, it’s just as easy to lose it. This has happened to a couple of my friends recently – either because they have been hacked by unknown outside entities, or Facebook has just chosen to remove them from their own page with no reason or warning. Unfortunately, it happens, and it’s highly unlikely that Facebook will ever return admin rights to the page owner.
So how do we avoid this happening? How do we protect our Facebook pages so we don’t lose control? I have some simple tips for you. I can’t guarantee that they will 100% prevent you from losing your Facebook page, but they will definitely help to ensure that you can keep it as safe as possible to reduce the likelihood of it happening to you. Here are 6 ways to avoid losing your Facebook page.
1. Protect The Security Of Your Own Personal Facebook Profile
Your business facebook page is connected directly to your Facebook personal profile, so if one is compromised, then the other will most likely be too. To ensure that your business page doesn’t get taken over by hackers, you need to ensure your security on Facebook is top notch.
Ways to do this include:
- Change your password regularly (every month is ideal). If you can’t remember passwords, it’s a good idea to sign up to a reputable password manager, such as LastPass. Never EVER give your account password to anyone!
- Use two-factor identification for signing in. This can be set up in the settings section of your Facebook account and you can use either your phone number or an authentication app.
- Check all your security settings on Facebook regularly to keep up with changes. Adjust the settings so the public can’t see your friends list, phone number, email address, home address or birth date. Hackers can use all of these things to get into your account if they are visible to the public.
- Set up your Trusted Contacts in your Facebook settings. This is a list of 3 – 5 friends whom you trust, that can help you out if you are locked out of your account for whatever reason.
2. Always Have a Backup Admin On Your Facebook Page
Many people who start a Facebook page are sole traders or individual business owners. This often means that they are the only admin on their Facebook page.
This can be dangerous because if something happens to your page – either it is hacked, or Facebook removes you from the page for some reason, then that page can become inactive or unmanaged. Even worse, whoever has taken over could start posting unrelated or spammy posts which could ruin your business reputation!
To lessen the likelihood of this happening, it’s a really good idea to choose someone you can trust to become a secondary admin. It can be your spouse or a family member or a colleague, but just be certain you absolutely trust them! They don’t necessarily need to be active on your page, but can just be a safety backup….just in case! They need to be a full page admin, not one of the page roles with less access.
3. Don’t Give Admin Access To Anyone You Don’t Know And Trust
As I mentioned before, do NOT give anyone full admin access to your Facebook page unless you trust them completely. Always make sure that if anything is happening in your relationship with that person that could jeopardise your Facebook page, remove them immediately.
If you have several admins on your page, remember to do a review at least once a month to make sure you still need them there. If you decide you don’t, then remove them. Just be aware that there are several levels of admin access you can give people, so give each admin on your page only the access they need to do their job. For more information on Facebook Page Roles go here.
4. Don’t Click On Links In Suspicious Messages
There will come a time (or several times) when someone will send your page a message asking you to click on a link. Sometimes these messages are harmless, but most of the time they are harmful and that link could contain a virus or be some sort of scam. Please treat all links sent to your page’s private messages with caution. Below is an example of the type of bogus message you may receive in your Facebook PMs (this is an actual message we received on the Stay At Home Mum Facebook page – we get them all the time!)
Often these messages look legitimate, but they definitely are not. Facebook will never send a private message to your page regarding verification, passwords or any other personal details. They will only contact you via your Support Inbox on Facebook, which will also send the same message to your email address.
If you do receive any suspicious messages to your Facebook page, you should report these to Facebook immediately. Here’s more information on what to do and how to report messages.
5. Set Up Facebook Business Manager
Facebook Business Manager is a great tool that page admins can use to keep their page secure. It’s particularly useful if you are owner or admin of more than one page as you can access it separately to your regular Facebook news feed. You can add and remove admins, operate your Facebook Ads Manager and post and moderate your pages all from the one spot. It even allows you to add people as admins even if they aren’t friends with you on Facebook itself. Here’s more information on how you can set up Facebook Business Manager.
6. Be Aware Of Facebook Community Standards And Rules (And Follow Them!)
You’d be well aware by now that Facebook has a massive set of standards, guidelines and rules that everyone must follow. Not all Facebook page admins are aware of these rules though, and sometimes if these rules are broken, Facebook will either remove admins from a page, or shut that page down completely. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have, how long the page has been going, whether it’s verified or not…..if Facebook flags your page as having breached one of their Community Standards, then you are at major risk of losing your page.
It’s a really good idea now to go and have a look at the Facebook Community Standards. Check on them every few months for a refresh as they do sometimes change.
One rule that lots of page admins do break on a regular basis is one to do with hosting competitions. Not many people know the rules surrounding running a competition or giveaway on their Facebook page, and because Facebook doesn’t really police it very well, lots of pages get away with running them illegally. There will come a time when Facebook decides to police it, so it’s best to get out of those bad habits right now! I wrote an article some time ago about this, so if you’d like to find out the rules regarding hosting a Facebook competition, you can read it here!
These are the main ways to stop your Facebook page being taken off you – it would be absolutely heartbreaking to lose all the work you have done and the fan and customer base you have built up! Hopefully this will never happen to you!
We’d like to invite you to join our Tenacious Business Development Group on Facebook – it’s a great group full of supportive business owners and also people who are looking for information on starting their own online business. Please join us!