Facebook changes rules for book promotion – [ACCOUNT SUSPENDED] :0

Derek Murphy promotion 267

I’m reposting this news to give it a signal boost – concern was raised by author Katie M. John who shared this image:

This is alarming, since so many of us use Facebook as part of our book marketing and promotion strategy.

Katie wrote a great summary so I’m posting it here:

Okay, I’ve seen the beginnings of a wildfire and I want to put the brakes on. Several people have posted that Facebook T&C have changed in regards to what can be posted on our personal pages in terms of links to our books and promo posts etc.

Firstly, the T&C clearly state that your personal page can not represent anything other than who you are (businesses etc) – this has always been the case. This is not new.

Business should be primarily based on a Facebook page. As has always been. However a lot of people in the creative coaching fields have a soft promo relationship with their audiences so that’s a bit muddier. So you need to be very mindful of how you present that.

Technically, if you are using your personal profile for business you can be blocked and have your account taken away – this has always been the case.

The easiest way to circumvent this is to post on your business page and then share the post to your personal page.

However, sharing your book life and book news on your personal profile is okay. Perhaps just be a bit smarter and more mindful about not advertising to your friends (note to self ? )

It may be that Facebook are making changes. It may be an official announcement is coming. It may be that they are tightening up on the enforcement of their T&C because well, it pays them to have us all dependent on our paid boosted fb pages to get content out.

**Edited — they are. Articles are few and far between but they’re starting to circulate

Be smart, be creative and please let’s only spread news we know for 100% certain and evidenced —- some evidence seems to be coming in.

I will update this post the more I discover and can find out about the announcement: if there is one.

Link to current FB T&C

Read more: a great article on Facebook pages vs Groups from MeetEdgar.

Update: some (I’ve seen evidence of 1 or 2 in a discussion) authors are reporting that some of their posts on their personal page have been flagged as spam in the last 24 hours: a pre-order form, a link to a new release, and a sale post. So it may be fb are enforcing it or it maybe that someone has reported their posts as Spam directly.

Derek’s note: this isn’t exactly something new – the rules have been like this for awhile and some authors have noticed their posted marked as spam previously, but it seems like there’s been a flurry of new activity and that Facebook may be making big changes, so be aware of how you should be using your personal profile vs. your author page or group.

Derek Murphy

I’m a philosophy dropout with a PhD in Literature. I covet a cabin full of cats, where I can write fantasy novels to pay for my cake addiction. Sometimes I live in castles.