Facebook TOS Guide for Marketers

It’s very easy to get on Facebook and start marketing, but you should know there are Terms of Use (as with all services you use currently) so the service can maintain a certain standard of quality. If you break the rules, you could be banned.

1. Don’t advertise without permission. You can’t advertise blatantly without repercussions, so you have to know how to do it covertly.

2. No pyramid or multi-level marketing schemes.

3.  You will not infringe on someone else’s copyrights. This means you will not repost something someone has posted and claim it as your own. Not only is this plagiarism, but also all of the content provided by each user is protected intellectual property. The original user providing the content has full control and access over the information. If it’s posted on Facebook, it is copyrighted, for all intents and purposes.

4.  If you are creating a Facebook application for your marketing, then you will not ask for unnecessary information. Additionally, any information you acquire can’t be shared or sold to anyone.

5.  None of the pages on Facebook allow for any type of unregulated third-party advertising or search boxes.

6.  You must respect all privacy requests.

7.   You must abide by all laws.

The safest way to advertise on Facebook is through their CPC or CPM advertising tools; any content you are advertising on Facebook can be reported and you can be blocked or disabled. There is a complete list of prohibited content on the Advertising Guidelines page (http://www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php).

Also, remember that Facebook loves honesty. Your account on Facebook is based on the honor system; they don’t do any checks until requested by officials who have legal enforcement powers and jurisdiction for the area in question.

What this means for you is that you should not engage in false advertising. When you advertise something, it should be exactly as described. You should not be deceptive when bringing people to your site. You shouldn’t engage in any aggressive marketing tactics or internet tactics, such as disabling the back button or inundating the user with pop-ups and pop-unders.

Facebook does not operate on a “free speech” platform; anything can be edited if they deem necessary since it is a private community, as in “not run or administrated by the government”.