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Facebook Fan pages are all the rage and a great way for business owners to tap into their ideal target market, connect with them whilst also providing an opportunity to promote their business.
A Facebook Fan page (also known as a Facebook Business Page) is YOUR forum, as a business owner, to share product updates, more detail about the services you offer and also to share great tips and strategies in your niche, that showcase you as an expert at what you do.
Ideally, you leave your settings open on your Facebook Fan Page to allow interaction with those that Like your page. This fosters engagement with your fans, who can post questions and comments.
Unfortunately Facebook Fan pages are also a magnet for spammers. If a person has liked your page, it means that they can also post spam content on your wall.
As a business owner, your page is an extension of your brand. When spammers post rubbish on your wall, you need to act quickly to remove it and ban the person who posted it from being able to post again. No one wants to visit a page and see that spammers have attacked the wall and the owner of the page has done nothing to remove it.
Here’s What to Do
First, choose the post you wish to delete.
Hover your mouse over the right of the post and a grey X will appear. Click on the X. A box with four options will appear:
- remove post
- remove post and ban user
- hide post
- report as abuse
If you click Remove Post, Facebook will ask you to confirm your action. A Delete Post box will show again asking if you are sure you wish to delete the post. If you’re ready to delete, just click on the Remove Post button.
If you click Remove Post and Ban User, a confirmation box will also appear.
After you’ve confirmed the delete action, the offending post will automatically have been removed from your wall.
You may also want to hide the message by clicking Hide Post. Doing this will immediately remove the post without any confirmation notice and will mark it as spam.
Helping Facebook to Report Abuse
If you choose, there is another option available is to report the person who posted the unwanted message on your Facebook page’s wall. If you click the Report as Abuse option, a box will open giving you five choices on how you describe the message.
The options are:
- Spam or scam
- Contains hate speech or attacks on individual
- Violence or harmful behavior
- Sexually explicit content
- Permanently ban this person from this Facebook page and remove all content they have posted.
After choosing one, simply click the Submit button and the message will automatically be submitted to the Facebook administrators.
Why You Need to Police Your Page
It is important to stay diligent and keep your Facebook Fan page wall clean.
Nothing looks worse than visiting a Facebook Business Page and seeing that the spammers are running amok in there, randomly posting, and the owner of the page is not even aware or has taken no action to remove the spam material or to block the spammers.
It looks unprofessional and shows that the owner of the page is probably not visiting or posting regularly themselves. As a visitor, would you hang around on such a page? Most likely not.
If you have gone to the effort and investment of setting up a Facebook Fan page, keep the “Liker” experience positive and be diligent to remove unwanted spam posts.
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Note: this post was originally published in May 2011.
By Wendy Moore
Copyright 2012 Savvy Web Women Pty Ltd
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Wendy Moore is the founder of www.savvywebwomen.com and creator of the Savvy List Building Blog – the information packed resource that shows business owners and entrepreneurs how to get in front of an audience that wants to buy what they are selling. To receive your FREE Special Report and weekly how-to articles to expand your online List Building toolkit, visit www.wendymoore.net.
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- How to Ban a Fan on Your Facebook Fan Page
- How to Reorder or Remove the Tabs on Your Facebook Fan Page
- Why You Need to Use Google Analytics on your Facebook Business Page
- How To Add Your Facebook Business Page to Your New Facebook Profile – Part 2: How Do I Find My Business Page Unique ID Tag?
{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for this article Wendy. I’ve often considered deleting some posts on Facebook but felt it was the wrong thing to do. After reading this, I’ll be “deleting” away if I suspect spam.
Hi Mel,
Unfortunately there is a lot of spam being sent on Facebook. By all means, delete away!
Wendy
Someone is deleting posts that I have made on my own fan page. How can I stop that from happening? If a post I make shows up on someones page and they delete the post, does that delete the post on the fan page upon which it was made?
Hi William,
If a post you make shows up on someone else’s page (via the use of tagging, etc), but the original post is created on your page, as the post is on your page, they should not be able to delete it from your page. They can, of course, delete it from their own page, as they have administrator rights to do that.
Not sure how someone would be able to delete your own posts on your own page. You need to be an administrator to do that. Only other thing I can think of it is glitch in Facebook. I have heard of someone else having an issue with their fan page whereby ALL visitors could edit the page. But this would be a bug, not the norm.
Wendy
A fanpage is spamming my wall but I can’t see it when I’m logged in in order to take any action, like remove it from my wall or report it. I was only aware of this after a friend told me they where seeing it.
How can I block a fanpage from spamming my wall? And how can I remove these posts when I can’t even see them??
Thankyou for your help.
I have a problem, an individual posted unwanted remarks on a page I created many years ago. I would delete it (being that I was the admin), but I am unable to as I have changed my email for facebook and the page does not recognize me as the admin. Any suggestions? I am in a tight spot. Thanks!
Hi Victoria,
Often spam posts are automatically removed by Facebook. Is the spam post still showing?
What browser is your friend using to view Facebook?
Wendy
Hi Anthony,
Probably best to contact Facebook and show them that you are the right admin for the page and get yourself added back on. For a list of great links for contacting Facebook, have a look at what Mari Smith has put together here: http://www.marismith.com/how-to-contact-facebook-a-directory-of-120-forms/
someone has spammed me in the ‘Recommendation’ section of my fan page. i have reported it as abuse yet it remains visible to others. how can i make it go away? Does anyone know? I can’t seem to find anything about this particular problem.
Thanks for this article Wendy, really good tips.
We currently have an issue on our fan page, where another page (which doesn’t appear to a fan of ours), likes nearly every single post or comment made on our page. I’m concerned it’s going to impact of our legitimate fans desire to post if they’re going to be spammed. Any ideas on how to ban this other page?
Thanks for your help in advance.
Hi there,
If I choose to HIDE a post or comment, does the person who wrote the comment get a notification of this action? I do not want the person to know that I’ve hidden their post. Is this possible?
Kind regards,
Eva
Hi Eva,
Thanks for your question. No, the person who wrote the comment does not get notified.
Wendy
For our school I want the ability to add or reject a potential post before it is posted on our wall. Is there a way to have all posts come to the admin for approval before it goes public on the wall?
Hi Brian,
My understanding is that you cannot choose who posts to your Facebook page wall before they post. You can ban users that post inappropriate content. You can also set your settings so that ONLY YOU can post, but that then means that no one else will be able to post (and this limits interaction). Some of the larger brands, such as Disney, don’t allow people to post but allow people to comment on their posts. This controls to some extent what is said.
You do receive notifications when people post to your wall (depending on your settings) so you need to keep an eye on these and quickly deal with any content that is posted that you are not happy with.
Hope this helps.
Wendy
Hi Anthony,
This is a tough one, as if Facebook does not recognise you at the administrator of the page you cannot edit it. Best bet is to contact Facebook directly and prove to them it is your page.
Good luck.
Wendy
Hi Victoria,
If you can’t seem them, it might be that Facebook is taking care of this already by the time you log in. Often a spammer will post to a number of walls and Facebook picks this ups and auto deletes them on your behalf. This might have been what happened with your page that your friend saw but you are unable to.
There is not really any way to stop a fanpage from spamming your wall other than to block that page so that they no longer have access to post to your page.
I hope this helps.
Wendy
When you delete an abusive comment from your fan page, it only “goes away” for the operator of the fan page — all other users still see it. How can this be? Why can’t an administrator and OWNER of a fan page delete a comment — not a post — entirely so that NO ONE sees it? (as in the meaning of “delete”?) This is so ridiculous, I am wondering if I have done something strange with my privacy settings on my personal Facebook account, something like “only I see blah blah blah” (as opposed to Friends and Everyone) that may be causing this. This is not a new problem, it’s been going on for months and months and months! Please let me know if anyone has some ideas. This is very frustrating.
Hi Cynthia,
This is really odd and I can appreciate your frustration. Did you happen to block the person that is posting the abusive comments?
Apparently there used to be an unfortunate ‘loophole’ in the settings, so to speak… that any person you have blocked from your personal profile could still come write on your fan page and you wouldn’t see what they write, but others could. The only solution is to unblock them from your personal profile, then remove and ban them from your fan page, then Facebook has a 48hr waiting period before you can re-block them from your profile. Thanks so much to the amazing Mari Smith (http://www.facebook.com/marismith) for sharing her insight on this.
Otherwise, it’s likely to be another Facebook bug.
Hope this helps.
Wendy
Wendy, that was it! There is something about going between my personal account and the Fanpage admin… All persons I was blocking on the Fanpage were being banned in my personal account. It’s unknown how to fix this problem, as one has to be logged in to perform admin duties on a Fanpage. I created a new admin who has a separate Facebook profile (unattached to the Fanpage). This person can ban and delete on the Fanpage, these persons do not get added to her personal FB profile. This is definitely a hoop to jump through. I’ll still have to do as you say and remove those persons from my personal account (the account that is attached to the Fanpage). Do you think this has something to do with being logged in as a person vs. logged in as a Fanpage? I’ve not really understood how that works and at times, FB forces you back into your personal name… Thank you so much for your help!
Hi Wendy
Thanks for your informative post. I have an abusive post I am wanting to delete, but there are some comments on it that I would like to keep as they are an intelligent reflection on some of the issues. If I delete the offensive post (which was someone elses post, not my own) from my page will it delete the comments also? Or is there another way of keeping the useful comments which do add value to my page?
Thanks so much
Hal
Hi Wendy, thanks for your super helpful article. A quick question about hiding posts…does the person who wrote the post know that’s it’s hidden? For example, they post on our fan page wall and then we hide it. Will their post show up to them on our fan page wall but just not to any other of our fans?
Don’t want to hide it, they see that it’s no longer on the wall and they get mad.
Thanks!
Hi Hal,
It depends on the outcome you are looking to achieve. If the comments are in reply to the post and are saying nice things about you, then I’d leave the post up. What you’ll find with social media is that usually, people will come to your defence should a visitor to your page start posting nasty things.
If the post was yet to receive any comments and it was bothering you then yes, I would likely delete it.
If you do delete the original post, you will lose all the comments below it. If you want to keep a record of the comments, perhaps to use as a testimonial then I’d take a screen grab of those comments and using a simple program such as Paint, save a copy of them. You can then use them in your marketing.
I’ve done just this when people post lovely comments on Facebook. I take a screen shot of it, save it as an image and then use it as a testimonial.
Hi Amanda,
When you hide or delete a post, Facebook does not notify the person that posted. You are fine to remove a post without fearing the person will be notified by Facebook.
Wendy
Hi Cynthia,
You’re most welcome. Happy to help.
Wendy
Thanks for this post and the comments. We are currently dealing with an issue with an unhappy customer whose issue was not able to be resolved to her liking. So she and her friends have been flaming our facebook wall.
We needed to know the difference between removing the post, hiding the post and report abuse.
Hi Elyse,
Removing a post will do just that – delete it. I don’t believe this is marked as spam.
Hiding a post will also remove it, but it gets marked as spam by Facebook. From what I have seen it does not ask you to confirm this, it just deletes it with the following message: “Post has been marked as spam.” There does not appear to be a way to “unhide” it either.
Report Abuse allows you to let Facebook know about a user that is causing you issues. It should give you a number of options regarding the type of abuse that you can select from.
Having said that, I just checked the options on my Facebook Fan page regarding the above and it is only allowing me to Delete or Hide a post at the moment. I can’t seems to see Report Abuse anymore. But that could just be a) a bug or b) another Facebook change.
)
Hope this helps.
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
Thanks for all the great information. I have a quick question. I have a business page on Facebook, and another business page (one of my competitors) liked it. They haven’t actually posted anything yet. Am I able to block them from my page now? Or do I need to wait until they post something before I can ban/block them? Any insight you have would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Andrew,
Yes, you are able to block people from posting on your Facebook page. You do not need to wait for them to post.
Facebook has the following explanation regarding blocking:
A block prevents specific people from viewing your profile (timeline). Any ties you currently have with the people you block will be broken (friendship connections, friend details, etc.). Your profile (timeline) will not be visible to them and you will not appear in their search results or friend lists. Blocking is mutual, so they will also become invisible to you as well.
Keep in mind that blocking someone may not prevent all communications, such as interactions in third-party applications, and does not extend to elsewhere on the Internet.
Please note that removing a block will not restore a connection. If you block a friend and then remove that person from you Block List, you will need to send them a new friend request.
To Ban someone from your Facebook Page, you do the following:
On the left hand side, find the area showing your fans that says X number of fans Like this (below your About box) and Click Like This
The insights window will load
In the top right hand corner look for See Likes. Click this
All the fans of your page will load.
Find the name of the person you want to ban.
To the right of their name there is a Make Admin button. To the right of that there is a CROSS. Click the Cross.
Facebook will ask you: Are you sure you want to remove XX from this page? There is also the option in the bottom left of that window to Ban Permanently. Click this box and Select OK
Hope this helps.
Wendy
Hi, Unfortunately a dirty picture article got posted on my wall, when i try to remove it, i dont see the options to do so. Also the same article is getting posted on all my contacts wall on behalf of me, its very embarrassing, irritating and frustrating, as i have many woman friends or so, though i am removing it by mentioned it as spam, it gets reposted every day, i am helpless, is there a solution…..
Hi Manoj,
This sounds like spam and usually Facebook takes care of this itself. If it is still popping up I’d report it Facebook via their contact page.
Wendy
Hi, I received a noticifation that a post was made to my business Facebook wall, but I’m unable to see the post. When I sign into my business page I don’t see anything on my wall other than what I have posted. Is there another area I need to view. How can I get to the wall area where they posted. I clicked on the notification link and there I see what they posted, but there’s no way to remove it. Thanks
Hi Rhonda,
When a person posts on your business page wall (or Timeline too), depending on your setttings you’ll receive an email containing the information that was posted. Seems this is what occurred for you. However, if the person that posted on your wall has since removed what they posted, the email stays but the post will be gone.
I’ve had this happen before, mainly to my profile/timeline. So in the email you’ll be able to see what was posted/said, but there is no longer an actual entry against your page. I suspect this is what happened here. Are other people able to see the post? If not, I’d say that it’s been deleted by the original poster.
I hope this helps.
Wendy
Hi Wendy – I have people post to our business page. They aren’t really spam, but they tend to clutter up the page. I’ve noticed a lot of business pages I admire allow you to post to them, but as you scroll down their wall, it’s nice and clean — just their posts. One example I’ve noticed is Zappos, where you only see wall posts by Zappos. Any thoughts on how businesses like this are handling wall posts that are from fans — to keep their pages nice and clean and professional? Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Hi Emmon,
When you go to your business page, at the top of the page, immediately below the 5 images, you’ll see an option to view the content of the page in one of two ways: Everyone (top posts)/ Everyone (most recent) and Name of Page (your page name). If you select the option for your page name, this will show only the posts by the page.
To set your page so that this is the default option, do the following:
Edit your page => Manage Permissions tab (the one that load by default.
Look for Wall Tab Shows and choose Only Post By Page (versus All Posts).
Hit the Save Changes button
Now visitors to your page should only see your page posts by default. They need to then select the second option (Everyone) in order to see posts from your visitors.
I hope this helps.
Wendy
Wow, that is GREAT information. Thanks so much Wendy!
You’re welcome Emmon. Happy to help.
I only see 2 options — mark as spam or report as abuse. I just want to delete someone else’s post from my wall. How do I do that?
Hi Editor,
If you are logged in and an administrator of the page, you should have the three options: Delete Post, Hide Post, Report as Abuse. If you are not the administrator of a page, you’ll only see the other options.
Wendy
Wendy, you can “unhide’ hidden posts for any page you are an Admin for……just click on the “Hidden Posts” link under your page’s Wall link …..they will be there….and you unhide them the same way you hid them…..hover cursor over right side of post and you’ll see drop down arrow with choices: Delete post, Unhide post or Report as abuse.
Thanks for the share Geri.
Wendy, thank you for a very helpful article. One of our biggest challenges is dealing with unsolicited postings from vendors wanting to promote their products, services, and events to our Facebook fan base. We list our posting guidelines on the left hand sidebar, and these include details on how they can partner with us to market to our niche community. But that doesn’t seem to make much of a difference, unfortunately. I realize that there are always going to be groups and individuals who do this. But would you know if there is any way to perhaps maintain a static post at the top of the wall that reiterates the posting guidelines? Best regards.
Hi Steve,
Unfortunately there’s not a way on Facebook to pin a post to the top of the page wall listing (like you can on a forum). Any posts are displayed chronologically.
A couple of things you could consider would be to have all of your page posts as the ones that your fans see first (you can see what I mean in the top right hand corner of your page, below the 5 images in the ribbon). It will say Your Page Name then Posts by Everyone.
You can set this to be Your Page Name as default (ie: fans will see only posts by YOU/Your page, first, and then need to click the everyone link to see ther other posts by fans). You do this via:
Edit Page => Manage Permissions => Wall Tab Shows then select Only Posts by Page (versus All Posts).
The other suggestion is to have the tab on your page with the guidelines as the landing tab when visitors first arrive (like a Welcome tab).
To do this:
Edit Page => Manage Permissions => Default Landing Tab => then choose the tab you want visitors to see first.
You could also incorporate a link to the Guideslines tab on your Welcome tab (I’ve looked at your page and you currently don’t have one). So I’d probably just set the Landing Tab to be the guidelines so it’s the first thing visitors see.
Hope this helps.
Wendy
Hi Wendy, many thanks for the very informative article – I have a question:
I’m setting up a business page for my company and in a perfect world, would like the ability to not have anyone comment at all (as we don’t have the resources to police it) – I know this isn’t possible.
So I thought of using the profanity blocklist, and also making the moderation blocklist as comprehensive as possible, so that just about any comment gets blocked.
I’m testing this and it does work – all comments so far get marked as spam, and I can delete, hide etc.
However I’ve logged into another account to see whether these comments show up in another accounts feed and they do show up – even when they are marked as spam. They only disappear when I delete them.
This is regardless of whether you have liked the page or not.
Am I misunderstanding the way this works?
Hi Colin,
My understanding is the blocklist is to stop spammers.
You can indeed set your fan page so that it does not allow anyone to comment.
Edit your page => Manage Permissions => Posting Ability
Then uncheck the box that says People can write or post content on the wall
This will disable your fan page wall so that no visitors or fans are allowed to post.
Wendy
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