Today, I have a story. Two, actually. A story many of you have surely encountered and well, if you haven't, this article is to make sure that stays that way!
Imagine being the communications director for the sports faculty at a university. Imagine waking up one morning only to find a bunch of team pages suspended on FB and a sports season just about to start. Imagine if your FB pages were the way you used to receive donations and support, and all of a sudden, FB cuts you off.
Well, this isn't a nightmare; this actually happened to the Université Laval. As my friends would say; if there's something strange, on your Facebook page, who you gonna call? Probably not Facebook, as most of us believe it to be impossible to speak to a human.
How long do you think it took to fix this problem? 2 days? 2 weeks? 2 months?
What if I said it took over A FULL YEAR to fix the problems?
Yep. A year. A whole freakin' year.
Why? I thought you'd never ask!
I have a bone to pick with Facebook, and this is just one of the reasons why. Did you know you needed a business manager account to run business on FB without a hitch? Did you know you need to verify your domain, business information, personal ID, and make sure you have a second admin on your business manager account in case something goes haywire and you lose access?
You probably didn't, and I blame the boost button and lack of follow-up when we open a business page.
You see, there are a bunch of tools that should be implemented if you really want to engage in commerce with FB (even if you don't run ads!).
A) You need to ID yourself personally to FB
B) You need a business manager account.
C) You need to add any assets to that business manager account (page, store, pixel, ad account et al.)
C) You need to complete your business verification once you have this account
D) You need to verify your website's domain
E) It is best practice to have a second business admin that you trust should your page get hit by a red flag
F) Page admins need to also ID themselves and have a clean record with FB!
You would think a corporation like Meta would send you an email, or something, the minute you create a page or decided to hit that dreaded "boost" button. That button automatically gives you an ad account, but without the previous steps I listed, all it can take is the wrong word, or the wrong image, for FB to flag your account. Next thing you know, you have to race through the steps I mentioned. But here's the bigger issue:
If you are alone on your page, and this happens, you end up like another of my clients who has not been able to start the correct process because of major FB flags. I mean this poor lady can't even get to the ID part - the system just won't budge. As a FB account manager who has done all that is required to be OK with Meta, I can contact FB directly through their Concierge service. Awesome, right? I can speak to humans!
BUUUUUUUTTTTTTT - and that's a huge but -
If you're like my client in California who was the only admin on her account and had not completed the steps FB requires, or the university, you hit a wall. My client in California was restricted and no one else could take control of the situation. She did not have the infrastructure I listed set up, so she couldn't speak to a human, nor could she put anyone new in charge to try and fix things (as in ME, in this case). Guess what? Her problem has been going on for over year, too!
She currently is running her ads through my account while we fight with the billion dollar corp.
The worst of it? If this happens to you, you'll need to pay someone to fix things. Every $ spent to fix is money lost. It's lost because had you known what you needed to do, had you at minimum received an email from FB telling you what you needed to set up, you would have never found yourself in that position.
I am happy to say we finally fixed things up for the Université Laval. It took the time it took, so do yourself a favour and get it right the first time! My client in California? We're still working it, but we may have finally broken a barrier this week, let's hope it worked!
Hence; here are the URLs you'll need to set up Facebook correctly for your business:
Personal ID: https://www.facebook.com/ID
Business Manager: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1710077379203657
Verifying your business: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/2058515294227817
How to claim your page to business manager: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/720478807965744
How to claim your ad account to business manager: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/910137316041095
I hope this helps avoid a lot of strife for those of you who follow through and complete the steps needed to secure your accounts with FB.
If you need to have your tools set up, if it's just driving you bonkers, click here and book a fix it session!
Tata for now, friends.
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