What not to do on Facebook

A friend emailed me recently asking for advice. She had received a friend request on Facebook from someone she didn’t know, but knew of. She decided to grant the friend request. Immediately afterwards this person wrote on my friend’s wall asking her to like her Facebook page and include a link to the page.

A day later, my same friend got another message on her wall from someone else that said how much she liked my friend’s page and then wrote in a P.S. to please like her page.

My friend was obviously bothered by this and wondered what to do. I told her both people spammed her and to delete the messages. It is really rude to promote your business, your book, blog, Facebook page, website, etc. on someone else’s Facebook wall or page. It’s akin to spray painting on the outside of someone’s house something like, “Like Computer’s R Us Facebook page at www.facebook.computersrus.com.” You would never do that. It’s just as offensive to do that online.

What surprises me is that many of the people doing this are really nice people. I don’t think they intentionally are trying to spam others. Perhaps they just don’t realize how ill-mannered it is.

Someone’s Facebook wall is somewhat sacred. When you write on someone’s wall it’s like walking into someone’s house during a party and shouting something to the group. It’s OK to shout something if it’s a. complimentary of the person, b. it’s helpful or interesting to the person and her/his friends or fans. It’s not OK if it’s personal and best communicated by a direct message or email, or it’s, as stated above, promotional.

So, next time you’re tempted to post something about your business on someone else’s wall don’t. Your friends will thank you.

Have you ever had someone post a promotional message on your Facebook profile or page? What did you do?