Facebook updated their Privacy Policy on December 9.  I’ve now started seeing this type of post making its rounds on Facebook and it is NOT completely true and it misleads people:

As of today, Facebook will automatically index all your info on Google, which allows everyone to view it.  To change this option, go to Settings –> Privacy Settings –> Search –> then UN-CLICK the box that says ‘Allow indexing’.

Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines “index” content on the web (kind of like taking a copy of it) and then place it in their search engine results when someone searches on applicable keywords.  There are a couple of things you can do in Facebook to control this:

1.  If you do not want any of your Facebook content indexed and placed in web search results, then yes, by all means change your Privacy Search Settings and unclick the Allow box.  (This means friends and others will not be able to search on your name, using a search engine, and find a link in the search results for your Facebook profile, etc…  It also means your Business Fan Page will not be indexed and available in search engine results so give your decision careful consideration if you are promoting your business on Facebook!)

2.  If you want SOME of your Facebook content to be indexed and placed in search engine results so it’s easier for friends, potential employers or clients to find you or your fan page…then make sure you ALLOW indexing in the Privacy Search Settings…and then adjust your Privacy Settings for each type of content you have control over.

After you click on each of the above privacy categories in Facebook, you will have choices for how you share different types of content.

Your privacy setting choices are:

• Everyone (this will be indexed by search engines if you Allow indexing)
• Friends of Friends (means friends and their friends)
• Only Friends
• Customize

If you click Customize, you have the following choices:

• Friends of Friends
• Only Friends
• Specific People (or an entire Friend List)
• Only Me
• You can also exclude people (or an entire Friend List) from viewing your content.

As you can see, there is a lot you can do to control the information you share by adjusting your Facebook Privacy Settings.

A Note On What’s Changed: If you previously had your privacy settings set to Allow Indexing, the indexing has been going on for a long time.  What changed is that now if you Allow Indexing, any content that you SHARE WITH EVERYONE, according to your privacy settings or your publisher control settings, will be indexed.  Sharing with Everyone means everyone on Facebook AND everyone on the internet.  If you do not want to share with everyone, simply change your privacy settings for each type of content.

If you would like help understanding and adjusting your Facebook Privacy Settings, please contact me about my virtual consulting/training services.

Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow

Become a Fan of my Fan Page:  Social Networking 4 Biz

Do you run contests, competitions or sweepstakes from your Facebook profile or fan page?  If you do, you’d better read this!  If you violate Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines, you run the risk of having your Facebook account or Fan Pages disabled.

I’ve gone over Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines (revised November 4, 2009) several times trying to decipher them.  The good news is, I think I made some sense of them finally.  And I want to share my opinion with you!

Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines cover what you CAN and CANNOT do in regard to Administering and Publicizing;  Sweepstakes, Contests and Competitions.  It also provides their definitions of the previous terms.  You need to understand their definitions in order to decipher the rest of their document.

According to Facebook:

Sweepstakes = a promotion that includes a Prize and a Winner selected on the basis of chance.

Contest or Competition = a promotion that includes a Prize and a Winner determined on the basis of skill.

Publicize on Facebook = promoting, advertising or referencing a promotion in any way on Facebook or using any part of the Facebook Platform.

Administer on Facebook = operating any element of the promotion on Facebook or using any part of the Facebook Platform.

The bottom line is that you:

• CANNOT administer (run) any promotion on Facebook without prior written approval.  (If you are not a very large company I seriously doubt that Facebook will respond to your request for approval but they do provide a link to a contact form in Section 3 of their guidelines.)

• CAN “publicize” a promotion that is “administered” completely off of Facebook (see Section 4 of their guidelines for restrictions).

• CANNOT state in the rules of the promotion, or elsewhere, that a person must take any type of action on Facebook in order to enter your promotion.  This means you CANNOT require anyone to update their status, post on a profile, post on a fan page, respond to one of your posts on Facebook, upload a photo, become a fan of your page, etc…

• CANNOT use Facebook’s name, trademarks, trade names, copyrights or any other intellectual property belonging to Facebook…in the rules or any other materials relating to your promotion without express written consent.  (See Section 1.3 of their guidelines.)

But wait, don’t give up yet! You can ADMINISTER a promotion on your blog or website and then PUBLICIZE it on Facebook.  One way you could do this is:

• write a blog post about your promotion
• in the blog post ask readers to respond in the comments of your blog or submit their response/photo/etc…to you via email or some other method outside of Facebook
• import your blog post onto your fan page via RSS Feed or simply write a short status update to “publicize” your promotion and then attach a link to your blog

If you’ve run promotions before or can think of other ways to administer your promotions outside of Facebook, PLEASE post a comment below and share your insight will all of our readers.  Thanks!

Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow

Become a Fan of my Fan Page:  Social Networking 4 Biz

Facebook has published guidelines that you must follow when promoting your Facebook Fan Page outside of Facebook.  The guidelines cover:

• Use of the Facebook name
• Use of Facebook icons, logos, visuals, screen shots, badges, etc…
• Use of the registered trademark symbol (and legal copy to use)
• When a Trademark License Agreement is necessary

As stated in Facebook’s guidelines, “Please note that Facebook reserves the right to remove or disable access to any Facebook Page that violates our Terms of Use or our Promotional Guidelines below.”

Click to read Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines.

Facebook also has guidelines for running promotions, contest, sweepstakes, etc…on your Fan Page.  These particular guidelines will be discussed in a separate blog post.

Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow