Being on social media takes time, and you don’t want to work against yourself by working against the stated and unstated rules of Facebook etiquette. Here’s a refresher:

• Don’t give rewards for engagement or reviews.
• Don’t explicitly ask for likes and shares.
• Don’t delete comments that you don’t like.

Don’t Give Rewards

Social media reviews are marketing gold. It is a great idea to encourage clients and customers to write genuine reviews about you on Facebook and other platforms.Be careful about incentives, however.  Some people will say anything for a prize (or even the chance of winning one.) We all know this aspect of human nature. So, when a brand posts a reward of some kind for social media reviews, every review becomes suspect.Offering a gift or incentive for reviews will kill the credibility of every review of you or your brand everywhere. Don’t do it.

Don’t Ask for Likes and Shares

In a recent tweak to Facebook’s algorithms, you’ll get yourself in trouble if you ask people to like or share your posts as part of the post content. (“Like this if you are hungry.” “Share this if you agree.”) Facebook has decided this is clickbait to artificially boost engagement numbers.

Facebook’s algorithm rewards posts that get better engagement and shows them to more people. However, Facebook is looking for genuine reach.

Facebook has decided it doesn’t like publishers gaming the system by explicitly asking for likes and shares. “People have told us that they dislike spammy posts on Facebook that goad them into interacting with likes, shares, comments, and other actions,” the company wrote on its blog.

All posts that Facebook thinks qualifies as clickbait will be pushed down in the news feed. Facebook also says that publishers and pages that continue to use the tactic will see their reach diminished for all their posts. Not good.

Don’t Delete Comments that you Don’t Like

Your Facebook page is yours and you can do what you want, right? Wrong. Your page is a community that you have built around your brand.  And, the people of your community demand your respect or they will make life very unpleasant.Relationships require give and take. Any worthwhile relationship values your opinion. It’s no different with online connections.Your community may not like everything you say or do. They will let you know. You need to respond not by deleting authentic feedback, but by acknowledging it. See every comment as an opportunity for you to learn more about the members of your community.Rather than delete negative comments, respond. Show that you are listening. Explain any points of confusion. Pledge to do better. Just acknowledge that the other person has a right to their opinion. You pick the right response for the situation. But take the temptation to hit delete out of your repertoire.