Social Media Manager Blocked From Commenting On Facebook
Social Media Manager Blocked From Commenting On Facebook
‘It can happen to you, too!’
I was part of a ‘groovy’ event on my friend Keri’s Facebook Page last Thursday night. The January Jig is an amazing 26 day event and it was great being a guest on her Facebook Page.
I was a featured, invited guest on Idea Girl Media at 9 AM, 2 PM and 8 PM. Nothing happened, no warnings came up, until after 9 PM, more than an hour into the third segment.
THAT’S WHEN TROUBLE FOUND ME
I ran across a little snag.
This is what showed up after 1 hour and 8 minutes of posting and commenting on her wall. This happened whenever I tried to leave a comment.
I SHOULD HAVE STOPPED RIGHT AWAY
…but I didn’t realize what was happening.
I had been featured at 9 AM and at 2 PM (and hour each) without any issues, but I have to admit that the interaction was not as great as the evening session. I was logged in as myself, not my Fan Page.
ONCE I REALIZED I WAS BLOCKED, I LEFT MY FRIENDS’ PAGE
[I could still post on the page and like on the page, but not comment]
I then tried to take the conversation to MY OWN FACEBOOK PAGE, but I quickly realized it was fruitless.
Only on my own timeline could the conversation be finished.
This is what I experienced each time I tried to comment:
THEN IT BECAME A WAITING GAME…
In the mean time, I felt like this:
No more comments here
In an act of solidarity, my friend Greg Welsh changed his profile picture as well:
Here are my ‘awful’ stats:
45 : # of total comments left in 68 minutes
7 : # of conversations, some simultaniously
–>
42 : # of hours commenting blocked by Facebook [ban lifted at 2PM Saturday]
3 REASONS I COMMENTED SO MUCH
- I broke up many of my comments into segments so while I typed, my followers could read along.
- I wanted engagement for my friend Idea Girl Media, which was the whole point of the January Jig.
- I had a lot to say! I was the ‘featured expert’ [in social media training] and had prepared quite a bit of material to cover.
3 LESSONS LEARNED
- Use all your 5000 characters as Facebook allows that many.
- Go to Twitter for a chat.
- Facebook is not a social as it appears to be…
FYI
*While doing research on this block, we came across only two documented instances of people getting blocked from commenting.
*One of my very good friends, Jocelyn Wilhelm, came forward with her own story of being blocked from commenting, however, her block was lifted after only one hour. She was blocked after participating in a contest. Here is her story:
It happens when you keep posting on the same page within a brief amount of time. You get that warning, then you’re not able to post anywhere else. You’re banned for about an hour or so. That’s why we’re able to post so many characters now 5000? This eliminates a FB Page from being spammed. Hey, I got a burger named after me for posting so many times on a trivia contest we had over here on a local restaurant. I kept posting numbers, high, low, until I got the correct answer and won. “Jozzie SPAM Burger” – YUMMY! So yeah, lesson learned. Post using your allotted character limit. You can always {shift enter} to separate into paragraph.
DID I LEARN MY LESSON?
How can I not have?
‘I am a social media manger and was unable to comment.’
I felt like…
- a bookkeeper without QuickBooks
- a teacher without books or computers
- a hair dresser without a blow dryer
You get the idea.
I could still do my job, but not to my best ability.
SILVER LINING
I had to take my conversations back to my Timeline and this is what happened there.
YOUR TURN
- Has this happened to you?
- Have you experienced any kind of Facebook warning?
- Have you experienced any kind of Facebook block?
Dorien@MoreInMedia.com
About Dorien Morin-van Dam
Dorien is owner and social media marketer at More In Media. Dorien enjoys social media training, educating and consulting and is passionate about teaching social media to small business owners. In her spare time, Dorien manages five kids, two dogs and a husband. She runs marathons and loves to bake, travel and read.
It is really sad that you have to worry about that sort of thing. I thought Facebook was for being social.
I am doing the January Jig today and got a lot of comments in on one of the previous hours, so we will hold out for hope.
Though I hope that Facebook fixes this little bug!!
Smiles
Wendy Cassera recently posted..A Bookkeeper, An Accountant, and Your Taxes
I am keeping my fingers crossed while typing , wishing your JIG huge success.
I am sure it will be great to night.
Facebook was being Facebook, protecting the pages, punishing the really social manager.
It’s OK. I am over it now
Well I thank you for teaching me what not to do…which is exactly what you are supposed to do… So, that just proves your value…
Thanks, Fred.
So you want me to say it:
I meant to do that!
I meant to block my ability to comment for the love of my social media students.
*grinning*
I feel validated!
I am so glad you posted this blog. Let all be warned by your example: rapid fire comments are considered spammy by the Facebook police. 8^)
You did it, Ryan!
You asked me all those questions, typed so fast and broke the internet!
Shame on you..;)
Thanks for stopping to by to show your support!
Fondly, Dorien.
Haha!! It was epic.
I know.
It was kind of fun the first 5 minutes…and then not so much!
But
EPIC
is a good word.
IRONIC is as well, as I was invited and being social! And then got punished for it.
You are awesome, Ryan!
Thanks for being part of the problem
It’s a shame that it happened to you when you were trying to help people socialize properly with who, oh yeah, Facebook!
Sherrie Glensky recently posted..Angels for Michael
Sherrie, thanks for stopping by
While at first I was a bit amused and rolled with it, by Friday morning it wasn’t funny anymore.
Today, when I finally got my commenting abilities back, I reflected and I decided the whole thing is
IRONIC
‘The Adventures of a Duct Taped Manager’ might have a sequel if some of these Facebook rules don’t get adjusted!
~Dorien
What an amazing event and story. I couldn’t believe it was really happening. And I did notice that Thursday evening at the Expo you still seemed in withdrawal,
or shock. Great post, great recovery,and great fun. We will have great memories and you will have a new life event and social media badge.
Thanks Joel, as always you are so supportive!
I wonder if they make a badge for that…nice idea.
Maybe I should get one ready with Photoshop, just in case this happens again…:)
I just can’t stop being social, you know! it is my job.
See you around town!
#honmb Monday 2/6, right?
Oh, brother.
What can I say after I say I’m sorry, Dorien? Facebook never ceases to astound me (and piss me off, too!)
It’s the one social media venue that just can’t seem to stop fixing things that AREN’T BROKEN. They make more changes and updates to the site than the 150 diapers I changed a week when I had my twins!
Gag me with a spoon.
Melanie Kissell @SoloMompreneur recently posted..Overcoming The Challenge Of Getting An Audience In Your Virtual Seats
HI Melanie,
thanks for visiting and commenting.
I saw you came and checked out the jig, too!
I think this is really more a lesson on where to put your efforts (your own website/url) vs. our opinion on Facebook and how they regulate things.
Facebook has been good to me and I would hate for it to shut down, or have my account be shut down.
For me it was a reminder to blog more and find lots of different avenues to engage my audience.
The eggs in one basket deal.
Dorien.
Well you already know my answer to this….YES, it has happened to me. I can see both sides, us being the social manager as we are…we post/comment and share…that’s what we do….ENGAGE…seems OK….then there’s Facebook, protecting pages from being spammed. If algorithm serves them right, act of spam is sending repetitive messages in short amount of time to the same recipient, then you see why you were flagged. Sorry this has happened to you too.
Thanks for writing the blog though. After all, life is about learning lessons and sharing them….so others can learn from it.
Jocelyn
Jocelyn Wilhelm recently posted..Wrong Reasons to Have a Website Redesign
That’s a coincidence but I got a Facebook warning about inviting people to be friends that I don’t know, this is strange because I don’t invite very many folk nowadays I let them invite me.
I was told they could close my account if I persisted! Great as Facebook is we must remember that we have no control whatsoever on what goes on here.
Dave
David Sharp recently posted..Building Business Relationships With The 100 Day Challenge
While the timing truly sucked, and you weren’t doing anything wrong, with the way Facebook spam is growing and starting to become something really intrusive and irritating, I can’t say I think Facebook needs to completely change their system. I do think that as the page owner, there should have been a way for Keri to fill out a form of some kind, verifying it wasn’t spam, thus lifting the ban earlier.
Mallie Dein recently posted..Pin It!
You said it Dorien, facebook is not as social as it seem! That must have been so annoying! I received a warning 2 weeks ago but it was for accepting many friends requests. I sent a message to each saying hello and that i had accepted their friends request. The warming was about sending friends requests to people I didn’t know…I didn’t even send (1)…I was just accepting them…weird!
Great advice! Now we know what to do to avoid it or at least deal with it if it should happen to us… Thank you for sharing! ~ Nathalie
Nathalie Villeneuve recently posted..Build Yourself a Quiet Room in Your Mind
Dorian, the only time I saw this happen was to a friend if mine for what I call ‘hand posted spam’, which is so NOT what you were doing. She was going from wall to wall to wall posting ‘Liked your page. Just dropping by from _____’ on numerous pages. Seems like they got it right with her and wrong with you. I can’t really see a situation where repeated posting on one wall would be spam, but I guess it happens.
Yes, it’s still a good lesson learned.
Anytime you do something repetitious on Facebook, they want you to stop.
However, I did not see a warning. Maybe I missed it, but all of a sudden I was blocked.
I wish I’d seen the warning…
Thanks for visiting.
Dorien.
It hasn’t happened to me but a friend said it happened to her when she tried to post on another friend’s wall and she couldn’t. Instead of giving up, she clicked the space bar hundreds of times (at least that’s what FB reported … she said she couldn’t imagine she had clicked that much) trying to get it to post. She was blocked for several hours and learned her lesson about being so compulsive, at least on FB. Glad you’re back as a commenter!
I had this happen to a friend of mine for posting too many status updates. It seems kind of contradictory. They want you to use their site but they block you if you use it too much?
Was the burger a Spam burger?
Aynex recently posted..A Ye Olde Good Time
I think it was…:)
I am hearing more and more stories now that I’ve written my experience down.
It seems this does happen more often than I realized.
Do people hide it, maybe…?
Embarrassed to be thought of as a spammer?
Thanks for visiting, Aynex!
Thank you for sharing this, this has never happened to me but it so easily could have if you hadn’t shared this.
I will share this on all my networks to help raise awareness!
Gemma Thompson (@GemLThompson) recently posted..How to Use your Social Media Profiles to Boost your Page Ranking.
How terrible for you Dorien!! Yes, this has happened previously to one of my colleagues who was a guest on my #AskTheExpert session last year. Thankfully he was blocked near the end of the session so I was able to post his last few comments.
It’s certainly a warning for us all, to watch how much we comment to avoid being blocked.
Glad to hear you are back online and commenting!!
Yes, this happened to me over the holidays. I thought it would be nice to say Merry Christmas on all my fans walls. After doing it to about 20 pages, I became blocked. I received the same messages. Although I was not in the middle of a conversation like you, it was the holidays and I was planning to take a few days off from the computer anyway so I was not so bothered by it. Thanks for sharing.
Well good to know, I was blocked today for a couples of minutes on a Facebook chat, pretty annoying. I imagine your frustration Dorien!
You know what bugs me? Facebook puts a list of people they suggest you friend. So when you start friending some, FB blocks you for trying to friend the people they suggested to you in the first place. It doesn’t make sense. I thought FB was all about expanding your connections. Anyway, great post and some great lessons learned. Thanks so much.
Thanks for sharing. How awful was that?!
Facebook has some quirky things. I understand and appreciate their need to control spam. However, it does make it less social sometimes. Glad they increased the posting amount to 5000 characters. That makes things much better.
Again, thanks for letting us know about this.
I think it is something that Facebook is really going to have to address if they want their platform to be truly engaging. We are getting to the point where we are able to hold long conversations or teach classes on other social networks. I appreciate their fears over spam but they need to make their systems more robust in tracking it and not just blanket ban people.
Isn’t it a stark reminder that it isn’t your own territory, that space is owned and regulated by someone else, not by your business?
i just got blocked from commenting on facebook because i was in a discussion and kept posting my comments then editing them and reposting them. does anyone have any idea when my commenting power will come back? thankyou.
For me it was nearly 48 hours! Just step away for a day or two. Then try again. It will come back!
this has just happened to me all i was doing have having a chat with one of my favorite public facebook pages and we get along pretty well and they enjoy my feedback…but now im blocked all i can do is like their stuff..im glad i found this because i understand more of why i was blocked
Purcell recently posted..To Be Or Not To Be Admin, That Is The Question
I’ve been blocked from commenting on my personal site, not my biz site–yesterday my keyboard was either stuck (cordless one was not being used but on the floor under the desk upside down — ooops!) or had a virus and I typed “.0″ 89 times in a row without even touching my keyboard – completely not on purpose obviously. Going on my second day of being blocked and the “help” section doesn’t really allow you to contact anyone. I hope this gets resolved soon because I am in 2 groups related to creating artwork where we are all very active in commenting and helping each other with our art business.