Have you ever noticed the ‘hidden’ menu tab, nestled under ‘wall’ on your Facebook business page?
This new label is just one of the changes made by the world’s largest social network this month.
If you click on it, you may find a few posts that you didn’t realise were there.
So I’ve done a bit of testing on other pages, and found some basic rules that seem to make a difference to whether something is ‘hidden’ or not.
Here they are:
– Repeated messages
If the same message has been posted on lots of different pages by the same user, Facebook makes the assumption that they are promoting a product or business, rather than joining a conversation.
For instance, if I posted a link on five different groups with the comment “Come and check out my new range of designer handbags”, then it’s fair to say I’m broadcasting rather than engaging.
And Facebook is all about the relationships after all, so it’s likely to get hidden.
– Free Viagra to help your duty free credit-card-debt
Emails containing spam words like those in the title above are often filtered out by your email host, but on Facebook they could potentially be plastered all over your business page.
So Facebook steps in, like a responsible parent, and blocks posts if the content includes spam words.
These words are set by default and there’s not much you can do to change them, but you can add to them….
Block certain words from your wall by changing the settings. To do this, click ‘edit page’ in the top right corner of your business page.
Towards the bottom you will see a free text box where you can add any words you want blocked (called ‘moderation block list’).
(You may want to block any mention of competitors on your page!)
When a user includes any of your blacklisted keywords in a post or comment on your page, the content will be automatically marked as spam and hidden from your wall.
What other glitches do you struggle with on Facebook? Come and share them on the Perfect Balance Marketing Facebook page and I’ll put my detective cap on to discover the answers.
Just don’t include any dodgy words, or you’ll be hidden forever!
Thank you! I have been puzzling over this for weeks. Facebook certainly has some very strange settings these days.
Perhaps you know the answer to this one. It looks like the number of likes a page has (shown on the left of the page), only shows ‘people’ who like the page and not other ‘pages’. I did a count on some pages who only have a few ‘likes’. How do you get to show all ‘likes’?
thanks for the great blog. Always worth a read!
Mandy
Thanks Mandy – Facebook always keeps us on our toes by changing their settings! Bless ’em.
If a business page ‘likes’ another page it doesn’t contribute to the number of ‘likes’ because it’s not a person.
It still shows updates from a business that you ‘like’ in your feed, but only if you ‘engage’ often with that business online. i.e. if you comment on their wall, upload content, share something, like something etc.
90% of people who like a page never return! So the biggest challenge is getting people to do something rather than just click the ‘like’ button and leave!
Thanks for throwing light on these questions, Lucy. And thanks for workshop this week in the Library without the internet without the heating but with the knowledge. Julia http://www.cornishfruitcakes.co.uk
No worries Julia – thank goodness the knowledge wasn’t affected by the cold (or the lack of technology!)
Thank you so much for this information! I’ve just started a page for my new business and I couldn’t figure out how to unhide people’s wall posts. Finally, I read your article and changed my settings. You saved me!
No worries Jaclyn – there are lots of odd little things with Facebook that can put you off at first but it’s worth persevering with. Hope your page goes well, Lucy
Lucy,
Thanks for this post. When fans are sharing links or videos on our page, they are only seen under the hidden tab. I get the red box notification up top, but nothing else. They do not show up on my wall unless I unhide them.
I can only think that the links/videos being shared on your wall are also being posted elsewhere, so Facebook sees them as spam rather than genuine conversation relevant to your page.
If someone just copies and pastes the same message (whether it’s a video or link) on loads of different pages, it will be marked as spam.
Only way round it is to only have unique content posted on your page – i.e a video that’s shared, with a comment that relates to your page or yourself.