What Libraries Should Know Before Creating a Facebook Page – Libraries & Facebook Update 2

October 20, 2009 · Posted in Facebook · View Comments

Otherswise known as : I Was Wrong

My orginal warning about creating a Facebook page is still correct, the update I posted was inaccurate. I’d like to thank Elizabeth for sharing what she discovered when she created a Facebook page after my last post on Libraries and Facebook.

The new “create a page for a celebrity, band or business” link allows you to create a page using a business account.

I don’t have a Facebook account. Can I still create a Page?
Yes, you can do so by creating a Business Account. To get started, you will need to first create a Facebook Page. To start this process, please click here. Once you’ve entered in the required information, you will be asked to log in to an existing Facebook account, or create a new one. If you do not currently have a Facebook account, please select ‘I do not have a Facebook account.’ You will then need to enter your email address and date of birth. Please be aware that managing multiple accounts is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If we determine that an individual has more than one account, we reserve the right to terminate all of their accounts.

So what is the difference between a business account and a personal account?

Business accounts are designed for individuals who only want to use the site to administer Pages and their ad campaigns. For this reason, business accounts do not have the same functionality as personal accounts. Business accounts have limited access to information on the site. An individual with a business account can view all the Pages and Social Ads that they have created, however they will not be able to view the profiles of users on the site or other content on the site that does not live on the Pages they administer. In addition, business accounts cannot be found in search and cannot send or receive friend requests.

Unfortunately that business account is still tied to the page as the primary administrator. Meaning you can not remove yourself. You can promote other people to admin status but they can not remove you.

How can I transfer Page admin rights?

There is currently no way to take away admin status from the creator of a Page. However, Page admins can add or remove other admins by following these steps:

Click the “Edit Page” link below the Page’s photo. .

On the right hand side, click the “Add” link in the Admin section.

Select the friend you would like to add an admin.

Just to reiterate what this means for libraries (or any other organization) -

If the original creator leaves the organization for any reason, there is no way to remove them. (You could try to contact Facebook, but if you’ve ever done that you know how that works.) Do you really want someone who no longer works for you to have control over your page? What if they were fired, or quit in a huff? I know, in an ideal world no one would ever leave and we’d all live happily everafter, but it does happen sometimes.

Remember it’s against Facebooks ToS to have multiple accounts, doing so could lead to the cancelation of all of your accounts. So what to do? Each library will have to make that decision individually but at least know what you’re getting into.

Tags: <account, admin, administrator, business, company, creator, Facebook, Libraries, library, organization, pages, personal, profile>

Libraries Think Twice about a Facebook Page

May 21, 2009 · Posted in Facebook · View Comments

Update 10/20/2009 The orginal warning still stands

Update 9/29/2009 Organizations can now create a page without linking it to a personal account.

Facebook ties a page to the account of the person who originally created it and I quote

however the original creator of the Page may never be removed by other Page admins.

Why does this matter? Because if the original creator leaves the organization for any reason, there is no way to remove them. (You could try to contact Facebook, but if you’ve ever done that you know how that works.) Do you really want someone who no longer works for you to have control over your page? What if they were fired, or quit in a huff? I know, in an ideal world no one would ever leave and we’d all live happily everafter, but it does happen sometimes.

Groups on the other hand at least allow the creator to promote other admins and remove themselves. No need to contact Facebook.

Groups and Pages have been compared so many places I’m not even going to attempt to, but I don’t see this issue on any of the lists. Just something to think about.

Tags: <Facebook, Marketing, ownership, pages>

Playing with Facebook

March 26, 2008 · Posted in Facebook · View Comments

I’ve spent an hour or so playing with Facebook this morning. MRRL has had a facebook page for awhile now, but I thought I’d create a group to see if that works better and/or attracts more fans. One perk I noticed is I’m allowed to create officers and name them whatever I like, so far I’ve named myself Crown Princess and Robin Webgoddess Does anyone have any experience with Page vs Groups? or just thoughts you’d like to share?

On a slightly related note, have you seen TouchGraph? It will create a visual map of keywords or URLs. Very cool. It also has a Facebook plugin which I used to make the graph below.