Common mistakes in Facebook Groups and Pages

Salam. Most of us know what Facebook is and I believe most of my readers have a Facebook account. After have been using Facebook for more than two years, I can see some people still not know the best practice in using it especially for Page, Group and Events. Here I’ll list five common mistake that you should avoid.

1. Group or Page

People used to get confused between these two things. In a simple word, both are important but it has different function. From my experience, I can say that Group is somehow a replacement for your group mailing list (Yahoo Groups or Google Groups) and Page is simply a profile of a brand.

Groups are great for organizing on a personal level and for smaller scale interaction around a cause. Pages are better for brands, businesses, bands, movies, or celebrities who want to interact with their fans or customers without having them connected to a personal account, and have a need to exceed Facebook’s 5,000 friend cap (via)

2. Long and ugly URL

Its an eyesore for me when seeing a professional looking Pages or Group with hundreds or thousands of fans/members but still using the long and ugly URL. Here’s the secret.

1. Get at least 25 member or fans
2. Go to http://facebook.com/username
3. Get your new shorter and better looking URL

It only takes three simple steps towards best practice in getting neat URL. I really hate it when TV hosts invited viewers to join their Facebook by searching the ‘keyword’ on Facebook.com. I just feel its not cool. To all Pages admin, do something!

3. Page Category

This is very tricky when you want to setup your Page especially for business. I also made a mistake and I want to warn you guys to make sure you put the right type or category for your business. It is not a big deal but you can’t change it back once you’ve created the Page.

4. Fan for a cause

I’m not really into these thing. I mean I don’t like being a Fan of a certain cause. I know this is personal but the thing is, when you become a fan, there is simply no activity happen to support the cause (for most of the Fan page). Besides that, hatred and animosity has the most fan in Facebook (anti Saiful Bukhari or anti Akademi Fantasia). Its a personal matter but hate and anger leads you to nowhere. I still remember my friends quote, “Life is too short to hate someone,”.

However, I’d like to remind that in a sound hadith from Muhammad s.a.w regarding to hate, “This is the least of Iman,” means that there is no Iman lesser than rejecting sin with the heart. It is better to express our hatred in a better way isn’t it?

5. Invite your friends using Events – don’t tag on photo

Whether you are inviting your friend for an event or just want to promote your business, I think it shows the level of professionalism in running your business or promoting an event. It just a personal point of view but Facebook had created Events section so that you or your group can create and invite people in a proper way, rather than tagging them on a photo. Here is how;

1. Log in your Facebook account
2. Click Events on the left hand side, just below your profile picture, News Feed, Message and Events is there
3. Click ‘Create an Event’ button on the right side, next to the Suggestion column
4. The rest is up to you and invite your friends from there

I guess this is some of the problems that I have observed since the first day I’m with Facebook. Facebook is just a tool for connecting people and marketing tool for business. I hope you can benefit something from this entry.

If you want to get updated with social media technology, you can visit blog such as Mashable and Social Media Examiner.

P/S: I’ve just created a Page for my company and I’d like to invite you guys to join me too. Thanks