Does Facebook hate the HCG Diet and are all HCGers in danger of being banned from Facebook for life? The answers are yes and yes, and the proof is in the pudding below.
If you’re on the HCG diet, prepared to be shocked and PO’d.
Not only can Facebook not stand the HCG diet and the entire culture around it, it considers the HCG substance and by dint, the diet itself to be “prohibited.” By the Facebook ad team, HCG is considered a “banned substance.”
Ever wonder why you no longer see ads promoting HCG Fan pages? You used to, along with ads for the “HCG diet.” But you don’t anymore. That’s because they’re banned. Wonder why you’re not being bombarded with spam ads for hhcg on Facebook?
That’s because it too is banned (though I think that’s ironic, given homeopathic HCG has no actual HCG in it, but I don’t want to go off on a rant here).
So, given what you just read, how do you think Facebook regards our HCG communities that we’ve all worked so hard to create, build and maintain? How do you think they regard your networks of talking about HCG on each other’s Walls and linking with each other, sharing tips and advice?
With what I’m about to show you, it could be just a matter of time before Facebook brings the hammer down on you. and just like in the examples I’m about to show you, there won’t be any warning – one moment it’ll be there, the next, you’ll be sucking vacuum.
All it would take is one or more people with bad HCG experiences and sufficient clout and leverage to make it a big deal – and boom – overnight? No more HCG page.
Think it can’t happen? Then take a look at this guy. He didn’t think it could happen to him either…
“Well now we know who the boss is. Facebook has shut down a real estate business page with 47,000 plus members giving zero notice to the page owner, Jonathan Rivera. The Official Real Estate Referral Group is a community that Jon started almost 2 years ago and had just crossed the 47,000 fan mark making it one of the largest real estate related pages on Facebook.” [source TechSavvyAgent.com]
Here’s more detail from CasaLaw.comabout the implications of Facebook’s smackdown:
“A Facebook Page serving the real estate industry, with over 47,000 fans, was recently shut down by Facebook due to a complaint for using an unauthorized vanity URL (the “custom” URL Facebook lets you add ex. http://facebook.com/casalaw), which used the trademarked term REALTOR®.
The creator of this page, Jonathan Rivera, became aware of the violation prior to Facebook’s removal of the page, however, it is not possible for a Facebook user to edit their Facebook Page’s vanity name after it is initially changed. When Jonathan first discovered this violation he desperately attempted to contact Facebook to correct the issue, but Facebook failed to respond to Jonathan’s inquiries.
Instead of making accommodations that would allow him to correct the username retroactively, his page was completely shut down by Facebook. Leaving Jonathan without any contact to the network of over 47,000 fans, he had built over the course of almost two years.
The Facebook Page Jonathan lost was not just an advertisement for his company, but instead the company was completely encompassed by the Facebook Page.Jonathan’s Facebook Page served as a referral network for real estate agents, providing over 1,400 referrals to real estate agents across the nation, in it’s first 21 months of existence. At this point the business he had worked so hard to develop, and dedicated two years of his life to, was seemingly down the drain.”
“This is a good lesson for anyone who utilizes the internet for building their business or personal network. It is important to always read the “terms and conditions,” otherwise it is impossible to know the full extent a website can be used, without making a costly mistake. In most situations you will find that by agreeing to the “terms and conditions” you forfeit all rights to the material posted and information associated with your website or social media page.”
Did you catch that? Yeah, that’s right. Everything you put up on Facebook actually belongs to Facebook and is no longer your intellectual property.
How about them apples?
Or how this from 2 days ago (as of this writing) Facebook banning (noticed they’re doing this “banning” thing a lot?) the use of an image of a marijuana leaf?
Now, never mind whatever stance you have on drugs (I’m not a druggie, so from that perspective, I could care less), but… I do care about the rights of the individual and frown upon any entity – government or business to come in and nanny us because they think they know better than we do.
This from the end of that article:
“Just like Facebook’s disastrous decision to block images of breast-feeding – an act which is protected as a right under law in many nations–because of concerns about decency, it’s easy to see this as another case of Facebook pushing its U.S.-centric morals on its hundreds of millions of non-U.S. users.”
So how did I find out Facebook is eyeing the HCG Diet and all things HCG with the stinky eye? Like I seem to learn everything: the hard way.
You know my survey that I launched, right? If Facebook had allowed me to use Facebook ads, as was the original plan, I could have reached about 300,000 folks who are on Facebook and are keenly interested in losing weight.
Instead, I reached a few thousand, out of which just under 200 took the survey and kept it from being a total disaster. In Internet terms, almost no one saw the tweets, Facebook posts and emails for it.
If it hadn’t been for the last-minute assist and yeoman’s from Jill and Diane (most notably) and a few others – no one would have seen it.
All thanks to Facebook and it’s capricious, wonky and unclear policies. Now, keep in mind, I wasn’t selling anything. The ad copy and design would catch folks’ attention who were interested in losing weight, they’d click on the ad and be taken to the first page of the survey. Those of you who did take it know the rest.
At no point were you sold anything, remember? Which makes Facebook’s position even weirder.
Here’s What Happened…
Starting 3 weeks from the survey’s launch, I created a series of Facebook ads and submitted them to Facebook. That’s when the time-wasting Nightmare Dance with them began. Seemingly without rhyme or reason, Facebook’s ad team would reject some ads, while nearly identical ads were (briefly) accepted.
Then later, I would go into my ads campaign panel and the ads were not approved after all.
I started emailing Facebook’s ad team and I kept getting these autoresponders back with vague directions and… well here, I’ll let you read my last email to the ad team when my frustration had reached its zenith:
—–Original Message to Facebook—–
From: walter(dot)gutlessinseattle(at)gmail(dot)com
To: The Facebook Team
Subject: Ad Management Help: Changing an ad’s status or bid
Topic: Changing an ad’s status or bid
Specific Questions:Dear Facebook Ad Team,
Thank you for your feedback on my ads and I thought I would take a moment to explain what happened, in my own defense.
I’m not selling anything with my ads. There’s no product or service, just a survey where I’m trying to help others struggling w/obesity to lose weight and become healthier.Each time I had an ad rejected by the ad team, all I got back in feedback was the generic reply that somewhere in guidelines 4, 7 and 13 the ad had violated one of them.
I thought I was following the guidelines so I tried adjusting the ad creative and resubmit it in an attempt to comply and after some time discovered that I didn’t see the before and after shots restrictions. I am a newbie to Facebook ads and the feedback seemed so general that I wasn’t sure what to change so I tried the trial and error approach.
My intent wasn’t to try to circumvent Facebook’s guidelines.
This last response from the ad team was, unfortunately simultaneous with being banned. This was somewhat more specific in that it said my ads were not in compliance with something in Section 5′s 24 line items. Now, this is the first time that the Facebook Ad Team mentioned Section 5. It would have been more helpful if you had told me which of the 24 items my ad (theoretically) violated.
I need more specific help on the problems Facebook is having w/my ads.
If the ad team is not clear on why my ad was declined, is there another avenue to get clarification? It would make is so much easier if I knew exactly what was wrong with my ad and exactly what to change, like an underline, I would of been successful.
For the record, I wasn’t not aware that the trial and error method would work against me and didn’t know that this could cause me to be ban from Facebook ads. I clearly understand now and ask that you reconsider the ban so I can reach people who need my help.
Name of Ad: HCG Secrets Revealed + others”
That’s pretty clear, right? Well, two weeks later (and too late for the survey) comes Facebook’s response. I was underwhelmed:
“Hi Walter,
Thanks for writing in to us. I took a look at your account and noticed that the content advertised by this ad is prohibited.
We reserve the right to determine what advertising we accept, and we may choose to not accept ads containing or relating to certain products or services.
We do not allow ads for HCG and will not allow the creation of any further Facebook Ads for this product.
We appreciate your cooperation with this policy.
Thanks for your understanding,
Wesley
Online Sales Operations
Facebook”
No problem, dude. Not like I had another choice.
Ultimately, as near as I could figure it, the words “HCG” and “diet” could not be in the same sentence together and/or not in the headline no matter what. But by that point I was “banned,” the survey was in mid-launch and I just didn’t have time to continue pursuing the matter (though I still will).
I can’t even run ads for the fan page, no HCG page or person can.
I’m not bitter or anything. It is what it is. It does give me pause because of what happened to real estate guy and how that could happen to me, or anyone with HCG pages, groups whatever.
Which is why I’m warning you about it. “forewarned is forearmed,” after all.
Though more likely than not, if Facebook is going to go after anyone, they’ll go after the homeopathic HCG people because that is a scam and it is harmful to people (see my blog for the ‘it’s not how much weight you lose but what kind of weight you lose (muscle or fat)’ distinction).
What I’m Doing About It…/How I’m Protecting Myself
So where does this leave my HCG Diet: The Straight Truth Facebook Fan Page? It’s sticking around but there are going to be a few strategic changes to protect myself. As you know, I’veput A LOT of valuable content up there (so valuable that the unscrupulous and the homeopathic are ripping it off right and left – and btw, a special shout-out to C., who thinks I don’t know she’s here under another alias).
So this news has changed my Facebook strategy a great deal. Primarily, you’ll see me doing more posts there that will link to the GIS blog for the full deal.
Why? Because I own the GIS blog and no social media organization can take that away from me. I own it, it’s mine, the intellectual property is mine and no company like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube can make it disappear overnight just because they woke up constipated one morning.
Just last week I paid a VA to back up all previous Facebook posts and tweets. The Twitter backup went without a hitch but apparently you can’t backup Facebook that easily, so she had to manually copy all my status updates out and then she did me one better – she arranged them all by thread, date and subject matter in a handy-dandy spreadsheet.
Think that go-getter will be getting future business from me? Betcher booties she will.
So I’m going to be moving more of the conversations, at least the juicy portions from Facebook to the blog. Now, I’m aware that many on Facebook would prefer to never leavethose comfy digital environs, but let’s face it, if you were writing tons of content that you could one day turn around and sell and make a nice living for yourself and you wouldn’t ever have to work for an employer again, you’d take steps to protect it too.
Heck, if nothing else, even if that isn’t your dream, you should take steps to protect your Facebook pages just because of all the sweat equity you put into it.
So I’d like to hear from you. How do you feel about all this? BFD? Have similar Facebook/social media horror stories to share that could serve as a warning for the rest of us?
I want to hear from you. Actually, all of us on Facebook want to hear from you.
Til next time… Stay Gutless.
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