Avoid Getting Banned on Social Networks

In recent cases, social networks have responded to users who have broken terms of service (TOS). When taking a further look, you can see that across various social networks, different opinions as to what is deemed acceptable behavior and what is considered banned. Let’s take a look at the TOS of our favorite social media networks.

Google+, the newest social network of the four discussed here, has very complex and sometimes contradicting pages describing its TOS.

Facebook, has only one TOS page, whereas Twitter, has a few quite detailed policy pages worth checking out.

LinkedIn user Agreement is very detailed, clear and, for the most part, very straightforward. It’s possibly the easiest out of these networks to follow.

What’s Clearly Not Allowed?

Of course, each network states that the following activities are never allowed.

  • You are not allowed to threaten or bully other users.
  • You should stay away from gambling and sexually explicit content.
  • You are not allowed to promote dangerous and illegal activities.
  • You are not to transmit viruses and malware.
  • You cannot spam
  • You cannot buy up- or down-votes.
  • You cannot use software to automate sharing of content through the network (except for official or approved software, or software that properly uses the official service API).ban-social-media-290x300

Similarities in Means for Banning Across most social networks:

  • Impersonation
  • Spamming using commercials or promotional content
  • Advertising yourself as someone other than yourself or not using your real name
  • Unsolicited emails

Now That You Know the TOS, Are You Secure?

Unfortunately not. That doesn’t go to say that being familiar with the TOS isn’t useful. You at least know the virtual rules about what is considered bad manners, unethical, and unacceptable online behavior. If you’re asking if you’re secured from being banned, that isn’t exactly the case either.

TOS can be changed, with or without notifying users. For example, Google+ started adding more rules and more pages to its TOS, while being in the process of banning. Many time, TOS can be interpreted in various ways. Therefore it is understood why there are so many users being banned from a rule they weren’t aware they were violating.

Should you worry about getting banned? As soon as you are actively sharing content and adding friends, there’s always a chance people may report you as a spammer. Unfortunately with any social network, what some users consider perfectly normal, others might deem intrusive and problematic by self-promoting.

Not to worry. If you have researched the TOS and believe you aren’t doing anything profoundly wrong or illegal, ask the appropriate network to reconsider your account suspension, should this happen. Most social networks will get back to you sooner than later with an explanation and sometimes even the opportunity to fix the errors and become restored. The trick is to clearly understand what is considered bad practice to begin with, and what’s not.

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.