Removing comments and posts
While I’m a strong believer in using every negative comment as an opportunity to demonstrate your business’s amazing customer service skills, there are some posts that just can’t be saved. Sooner or later it’s bound to happen, and it’s going to happen on your Facebook wall for all the world to see: spam. As a business owner, the last thing you want your prospective clients to see when they come to your Page is a wall full of spam posts! Fear not, friends, as a Page admin you can easily banish this unsightly rubbish from your wall in just two clicks.
If you mouse of the top-right corner of the offending post, a blue cog will appear. Click on this cog and it will give you the option of removing the post, removing the post and banning the user or page who posted it, or reporting the offending post as spam. Just click the appropriate option and the post will disappear from your wall, out of sight from your prospective clients.
You can use this same tactic for unwanted mentions, spammy promotions, competitor posts, or any other comments that are beyond saving even with good old-fashioned public relations spin.
Blocking event invitations
The Events feature on FB is an odd one — most users either go crazy with it or won’t use it at all. If you have Facebook connections who send you event invites like you’re approaching the end of times, here’s how you can have Facebook step in to intercept those invites so you never have to see them (and your overzealous connection will never know!).
The next time you get an invite from your over-enthusiastic event friend, go to the Events app to respond to the invite. Rather than click “Attending” or “Not Attending”, at the bottom of the RSVP window you’ll see a link that says “Remove this event”. If you haven’t RSVP’d at all to the event, another window will pop up asking whether you want to ignore all invites from that specific user.
If you tick that box and hit “ok”, then all future event invitations from that particular user will automatically disappear into Facebook oblivion.
Blocking users from your Page
I hope you never have to resort to using this trick, but in case the day ever comes that you need to ban someone from your Facebook Page it’s better to know how to kick them out for good than the ongoing struggle of whatever other havoc they might be causing. Fortunately, as a Page administrator you can block an offensive user from your page in just a few steps.
When you’re on your business’s Facebook Page, you’ll see a number on the lower left hand side with a link below it that says “people like this”. Clicking this will give you a full list of every single user who has liked your page.
To remove the problematic user from your Page, simply find him or her in that list (you might have to click “See More” at the bottom if you have a lot of likers). To the right of the user’s name, you’ll see a blue X. Just click that X, and another window will open asking whether you are sure you want to remove that user from your Page. To take it one step further, there’s a box you can tick that will enable you to block that user permanently from your Page, so they won’t be able to come back and “like” you again.
Removing someone from your newsfeed
Everyone knows someone on Facebook who is just “that guy”. You adore him in real life, he’s probably a wonderful business contact, but he posts epically long updates on Facebook every hour on the hour about his pet guinea pig, and his posts are the only thing you can see in your newsfeed. Facebook for business is all about building personal connections, so if someone like “that guy” is clogging your newsfeed with unwanted updates, here’s a trick to filter those out.
The next time you see a post from “that guy”, mouse over the top-right corner of the post and you’ll see a blue X giving you the option to remove the post. When you click on it, it gives you the option of taking it a step further and telling Facebook you aren’t interested in seeing any more posts from this user. “That guy” will never know you’ve decided not to hear more about his guinea pig, and should you need a recap his posts will still be visible if you go to that user’s profile or page. However, they won’t be keeping you from seeing the important things — like your favourite store offering half price shoes next weekend.
I hope you never have to use ANY of these tactics! But in case you do, use them wisely.
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