The Pros & Cons,understanding it all

I recently attended a couple of workshops on Social Media with our local Tourist & Business Association.
The first session was about marketing your business / organization using Facebook.


I thought to myself "this will be a non plus" as I had set up not 1 but 2 Facebook pages for us. Thinking I was one step in front of the others in the room as 90% didn't have one.
My marketing strategy was all ready developed ,how wrong could I have been.


You may wonder why I would do that , have 2 pages.. this was what I thought at the time

• extra exposure
• 2 different types of audience
• 2 different communication platforms
• for those who would like to be hidden from others (our a "like page") a bit of privacy

While the presenter began asking us one by one the usual questions "why we were there & about our organizations", I was feeling pretty confident and pleased with my efforts.
It was when I finished my whole spiel that our presenter had that look, you know the one , the worried, confused look.
She went on to explain a few Terms & Conditions of Facebook use, "had I not read these? "
It was at this point I had a mmmm moment.
This is why

• A business can not have a Facebook page & invite friends.Under their terms & Conditions I was running the risk of my page being shut down. 
• I had named our page "Lakes Entrance Neighbourhood House" not a real persons name

So there it was ,all the hard work I had put into inviting friends, tracking down potential friends of the house.


All in vain,I had not been clever at all.


I was reminded that social media is very new in the marketing arena and even more so in the community sector and has been embracred and encouraged at a very quick pace with changes almost daily.
I was sent away with a list of research tasks for the following weeks session

• why did we want / need a facebook page
• read up on the Terms & conditions
• look at other business pages