In my opinion the main reason for Facebook to be making so many changes and starting to strictly enforce their TOS is because they are going to issue an IPO

Facebook is going public and they want their house in order, for the first time they have seen an unusal amount of people closing their accounts, I believe one some of the main reasons Facebook is cracking down on Businesses using profile for doing business is last year they had n increase on members voluntarily closing down their accounts and the main reason was they were being constantly hit with sales pitches, a majority of people who join Facebook do it to socialize and not to be dealing with salespeople.

When they go public they want to be showing an upswing in new members and a decrease of members leaving.

Plus they are beginning to feel Google+ breathing down their neck and are reacting by separating their business model from their social model.

We must remember that Facebook began as a way for people to socialize with family and friends, them marketers saw a new way to pitch their products & services,so Facebook decided to offer Fan Pages as a way stay in contact with their customers, this is when they initiated their TOS regarding businesses not doing business as a profile.

if you really dig into the TOS terms you will see businesses are not supposed to be selling on Fan Pages just communicating with customers, don’t be surprised if Facebook comes out with another platform that will be for businesses wanting to sell from Facebook and don’t be surprised when they start this a paid service.

Yes they say Facebook will always be free, and it will but their is nothing stopping them from initiating other types of platforms, paid and free

Just one consultants opinion!. How about your thoughts?

I definitely agree with  @rlmosca sentiments. However, an additional explanation could be Facebook’s eventual move into becoming a viable search engine. With as much content that is shared on a daily basis and the sheer number of users on the site, it seems plausible that FB could make moves towards becoming a major player in the search/ SEO world. 

If you think about it, the wheels are already in motion. Consider the  graph ranking algorithm and the open graph changes this year. What do you think?

@chrismccarty  Very Interesting point of view, you could be on to something, that would be pay back to Google’s challenge to Facebooks srarting Google+.

What does everyone else think about Chis McCarty’s point of view!

I think if they were so worried about people being marketed to they wouldn’t be starting up the new option to have ads show up in the News Feed – I think this is a big mistake on FB’s part.  I wouldn’t put my ads in a news feed.  SOemthign should be kept “sacred”.

@rlmosca – How do you know they are getting more strict with compliance of the TOS? Have you read something you could reference?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you, @rlmosca! I shared something on Facebook after reading your original post and I’ve got people asking where I read it.

Thanks again!

@rlmosca @traceywarren @moinshaikh @ndonelly @chrismccarty So, if fb is going to make it more difficult for businesses to profit from using it or even be excluded from it, why are we trying to figure out how to best use fb for business?

@deairby monetization is very important to FB – MZ has long gotten over his college ideas about a purely social network.  He wants to find the perfect blend of social and money. no one has to worry about not being able to promote their businesses on FB – but it is about the rules.  Only personal profiles used for business had any worries about being shut down – and FB seemed to even promote the business use of personal profiles by allowing a personal site that allows subscriptions to exceed 5000 friends.  That to me was showing acceptance of the use of a personal page for business practice.  But it still comes down to the old content is king.  If all you deliver is a sales pitch,  especially o a personal page, no one is interested.

@deairby Well said @rlmosca. Just to expand on your thought… If a company is able to cultivate a decent fan base, then Facebook becomes a very powerful tool. I forget the latest stats, but an overwhelming majority of FB users spend the bulk of their time online using FB. So it makes sense to explore a space where your customers are happy interacting with one another. 

Additionally, with a decent fan base, businesses also have the ability to learn from their customers like never before. Forget focus groups, just ask a question on your fan page and see what happens. Lastly, if you’re looking to drive in leads, build an email database, or bring new traffic to a site… Facebook pages give business the ability to do all of those things. And I assume one of the main purposes of this forum is to discuss new and innovative ways to do those things. 

@rlmosca Your thoughts? 

Hope that helps!

@rlmosca

Rick, great post and interesting topic.

Facebook is highly opportunistic as well. Combine that with all the information they collect through postings, etc, they can see new opportunities for expansion.

The one thing I wonder sometimes is if they do their research before adding new functionality. It doesn’t bother me, but I know a number of people who get used to a feature, and then they change or add a new one. It really frustrates some folks.

Just a thought.