To a lot of people this is really a non-issue, much to do about nothing. But to the 100 Million who inhabit the fastest growing social network and the several tens of millions who now spend more time inside facebook than around the rest of the internet, this is quite a serious topic.

If you are one of those several tens of millions of users who have *lost* a facebook friend or relative, you know what I mean. And if are one of those unfortunates who have been banned or have an ongoing suspension that appears to be lasting forever, then the topic is near and dear to your heart.

Oh I forgot, there is another class of people feeling angst too. These are the mom and pop type companies who have decided to use facebook for marketing and who got a little too aggressive with their marketing when they saw that things were looking up.

In that article, I wrote a little about the facebook warning messages which I and many others consider quite bland. I detailed in vivid language that I personally felt that for such an important thing, they facebook could have done a little better in terms of bringing the urgency of the situation to their members.

However, what I didn’t go into at that time was the myriad of ways one can get suspended and banned.

Here they are, and facebook says that not reading the TOA Terms of Agreement is not an excuse.
Blatant Nudity – for you exhibitionists this is a no no
Writing too much to people who are not your friends ( yet )
Writing too much to people have invited you to be their friend but whom you have not yet accepted.
Writing on too many walls in a short period of time – looks like spam
Creating a group inside Facebook with the Facebook name/word in it – its trademarked you know.
Creating a website outside of facebook with the facebook name in it
Hijacking the accounts of others – only a hacker would do this one

Using an image that you do not have the authority to use – tens of thousands do this.
Using the facebook email like its twitter. Its not, there is a chat facility for that
If you are a group admin, spamming your own group more than three times in a day.
If you have just been warned about something. Do it twice more within an hour or so.
Sending Add requests to more than 250 people you don’t know within a 24-48 hour span of time.

Generally, it would appear that there are two classes of evil that can get one banned or suspended from facebook. Nudity and stealing images and other such types of activity is one class of activity.

The other class of activity is time based. Sending 400 emails in a month is generally ok. Sending 400 emails all in one day is not. When you get a warning about a certain activity, lets say it was writing on walls, you are NOT told how long before you can continue that activity. I am not saying that facebook is right or wrong in not telling users, but this uncertainty makes it more difficult for spammers to figure out when they can continue spamming – so some would say its all good.

Read the Terms of Conditions and if you get suspended or banned there is an email where you can try to plead your case. I suspect they get thousands of pleading emails daily, so don’t expect a quick answer. One to three weeks may be the norm for a response.

Discover how a social worker made $2000 a month from just one blog

Six Popular Social Networking Sites

Social networking is now part of our culture. In fact, there are so many to choose from and those who decide to become a member of one are more likely to become a member of another. Just to give you an idea of what is around, here are six of some of the most popular social networking sites.

1. The first is called Facebook. As of July last year, it has the largest number of registered users among college focused sites with more than 34 million members worldwide. Although it is the seventh most visited site in the US, it ranks number one for photos. What makes this social networking site so special is that it generates revenues through advertising which according to some is a little over $1.5 million a week.

2. Next is MySpace which was founded in 2003. According to a study, this social networking site is the world’s sixth most popular English language website and the third most popular in the US. Similar to Facebook, members are able to post pictures, videos, blogs and music.

3. The third is YouTube which unlike the other two only focuses on the uploading, viewing and sharing of video clips. Established in 2005, members are able to upload videos for free and save those which they like in their account. If you want to save this in your computer, there are software programs you can use. The nice thing about this social networking site is that even unregistered users are also able to watch videos.

4. The fourth site is Second Life which is an Internet based virtual world. What makes this so different from the other three is the fact that you are able to create a character and then interact with other members. By interacting with other members, you are able to participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items and services with one another again in a virtual setting.

To date, this social networking site has 8.9 million registered residents with a majority of them that happen to be inactive and some of them are owned by one person.

5. For business networking, one of the most popular ones around is Linkedin which has 12.5 million members. Established in 2003, this social networking site is designed to give registered users a way to maintain contact with people they know so those within the connection can use it to find business opportunities, find jobs and new contacts as well as review or recruit potential candidates.

6. One of the oldest social networking sites around is Classmates which has over 40 million members. Established in 1995, it is a great way to connect with old friends back from high school or college. After so many years, you and your friends have changed and now have successful careers which you can use should you decide to go into business together.

These are just a few of the hundreds of social networking sites around. What makes each of these so popular is the fact that members are able to use it for free and when used for business, they don’t have to pay for advertising. That is unless of course you will be utilizing pop up ads and banners. But the simplest way is to post links to your webpage so members who may need your products or services will get in touch with you or recommend you to someone who needs it.

Source: YouTube