Social Media Expert & Founder of Snack Toronto.
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Facebook support is the bane of many marketers’ existence. If you know, you know. With the sheer volume of features, Facebook for Business (now Meta for Business) is truly like a living organism — one that often takes a whole lot of coaxing to get to cooperate.
As the founder of a social media agency, I’ve spent a lot of time seeking support from Facebook while managing clients’ accounts. I’ve learned a lot of useful information and tricks. Some I have learned through support, and some I have worked out while I was waiting for support.
For example, it appears that the chat function is only available to certain profiles (my best guess is that it has to do with your lifetime ad spend). Visit this page, and if the chat option shows up, you can open up a Messenger chat directly with a support person. Beware, though — I’ve found that not all agents are as helpful as the next.
Another thing to note: The chat button quite literally disappears. Sometimes, you’ll see options for email, chat or phone support. Sometimes, you’ll see an option to get support via email only. Be sure to set aside at least an hour, if not longer, if you’re going to be seeking support on an issue, because depending on the complexity of your issue or on the knowledge of your agent, your chat can take 10 minutes or it can take an hour and a half. It’s really a roll of the dice.
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Some general best practices to get your issues resolved quickly are:
• In your initial message to support, list the issue clearly and concisely, with as much relevant information as possible. Do not wait for them to ask the right questions.
• Come equipped with screenshots that show the issue you are experiencing, as they will probably ask for them anyway. Have them saved on your computer and ready to go.
• Make sure you have proper ownership of whatever pages or Instagram channels you are experiencing the issue with. If they are not in your Business Manager or you are not an administrator, you will likely need to try again at a later date once you have those permissions.
Here are some of the specific issues I’ve run into while managing client accounts, and their solutions. I hope they are useful to you.
Issue: What do I do if my client’s Facebook page has been unpublished and now I can’t boost any Facebook posts on their Instagram page?
Solution: Facebook support might take weeks to get back to you, depending on what caused the page to be unpublished as well as what other violations the page might have. The Facebook algorithm is notoriously fickle, and those violations might be completely unwarranted, but they can play a serious role (one of our client’s accounts recently got wrongfully unpublished for “nudity” after posting an image with the peach emoji in it). My advice is to unlink the unpublished Facebook page from the ad account and the Instagram page, and then create a new Facebook page with the old information while you wait to hear back from support about having the page republished. Link the new Facebook page with the existing ad account and Instagram page. Post and boost as usual. Once the page is republished, merge the two Facebook pages.
Issue: My client’s Facebook page was created before the launch of Business Manager, and now I technically “own” their page, even though individuals from their company are administrators of the page. How do I transfer ownership to them if they do not have a Business Manager account?
Solution: Create a second Business Manager account, or if you are at your limit, simply rename an old one for your client. Next, request ownership of the page from the second Business Manager account (it will automatically be accepted as you are an administrator of both Business Manager accounts). Add your client’s personal Facebook account as a Business Manager account administrator. If your client doesn’t wish to use their personal Facebook account, create a second account using their full name. Extremely important: Do not use a pseudonym or the company’s name for a personal Facebook profile as you run the risk of violating the real name policy. Once the page ownership has been transferred, you can request access to the page as a standard agency would.
Issue: Facebook glitched or I accidentally forgot to change the budget in Ads Manager, and I spent $350 when I didn’t mean to. How do I get a refund?
Solution: Contact support, and explain what happened. To my knowledge, based on Facebook support calls, Facebook has the ability to refund you once per ad account. I had one glitch happen to me in two different ad accounts (for two different clients) on the same day, and my Facebook chat representative told me there was nothing that could be done about the second charge as it was policy. I insisted on receiving a call, and sure enough, the policy only applies to the same ad account. I received a refund for both charges, and it hasn’t happened again since.
I hope this information is useful to you and can save you the trouble of sitting through hours of support. Remember, the Facebook support chat option is not always there, and it doesn’t always provide a desirable outcome for the issue you are experiencing. Be patient, and try other methods. There is usually a way to get the fix you need.
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Author: Kelly Samuel, Forbes Councils Member
