If you are the Admin on a Facebook Business Page, you may have been surprised recently to see a new tab on your page called “Getting Started,” regardless of how long the page has been active. I know I was!

The tab is only visible to Admins, but it is still quite annoying, as Facebook arbitrarily set it as the default landing page for Admins, and there is no way to reposition it or change that. Not only is it taking up valuable Facebook page real estate, it’s really insulting.

After digging around a bit on social media blog posts and Facebook discussion pages, I learned that it appeared to be related to the number of “fans” the page has. (I really don’t know what to call them now that the term has changed to “Like” instead of “Fan” – “Likers”?) Facebook apparently assumes that if the page has a small number of “fans” the Admin must not know what they’re doing and therefore needs Facebook’s “help.” In this particular case, the page was established more for its offline benefits than online and garnering a huge following was not the intent, nor was interaction, given the potential legal liabilities involved. (But that’s another blog post!)

Because there was no way to remove it,  I set about doing what it asked me to do in order to satisfy it and make it go away, much like Twitter’s welcome message. “Getting Started” wanted me to set up Mobile uploads, as well as link to a Twitter account. I changed the business’ phone number to my personal number by editing the Info tab; acquired the confirmation code by texting the letter “f” to 32665; submitted the code; then promptly edited the Info tab again, replacing my personal phone number with the business number. Step 1 was now satisfied. Moreover, the Mobile application had been installed using my phone number so if I really wanted to post to the business page from my phone, I could.

I was delighted to find the “Getting Started” tab disappear with just that simple effort. Had I been forced to satisfy Step 2 by linking the page to a Twitter account, I would have done so, then promptly denied Facebook access to it.

Facebook users worldwide have been lodging complaints with Facebook about this “helpful” feature. For many, finding a workaround it was more involved – they had to enter XXX  in several areas of the Info tab such as business hours. Social Media blogger Danny Brown pegged the global mood correctly with his post “Facebook Pisses Off Users. Again”. That’s where I found my workaround – hope you find yours here!