NOT PHISHING: Facebook Will Study Calls To Small Businesses

![][1][Small business page administrators][2] are receiving emails that look an awful lot like phishing attempts but are actually legitimate product research by Facebook.  A copy of one such email appears at the bottom of this post.

[A new entry in Facebook's help center][3] says that the social network is conducting product research to "understand how many phone calls local businesses receive as a result of their Facebook page."

Participants will receive a coupon for $500 in free advertising upon the completion of the one-month study. Sounds sweet, right?

Actually, that's fair compensation, as participating businesses will receive a special phone number from Facebook to put on pages for the month so that the social network can count incoming calls while still routing them to the intended recipients.

Participating businesses won't be able to tell which incoming calls are originating from their pages on Facebook, unless they ask the callers outright.

This sounds like a neat idea on Facebook's part, especially if the social network releases the results afterward.

_Thanks to Ryan Cohn, chief executive officer of What's Next Marketing, for the tip._

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[![][9]][10] [![][11]][12] [![][13]][14]

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[1]: https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-ash2/373021_74100576336_2122599772_n.jpg (373021_74100576336_2122599772_n.jpg)
[2]: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-marketing-tips-2011-02
[3]: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=174527879312763
[4]: http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/notphish.png (notphish)
[5]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FdCQX9CztqigekD14dpuVJbYorU/0/di
[6]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FdCQX9CztqigekD14dpuVJbYorU/0/da
[7]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FdCQX9CztqigekD14dpuVJbYorU/1/di
[8]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FdCQX9CztqigekD14dpuVJbYorU/1/da
[9]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=pnQdOprp5To
[10]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=4G93VKq72OM:-h7hskdUoFQ:pnQdOprp5To
[11]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=qj6IDK7rITs
[12]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=4G93VKq72OM:-h7hskdUoFQ:qj6IDK7rITs
[13]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?i=4G93VKq72OM:-h7hskdUoFQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[14]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=4G93VKq72OM:-h7hskdUoFQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[15]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/allfacebook/~4/4G93VKq72OM

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/allfacebook/~3/4G93VKq72OM/facebook-small-business-6-2012-01