Having been inspired by the recent Business Insider article, “10 Reasons To Delete Your Facebook Account,” (a solid and rather frightening case for privacy protection) I thought I’d add a few additional remarks about using Facebook:

1. If it ain’t public now, it might be at some point - When I do public speaking about social media, I like to remind my audience that pretty much anything that’s posted to a public site is, or could become, a matter or public record—so if you don’t want your laundry aired, don’t post it. Facebook is no exception…and the way it’s going, you should be aware of this even more. Perhaps you should start thinking of Facebook as you might Twitter: every tweet you make can be viewed by the entire world if they wanted to see it. Pay attention all you Crackbook addicts!

2. Facebook has no good customer support - Facebook re-did their Help Center in late 2009 so at least it’s got more help information that’s easier to find then before, but it still pretty much relies on user forums to get answers for uncommon FAQs. These discussion boards are very active (perhaps because despite a new Help Center, Facebook is still so confusing?) but also very random and disorganized (see for example, this Help Discussion about Creating Facebook Pages). for such a hugely popular site with so many registered users and which is all about people managing their personal and business profiles, to not have any real responsive customer support is a real disservice. That Facebook has gotten away with this for so long is testament to the fact that we’ve all just grown accustomed to the lack of quality customer service in our lives.

3. Facebook wants to grow its B2B end of the business but doesn’t want to act like a business service provider - Being a social networking platform to attract people to socialize is one thing; aspiring to become a business solutions provider but not acting like one is a completely different story. The B2B sector is used to talking to someone for customer service…or at least having that or live chat as an option. Facebook doesn’t offer this. If you want to advertise through Facebook, expect to go it alone on the self-service route unless you have more than $25,000 to spend…but even then, don’t necessarily expect a human being to get back to you in the promised 48 hours. It seems that Facebook also has an under-staffing problem.

4. Facebook can’t even keep up with its own changes fast enough - I’m sorry, but if you’re going to make major changes to your nomenclature or policies, you really should be sure to walk the walk. You don’t have to dig too far into Facebook’s how-to or help pages to still find mentions of the now-extinct “fans” or Fan Pages. Heck, even Facebook still calls its own Page a Fan Page! (see the below screen grab, which I just took this morning)

5. We don’t know what we don’t know - When someone like Pete Cashmore, the publisher of the go-to resource for social media news, writes an article like “Nobody Can Stop Facebook Because Nobody Understands Facebook,” that sounds alarms in my mind. The plague of ignorance is a potent one, and if you’re not paying attention and asking yourself some serious questions about why you shouldn’t post your entire life’s happenings on Facebook, then don’t go crying foul (or worse, lawsuit) down the road when you discover that someone you didn’t want to know something about you suddenly does.

Hollis Thomases is the author of the new book Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day. She welcomes you to tweet her (@hollisthomases) and learn more about the book people are calling “The Twitter Marketing Bible!”

Comments(5)

5 Comments »

1. Hollis, these points are incredibly profound and scare me to pieces. I love so many things about FB but carpe diem for sure. This woke me up. BTW your book is divine! See you at BlogPaws Denver. We are going.
   .-= Carol Bryant´s last blog ..City of Brotherly and Fido Love: Philadelphia =-.

     Comment by Carol Bryant — May 4, 2010 @ 10:56 am

2. It seems like every week we hear of another Facebook privacy concern regarding the distribution and use of our personal information and “unsocial” behavior among users. There is now genuine concern & distrust among users, security experts and even politicians (election year rhetoric of course).

   I think having a free, well-designed venue to connect with family and friends is awesome. I have reconnected with many past friends, replacing the role Classmates.com and Reunion.com provides for a fee.

   The benefits are great but not at the cost of my information privacy. You are dead-on about “if you don

     Comment by David Stansbury — May 4, 2010 @ 11:30 am

3. My character and reputation is being attacked by an Ex! I have been repeatedly harassed and Face Book can’t or won’t do anything about it? Recently, the Ex has threatened my life on Face book and made malicious remarks directly towards me and my well being. What can or should I do to eliminate this cyber bullying? Is their a security dept. with in Face Book that handles these types of matters? Please, give me some direction. Thanks~Scott

     Comment by Scott Keith — May 7, 2010 @ 10:15 am

4. Scott, I’m sorry to hear about your situation. It sounds like it may be a matter for the local police, not Facebook. Regardless, it’s a dicey situation because the laws are not clearly defined regarding cyberbullying, and the social media sites don’t want to take legal responsibility. Thank you for sharing your story here, as I think it helps to highlight the overall point: that social media sites like Facebook can easily be misused and abused, and users should proceed with caution. Good luck, I hope you find the help and answers you need.

     Comment by Jaime — May 7, 2010 @ 10:40 am

5. The dislike reason for me is there are too many spam in facebook, however, facebook grows fast in recent years, most of them like this good site.

     Comment by bearings — May 11, 2010 @ 6:10 am

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