March 12th 2105 I will remember it well. Two things, one it was my dad's birthday and secondly the fear that escalated across Facebook because of their intention to remove inactive and memorialised accounts on their platform.
I saw scores of messages similar to this
I saw scores of messages similar to this
Here is the official line of communication regarding Facebook's intention. https://www.facebook.com/business/news/page-likes-update It was clear. Now we all know that things can go a little awry on these kind of platforms and no doubt some accounts have had an over zealous amount of removals.
Now inactive accounts, got me thinking. I have an inactive, forgotten account, and yes I have just checked, it has not been removed. There are likely to be thousands of accounts which are fake, forlorn and forgotten, like my original account. Set up years ago and never used. I am hoping that all those fake farmed followers out there have been swept out into the Facebook backyard too. These accounts are going to be doing nothing for your page ever! Would you seriously consider emailing a raft of contacts that did not exist for whatever reason?
So please spare a thought for Facebook wanting to make a sound business decision to clean up it's data.
Something which I keep at the back of my social media mind is that my data that I have given Facebook, has been given with consent. Some aspects of the profiling I have not completed through choice. I know as a business owner and personal user that it is going to be used for a variety of purposes. I know that my interests will appeal to a business owner who may have struck a chink of glitter and has chosen me in their demographics to be targeted with an ad or sponsored post. I accept that.
As a professional user of Facebook, I also appreciate and accept that Facebook owns the data. That data is there to make them money whether we like it or not.
Now inactive accounts, got me thinking. I have an inactive, forgotten account, and yes I have just checked, it has not been removed. There are likely to be thousands of accounts which are fake, forlorn and forgotten, like my original account. Set up years ago and never used. I am hoping that all those fake farmed followers out there have been swept out into the Facebook backyard too. These accounts are going to be doing nothing for your page ever! Would you seriously consider emailing a raft of contacts that did not exist for whatever reason?
So please spare a thought for Facebook wanting to make a sound business decision to clean up it's data.
Something which I keep at the back of my social media mind is that my data that I have given Facebook, has been given with consent. Some aspects of the profiling I have not completed through choice. I know as a business owner and personal user that it is going to be used for a variety of purposes. I know that my interests will appeal to a business owner who may have struck a chink of glitter and has chosen me in their demographics to be targeted with an ad or sponsored post. I accept that.
As a professional user of Facebook, I also appreciate and accept that Facebook owns the data. That data is there to make them money whether we like it or not.
If you are using Facebook page for your business, you don't own the data. You just have an opportunity to connect with people who happen to share the same social media air space as your business page. If your picture of a cat meme, which has been aggregated by Buzzfeed, shared prolifically across Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram and has a final resting place on your page and you have a few likes and a comments, seriously consider your page lucky. Page owners now need to shape up a bit and start thinking about content. Is it meaningful? Is it emotive? Is it entertaining? Is it relevant to your audience? Unfortunately, we don't know what makes our fan base tick? The content needs to be so good that Facebook recognises good authentic data and deemed highly relevant and beneficial to fans OR allow us access to that data through paid targeting.
If you were creating an advert for your local paper or magazine an element of planning and care would be given to what you want to say so that your content had the best chance of being given some attention by a reader and ideally some action taken. As we all know, this isn't going to happen over night. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, and ultimately somewhere down the line some monetary investment.
If your page is more than just entertaining your fan base, then page owners need to be a bit more visionary for their audience. Keep them entertained by all means, but also think about getting them onto your own data list. The more direct the relationship you have with customers and potential customers the better. There are plenty of opportunities within Facebook to allow you to do this. If this is something that you are not going to consider doing, then gracefully accept that Facebook will do what it likes, when it likes, how likes and why it likes.
By all means feel free to chat and engage with me at my Facebook business page
Yours socially
If you were creating an advert for your local paper or magazine an element of planning and care would be given to what you want to say so that your content had the best chance of being given some attention by a reader and ideally some action taken. As we all know, this isn't going to happen over night. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, and ultimately somewhere down the line some monetary investment.
If your page is more than just entertaining your fan base, then page owners need to be a bit more visionary for their audience. Keep them entertained by all means, but also think about getting them onto your own data list. The more direct the relationship you have with customers and potential customers the better. There are plenty of opportunities within Facebook to allow you to do this. If this is something that you are not going to consider doing, then gracefully accept that Facebook will do what it likes, when it likes, how likes and why it likes.
By all means feel free to chat and engage with me at my Facebook business page
Yours socially
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