Beware Of Facebook!
Today, the title of my video and blog post reads, “Beware of Facebook!” Just before I start, you may be interested in my previous video, which is entitled How to Fix Slow Uploads in Camtasia.
Now, there is a reason for this. I know many of us use Facebook, and here I have a post from Jeff Brown. He belongs to a membership website that I also belong to, and he’s written a post about “How to Start a Facebook Business Page.” There is nothing wrong with that. Jeff takes you through the stages of how to create a Facebook business page from start to finish.
You Can See My Video On The Subject Of “Beware Of Facebook” Below.
However, I want to remind you that the most important tool for any internet marketer or anyone trying to make a living online is your website. You need to prioritize that! Please don’t get me wrong, social media can be very helpful and potentially powerful. I know of many people who have had huge success with social media, but your main platform needs to be your website, due to the fact that at any time, platforms like Facebook can take you down for no apparent reason.
Facebook Account Disabled
Now, let me give you an example of this. Here is my Facebook account, or one of them. A couple of months ago, I went to look at something on Facebook, and I was asked to log in. I hadn’t actually logged out. However, I went to log in and received this message; “Your account has been disabled”. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our Frequently Asked Questions page here,” which just takes you around in circles.
Now, I don’t use Facebook much, as I must admit I am not a great fan of Facebook. It is rather clunky and cumbersome, and I don’t agree with a lot of their principles. I also believe that social media should allow you to post what you want to post, otherwise what’s the point? Surely that is the whole idea of social media: to get our point of view across to other people in the world.
Facebook Business Pages
So here, I have a Facebook page, which is still up and running. I haven’t posted on my Facebook business page lately. However, it’s still up and running, yet I can’t get to it to post any content. So basically, I can’t use the Facebook page anymore as I cannot log in to my account, so if I can’t log in, I can’t post content!
So beware, I have heard of many people who have been banned from Facebook for no apparent reason. When when I carried out some research about the issue, Facebook says, “Look at the terms and conditions.” I can’t even see anything in the terms and conditions that has gone against the Facebook narrative.
The fact is, I don’t even use this personal profile to publish any content. And I don’t believe that talking about garden equipment can be that offensive, and yet here’s the account disabled. So, beware of social media pages, especially Facebook.
Don’t Spend Too Much Time On Facebook Business Pages
If you’re building a Facebook page, like Jeff here has honestly said, let me show you the comment I left this morning. I put just a few words regarding Facebook pages. I went on to say that how powerful Facebook pages were when they first came out. They were brilliant. So, for example, take this Facebook page, “Garden Equipment.” People know that you are talking about garden equipment, so you could comment on other people’s pages, etc., and they know what your business is. And for a year or so, they really were quite powerful, but it’s not the same now. When Facebook pay-per-click advertising came out, things changed a bit, so they actually said they were not going to show Facebook pages as much. In fact, they said that they would not show Facebook pages very often.
Is Facebook Sending You Traffic?
And then I also went on to say down here about how I knew of someone who had a Facebook page with three-quarters of a million followers. Where he spent 25% of his time on his Facebook page. The rest of the time which was the remaining 75% went on his website, which is great, and 25% of the other time on Facebook. He was responding to comments and questions, so it was quite time-consuming.
He was shocked when he went to his Google Analytics, as he discovered that Facebook was literally sending him zero traffic to his website. So, he thought, okay, well, this is a waste of time. So, he still posted to Facebook, but he didn’t really get involved in conversation. And yet it made no difference to when he stopped using Facebook. It made no difference to his website or his profits, etc.
So, this is just proof that you do have to be careful. We have to remind ourselves that these platforms, and not only Facebook, probably all of them can ban you at any time. I have heard of people with YouTube accounts banned, phage ones, just disappearing overnight! You could have a huge channel and it just disappears.
So, make your website your priority. And just one more thing before I go I had an email sent me as I needed to log into Instagram, which I don’t use a lot. Maybe I should be using it more. However, I only have an account because sometimes people send me things to look at on Instagram, so I really need to be logged in.
The email read, “We noticed a new login from a device that you don’t usually use. If it was you, which it was, you won’t be able to access certain security and account settings for a few days. You can still access these settings from a device you’ve logged in in the past.”
I’m using my PC to record this video, and this is where I would normally access Instagram from. It’s amazing that they are telling me that I’ve logged in from a different device. This is where I always log in from, and now I have restricted access. To be fair, it doesn’t affect me because I don’t really use Instagram. I only really use it to see other people’s content occasionally if someone sends me something on Instagram, as someone did this morning. Hence why I had to log in because I’d been logged out.
To Conclude
As I’m sure you know, Instagram is part of Facebook. So there, again, this is totally beyond my control. Fortunately, it doesn’t affect me, but it could do, so you can see how fragile the platform is. So, my words to you are to focus on your website. Make your website a priority.
By all means, use social media, but focus on your website. You own your website, which should be the platform that you prioritise, where you can write what you want to and not be banned.
If you have any comments on this, please feel free to comment. I’m here to help and answer any questions. Thanks very much for watching.
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