Lessons Learned From the SiteSell FB Page Fiasco June 03, 2011 | Posted in Ken's Blog | Leave a Comment

Ken's Blog

This is a follow-up posting about the Facebook fiasco, written the day after they finally restored our SiteSell Facebook page.

Some profound lessons were learned (the hard way). Let's share with you ("the smart person is the one who learns the hard lesson from the voice of experience, the easy way")...

Lesson #1: The Power of Community

Have no doubt about this... This SiteSell Facebook Page is back up because of YOU.

Cause enough pain to a company that is much bigger than you and you can change their minds. You did! ;-)

The most common words were "dumbstruck," "insanity," "unjust," "messed up," and "appalling." Spot-on, I'd say.

Lesson #2: "Site" Is the Core

Your site is your business, not Facebook or any other adjunct. You own (hence, control) your site. Everything else feeds into your site, growing its reputation and traffic and ultimately, business.

You are at the mercy of any company that has total control over your pages such as Facebook pages, free blogging, etc. You'll need their mercy, sooner or later... count on that. Don't count on ever reaching someone, though.

Lesson #3: The Bigger They Come...

The bigger the company, the less helpful they'll be.

Facebook is "too large to ignore," so we jump to the free FB pages, don't we?

They figure they can get away with horrible support. And they do.

Lesson #4: Judge-Jury-Executioner

Something is seriously wrong with a company that is willing to play judge-jury-executioner. This is especially dangerous when the company makes so many mistakes. It's even worse when they won't communicate.

Lesson #5: The Danger of Free

There's no such thing as "free."

You pay for it in many ways, including lousy (or no) support. Think how much a company worries about support if you're not paying them.

"Not much," you said? Exactly!

If you give away something, give it AWAY! Then support it as if they paid for it.

Lesson #6: Own Up

Facebook finally did admit an error...

"Upon further review, it appears that your Page was removed in error. We have now restored this content. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused."

Even after the fact, we get a "no-info" e-mail. Of course an "error" was made. Why else would it have been down?

And skip the "we regret any inconvenience this may have caused" non-apology. Just say that you're sorry for the bother than you caused.

Before they restored our page...

They could have told us that they were investigating, could have done many things better.

When an error is made, fix it. Make it right for your client and move on.

And if you ever do make a mistake, do not say...

"We regret any inconvenience this may have caused."

MAY have? Did anyone read our letters to them?

Thanks again, everyone, for all your support,