Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Facebook Lessons

Great advice in the following links (but know your account can be disabled even if you follow all the rules...)

13 Reasons your Facebook account will be disabled

What I learned when Facebook disabled my account

Facebook disabled my account (Scobleizer)

I'm outside the gates


Facebook mat on 151 University
Originally uploaded by Robert Scoble

I've been kicked out of Facebook.

I went to login to my account one morning and instead of my familiar sweet wall of updates, I got the message that my account had been deactivated. No explanation. I followed the instructions for appealing but it has been over two weeks and no word from Facebook.

Everyone asks, "what did you do"? Honestly, nothing outside of really normal activity like commenting on friends photo's and posting occasional status updates and messaging friends. Ironically, I've helped dozens of friends set up their Facebook accounts and navigate through some of the privacy settings. I've had my Facebook account since early 2007 and over the last two and half years I've added about 200 and some friends...well, I did!

I wasn't doing anything cool like Scoble was when his account was disabled. I'm like hundreds of other Facebook users who used the platform the way is set up to use and then disabled without any explanation from Facebook. Honestly I don't miss it much. The challenge is that I teach social media marketing classes (since 2007) and contribute content to a social media online magazine. It is really a bit embarrassing to not have an account. Facebook has become so mainstream that even my mom has an account!

I'm annoyed but also appreciative for the great reminder about owning my content and database. I use dozens of social networking sites but I always put my best content on my own domains. Yes I use Google's tools but other than Blogger, they are used on my domain and stay in my control.