When You’ve Lost Control of Your Facebook Page

website question & answer with redbox studio

This week’s Q&A with Redbox Studio is interesting.

ItĀ involves Facebook. (Everything with Facebook can be interesting because they’re always changing their damn algorithm!)

We met a business owner, Helen, who runs a boutique hotel in the heart of George Town.

She asked us this question: “How do I gain control of my hotel’s Facebook Page even though my staff has quit?”

Apparently, the hotel’s Facebook Page was started by her staff. Actually, ex-staff since the guy resigned sometime ago.

When he was the staff, he had added her, the owner, as one of the page administrators with the ability to post to the page.

When he left, he took her off the administrator status. She has no password, she can’t make any changes to the page and the ex-staff doesn’t seem to want to delete the page. The page is left unattended.

Of course this is a huge embarrassment to HelenĀ and her hotel.

After all, people might think that her hotel is no longer around (since no one updates or administers the page since the guy left) or worse, their customer service sucks.

She has tried contacting Facebook to shut the page down but no avail. She has tried emailing the ex-staff but he ignores her.

What can she do?

Before we tell you about our solution for Helen, there are a few lessons to be learnt from this painful episode.

Lesson 1: If you’re the owner of your business, never delegate important tasks like starting a Facebook Page to your staff. Even if you’re afraid of technology or never use Facebook, you can always learn how to do it or at least outsource it to a trustworthy third-party/company. If you’re the owner, you should control your online assets and this includes Facebook Pages.

Lesson 2: Staff will leave, no matter how wonderful, exciting, chummy your initial relationship is. That’s the way things are. People do leave for other opportunities. Be aware of this fact. This helps you keep an eye on what you need to keep an eye on when your relationship is rosy and right. When things go bad, at least you are mentally prepared. Never be caught off-guard especially if it involves money, credit card and important data.

So what did we advise Helen?

Instead of worrying about her abandoned Facebook Page, she should just focus on getting her own website so findable on search engines that no one gives two hoots about the Facebook Page. After all, your best online asset is still your headquarters, your website!

If your website is visible on Google, who cares about the Facebook Page?

 

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