On one of my earlier blog post, Facebook page ownership can now be changed,  someone brought up a good point about Facebook Pages and admins. I started to answer in the thread, but it’s a pretty important question, so I decided just to do a new post about.

Here’s the comment this person had:

The real issue is that the page is still tied to the person’s Facebook account regardless of whether they administer the page or not. Thus, if they delete their Facebook page [profile] for any reason, the page will forever be gone.

I know the short-term answer, but I want to know the long-term answer. So, here’s what I did – step by step:

• Set up a new profile – aka Jane.
• Jane logged into her personal profile and set up a Facebook fan page.
• Jane appointed me as an admin of the page.
• I logged out of Jane’s profile and logged into my own to be sure I was set as an admin of the new page. I am.
• I removed Jane as an admin.
• I logged out of my profile, and logged back in as Jane.
• I deleted Jane’s account.
• I logged in again as myself, and the page is still there. I am now the only admin for the page Jane created.

Once a person gives up their admin rights (or has them revoked by another admin), it appears that they have no rights to that page.

However . . .

I need to follow up with this in 15 days and here’s why:

Facebook allows profiles to be deactivated or deleted – and they are two different functions.

Deactivation – This allows you to make your account inactive, which means your stuff is locked away and made secret but you can get it later if you want to. Facebook keeps all of your information in case you decide to reactivate it at a later date.

Deletion – This permanently deletes your account after 14 days. During that initial 14 day period you’re allowed to reactivate your account if you want to (just by logging in), but after that it will be permanently deleted.

So at this point, Jane’s account has been set for deletion and the page she created is now in my possession. What I want to know for sure is if that page will still be mine once her account has been permanently deleted. Or will it be deleted along with her account since she was the original owner? I’m fairly certain it will still be my page since she was removed as an admin, but I’ll check back in another 15 days to find out for sure.

UPDATE: It’s been more than 15 days since I deleted the Jane account and I’m still the admin for the page she turned over to me. So, it looks like if an admin turns over a page, then is deleted, that page will still exist and it will belong to whoever is the current admin

Now, in addition to clicking the Like button on Pages, posts, and other content on Facebook, now we can click a like button next to individual comments. Check it out:

Here’s what Facebook has to say about the new Like button for comments:

Since first launching the “Like” feature in 2009 and the ability to comment on News Feed stories in 2008, we’ve seen these features become central to the way people communicate on Facebook. They’re two of the most heavily used features on the site and have proven to be a simple way to discuss posts and show appreciation for the content friends share on Facebook.

So like peanut butter and jelly, we realized these two features would go better together. Starting today, most of you will see a small “Like” button appear underneath comments. We’re rolling this out gradually, so if you don’t see the new button yet you will soon.

Whether it’s a witty remark, a great point in a discussion or a helpful answer to someone’s question, clicking the “Like” button within comments now makes it simple to show your appreciation for all types of content on Facebook.

Similar to liking other content, when you click “Like” on a comment the commenter will receive a notification. Other people who can see the comment based on its privacy setting also will be able to see who has liked the comment.

Just like any other activity you do on Facebook, when you click Like on a comment, they’re collecting more data about what I do the site. Honestly that doesn’t bother me at all. I just wish they’d give us a Dislike button!

One of the biggest complaints owners of Facebook Pages have had is that once a page is created, it was owned by that person forever. It caused quite a dilemma for a company that wanted to set up a fan page because it meant it might be owned by a person who would eventually leave the company. That’s changed.

Now, any administrator of a page can remove any other administrator. It means ownership can be transferred from one person to another – something many companies have wanted for quite some time. That in itself is a double edged sword, but there’s another bit of power that comes along with this change that even more troubling. Any admin can now delete a page.

What this means, is that before making someone an admin of your page, you need to make darn sure that person is trustworthy. You certainly don’t want to misjudge someone and end up with them hijacking your page!

I think Facebook is on the right track, but rather than giving all admins the same rights, I’d like to see a two-tier setup, with owners and admins. The owners would be the only ones with the rights to delete a page, but they could promote someone else as an owner as well. Then, if the original owner chooses to, she would be able to relinquish ownership to another owner. Yahoo Groups has this feature, and it makes more sense than the way Facebook has things set up at the moment. Hopefully this is just an interim change though, and they’ll be fine tuning it soon.

The bottom line is that if you work for a company and set up a Fan Page for them, you can later hand over that page to someone else if necessary. This is a huge upgrade!

Facebook is at it again. This week they’ve announced some pretty major changes in the way your personal information is used. One of these changes is how your Facebook profile will be integrated with other websites – currently Microsoft Docs, Pandora, and Yelp. They call it “instant personalization” and you may or may not like it.

The way instant personalization works is that when you are logged in to Facebook and then go to Yelp, for example, you will see what your friends are up to on Yelp. And, of course if you have an account your friends will be able to see what you’ve been up to as well.

In addition to you and your friends seeing what you’re all doing, instant personalization allows the partner websites (Microsoft Docs, Pandora, Yelp) to access any information on your profile that you’ve set as viewable to everyone. This includes your name, profile picture, gender, where you live, friends list, and pages.

By default, Facebook has instant personalization set to be on but if you’re concerned about having your information carried over to other websites there is a way to opt out of it. There are a few steps involved in opting out though – it’s not as easy as just checking a box. You can uncheck the “allow” box in your privacy settings, but doing that doesn’t stop your friends from sharing your information. (You didn’t really think Facebook would let you out of it that easily did you?)

The folks at Electronic Frontier Foundation have put together a good step by step video on how to opt out. The thing to remember is that you’ll have to opt out of each website individually. And because Facebook intends to partner with more websites you’ll need to go through the process in the future if you want to opt out of each one.

Here are the links to the applications so you can block them:

Microsoft Docs
Pandora
Yelp

Do you have nightmares about your Facebook profile going away and losing your friends, photos, profile and wall status updates? You’re not alone!

If you were on Facebook at all this past weekend you may have experienced a certain level of panic as things got wonky (prompting some good subject matter for that nightmare.) They were having some server problems that seemed to take forever to get fixed. Strangeness was the norm. The wonkiness kept people from posting status updates, wouldn’t allow people to post on their friends’ profiles or to join fan pages, and even made some fan pages disappear for a while. If you spend much time at all on Facebook, you know this type of thing isn’t new. Unfortunately, it seems to be part of the whole experience.

If you’re looking for a little peace of mind to help keep your profile safe, Social Safe may just be the solution. It’s a downloadable application that backs up your Facebook friends, photos, profile and wall status updates. So, rather than just having all of your data on your Facebook profile, it’ll be safely stored away on your own computer where you can access it at any time. It doesn’t download your friends’ contact information, but you’ll at least have access to who they are. Should you need to restore your entire profile in the event of a catastrophic Facebook episode, you can at least be sure you’ll know who to get reconnected with. (Trying to remember a few hundred Facebook friends if my profile went bye-bye would drive me nuts!)

SocialSafe isn’t free, but it’s pretty darn close at only $2.99. It is well worth the money – and super easy to use. You’ll download SocialSafe, login to your Facebook account with Facebook Connect, and click on download. Once it’s finished you can view your Facebook profile content on your own computer.

Right now SocialSafe is just for personal profiles – it doesn’t backup Facebook Fan Pages yet, but the folks at SocialSafe are working on it. Hopefully they’ll get that worked out soon. And, of course Social Safe is on Facebook.

SocialSafe Explanation .. Introducing Wall Backups from Pascal Wheeler on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, social media tools, social media backup

Yes! There is a difference between a Facebook profile and a Facebook Fan Page.

Facebook profiles are for people.
Fan Pages are for businesses.

I cringe every time I see someone set up a profile in their business name. Here’s why:

People vs. business
Profiles are intended for people, not businesses. It’s actually against the Facebook terms to use a profile for a business. If the Facebook gods find your profile set up like this, it’s possible they may delete the entire profile. So much for all your hard work getting friends!

SEO
Your Facebook Fan Page can be a part of your Search Engine Optimization strategy. Why is that, you ask? It’s because Fan pages are indexed by search engines. Profiles are not.

If you’re like most business owners, you want as many people as possible to find you online. If you set up a profile in your business name, you’re not maximizing your exposure. Sure, your Facebook friends will be able to see your page, but new people won’t find you all that easily.

Fans vs. Friends
Fan Pages can have an unlimited number of fans. Profiles can only have 5,000 friends. If you’re trying to build your business, why limit yourself? It only makes sense to choose the option that allows you to have more people get on your bandwagon.

One profile – many Fan Pages
You can have multiple fan pages, but only one personal profile. This is important for people who want to promote different businesses or groups. I have my personal profile and fan pages for PetsitUSA, The Pet Food List, and Austin Pet First Aid, which are businesses I own. I also have one for Wishbones for Pets – a pet sitter charity I operate with the founder Janet Depathy, of Under My Wings.

Keep in mind that you can still connect with people on a business level through your personal profile. I use my profile to keep in touch with family and friends, but I also connect with quite a few people due to business reasons. Since people like to know the person behind the business, this is a good way to interact with them.  It’s  also one way for me to create my personal brand. Note: Before using your profile in this way, get clear on the type of content you want to post on  your profile. (More on that in an upcoming blog post.)

Set up a Facebook Fan Page or go to Facebook.com to set up your Profile.

Technorati Tags: facebook, fan page, profile

I’ve been attending South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) this week and  eating, sleeping, and breathing internet and social media.  Yea, I know…that’s nothing new. But the fact that I’ve been doing it (well…all but the sleeping part anyway) with thousands of other people is. SXSW brings people from all over the world together to learn and share about the some of the things that make us tick.

In his talk about video blogging (and way more tha that) on Sunday, Gary Vayrnerchuk made the point that we need to keep legacy vs. currency in mind when we’re putting  ourselves out there. His idea is, and I totally agree, that our work, our lives, shouldn’t be all about the money. Selling ourselves out can have a negative impact, especially if that hunger for money drives us to do things that are contrary to our beliefs. It’s that “to thine own self be true” kinda thing.

For many of us, our lives can pretty much be chronicled, through our blogs, Facebook profiles, or by piecing together little bits we find here and there on many different websites. The thing is, what we put online is likely to be there long after we’re gone. This means our friends and relatives…even our kids and grandkids…may at some point learn things about us that they never knew, and possibly things we wish they wouldn’t learn about us. Do we really want to have them find compromising photos of us, or stories of how we cut throat we were just to make a buck? Some people may not care, but I think the vast majority of us want others to get a good impression of us, whether we’re still here or long gone. So we have to ask ourselves what’s more important? Getting ahead at all costs, living totally in the moment with no thoughts for consequences…or the overall picture of our lives? Just as a painter uses brush strokes to create a masterpiece, we each create our very own life masterpiece, and I’m guessing most of us want it to be a worthwhile picture.

So, with Vayrnerchuk’s legacy vs. currency theory in mind, the internet may be a tool that can help drive us to live better lives…create a better legacy. It’s not that I think having our lives online can turn bad people into good (although I won’t say it can’t). I do think it’s beginning to making us think twice about doing something that may eventually (or instantly!) find its way online. Whether we’re concerned about potential employers, clients, family members, or friends finding less than flattering stories or photos about us online, many of us are probably more likely to fly the straight and narrow rather than getting ourselves into compromising positions.

Not sure who Gary Vaynerchuk is? Check out his blog or his Wine Library site. He totally kicks ass in the motivation department!

Technorati Tags: SXSW, SXSWi, Vayrnerchuk, life online, legacy vs. currency