“The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.” Epictetus
Just last week there was a splashy headline about Facebook having one billion users on line in a single day. I’m not sure why this is worthy of news, but it certainly says something about what the company values, i.e., numbers. Any talk of quality is suspiciously missing.
As a user of Facebook, I care about the service provided. I’m not on Facebook to share my life. I have a business account. I use it to promote my business. Period. So when something went wrong with my Facebook account a few weeks ago, I went looking for answers and, silly me, a solution.
I couldn’t find anyone to call and it was nearly impossible to find someone I could write to. In my search, I discovered that every alley I followed (and there were lots) led to a dead end. It made me wonder what all the secrecy was about. I mean isn’t Facebook supposed to be about making connections?
But let me start at the beginning. Or rather, let me give you the Cole’s Notes version. From time to time as an author I like to boost my Facebook posts. Some weeks ago, I tried to do so because I have a new novel being released and I wanted to make a bit of an announcement. I’d used the ‘boost’ function many times in the past without a problem. No luck this time.
I was told that I couldn’t boost my post because of a security issue.
Hm, what was that about? I have a vivid imagination so my thoughts turned to the creative. Had I been targeted as a potential terrorist for some of my more opinionated posts? Had the government been reading my blogs and decided enough was enough? The words, security issue span a wide field.
After I got over myself (let’s face it, I doubt I’m on anyone’s radar for my writing endeavours), I started to look for ways to connect (funny word, that word) with Facebook. It was nearly impossible to find a Help Desk, someone to help me. But I’m not the type of person who gives up easily. I’m stubborn that way.
I finally found someone I could email. A week or so went by and I received the following response.
“This account has been deprecated as it is a gray account. You can still use your account by linking it to a personal account.” I had no idea what this meant so I asked for clarification. I’m still waiting for a response.
I’ve looked up the words, deprecated and gray account. I know what they mean, but I had no idea how they applied to me, my Facebook business account or my need to boost one itsy bitsy post. And besides all that, I didn’t have a personal account. Don’t these people know that? And furthermore, why would they change something about my account and not bother telling me? You can see I had a lot of questions.
So not to be put off (I think I mentioned how stubborn I can me), I thought I’d go to the source. Yes, the man himself. Mark Zuckerberg. He’s the boss and responsibility for this tempest had to be placed at his feet. As the philosopher, Epictetus said, “reputation is gained from storms.”
Mr. Zuckerberg is on Facebook. No surprise there. And so am I. The surprise came when I realised that even though we’re both on Facebook, I could not connect with him to discuss my problem. Isn’t Facebook about connections? Oops, I think I said that before.
Perhaps rather than celebrating a billion users in one day, Facebook should focus their efforts on providing good, transparent, accessible service. Now that would be an accomplishment worthy of a headline.
Oh, and they could likely use a lesson or two in effective communication too.
Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for a solution to my problem. Good thing I’m a patient sort. Not!
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