BeBizzy News and Notes

• Reminder, Tax Day is Tuesday, April 17, 2018.
• WordPress 4.9.5 was released yesterday. It’s a small update, and just a few minor releases before the big one, Gutenberg, gets released.

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Should You (and your customers) Delete Facebook?

Some Background On The Facebook Issue

• Facebook has been accused of distributing “fake news” since before the last US Presidential election.
  • The social platform was supposedly manipulated to send articles to those of certain political leanings re-enforcing those beliefs or inciting anger at opposing beliefs.
• Recently it has been found that Cambridge Analytica obtained the Facebook data of 50 million users.  UPDATE!! I LIED! This afternoon (4/4/18) it was announced the leak was 87 million accounts!
• Inside that data is your contact info, who you follow, what ads are clicked on, friends, your timeline, and much, much more.
• So now that the cat’s out of the bag, what should you do as a consumer, and how does that affect you a as a business person?

First, let’s look at how to get your Facebook data

• Computer – click on the down arrow to the right of your notifications and select “Settings“
• Under the General Account Settings is a link to “Download a copy of your Facebook data.” Click it.

• You will be taken to another page (page views anyone) that asks you to click another button to “Download Archive.” Click THAT.

• Next you will asked to provide your password. It is the same as your Facebook password, then click “Submit.”
• An email will be sent to your login email stating your Facebook data has been requested, and a followup email will be sent when the data dump is complete.

Now if all that information scares you, you’re not alone. And thousands are deleting their Facebook accounts including Elon Musk, WhatsApp founder Jan Koum (who sold his company to Facebook for $16 billion), Jim Carey and more.

• Deleting your account is easy, go here and click deactivate your account 
• HOWEVER, before you do, remember that Cambridge Analytica and others already have your info, so deleting your Facebook account will only cut you off from sharing new info. They can already act on what they have.

So what does this mean to you and your business

Your customers could easily do the same, and once they see who they all follow, like and interract with, there’s a chance they will also either delete their accounts or remove some affiliations.

Instead of deleting Facebook, it’s suggested that users remove allegiances to Apps, Website and Games. You can also see what information is saved as “Your Ad Preferences” , where you can see what’s stored as Your Interests, Advertisers You’ve Interacted With, You’re Information and Ad Settings.

But if your customers go here, there is a chance they will “unsubscribe” to your ads and other information. So now what?

Well, if they do this, you could lose their attention. So there are a couple of things you can do to retain them now before another scandal prompted them to make changes.

• Post Often – By putting quality, relatable, non-sale related content in front of them often, you could entice them to think of you as a needed resource, entertainment source, or wanted advertiser.
• Advertise to a targeted list – Obviously when looking at your data you can see just how targeted your ads could be blasted. Be more selecting when you send out an ad instead of throwing it out to as many people as possible. It will save money and keep other timelines from being clogged.
• Focus on things other than Facebook. Get your website’s SEO fixed, look at Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn as possible avenues of driving traffic, and look at marketing automation as an option.

If a user has made up their mind to delete Facebook you will simply loose that method of reaching them. If you have hitched your wagon, traffic and marketing to only Facebook, now is the time to start looking at other solutions.

WordPress Plugin of the Week

Mergebot 

Wish I would have sought this one out a few weeks ago before I moved a very large, active site. What it does is you install Mergebot on both your LIVE site and a DEVELOPMENT site. As your visitors interact with the site with sales, contacts and other things the information is passed through the cloud the Mergebot. Also, as you make changes to the development site these database changes are also sent to Mergebot, where the cloud database combines the two making it easier when the DEV site goes LIVE by syncing all the database changes in one place.

It’s not cheap, but if you’ve ever moved a large site or database and had to keep a version live while you migrate or change it can be a huge headache when it comes time to merge the data. Mergebot could help you with this.

Cost is $249/yr to migrate one site at a time, $349/yr for three, and $589/yr to do five sites at a time. Again, not cheap, but compared to the hours you could spend messing with database sorting and merging, it could be a lifesaver. Wish I would have used it before I migrated the last site, but I won’t make THAT mistake again!

Got a suggestion for a topic, interview or other show idea? Send it over at BeBizzy.com or on Twitter @BeBizzy

Disclosure: As member of a pretty cool team of influencing users, I received mobile devices with line of service from Verizon. No additional compensation was provided nor did I promise a positive review. All opinions are my own. By the way, many of us meet every Friday @ 2pm CT on Twitter (#MobileLiving) to discuss mobile phones and how you can use them in your daily lives. Join us! 

#BetterMatters #brandpartner

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