We love Facebook and we really love the open dialogue that happens on our Profile, our Pages, and the Groups we partake in.  The problem is that you really only have control over 2 of the 3.  Huh?

Groups are not yours.

Technically speaking, a group belongs to Facebook.  Duh!  Technically, everything in Facebook belongs to Facebook.  But beyond that, you might think a Group belongs to the People.

Power to the People! – right?

WRONG!  The sad truth is that the Group doesn’t belong to the People.  It doesn’t belong to the members.  The control of the Group is actually with the people or person who is an admin of the Group.

Why is that bad?

When you friend someone, you generally know who they are. Chances are that’s why you “friended” them in the first place.  When you LIKE a Page you generally know what you are LIKING.  If I like the Page of ABC Widgets I know it’s ABC Widgets that I’m liking.  That makes sense.

But what if the page for ABC Widgets isn’t actually for them and in reality a page for touting the benefits of XYZ Widgets in disguise?

“Mike, that’s silly!  Besides that Facebook wouldn’t let them do that.  Heck, even I know you can’t change the title of your page after 100 likes.”

Very True.  And very true that there are measures in place to stop vendors from doing just that with a Page.  Pages are Safe.  Trust in the Pages you’ve liked.

However, there’s NOTHING in place to stop that happening with a Group.  A Group can change direction at a moments notice.  A Group can be a thinly disguise veil for a Vendor or group of Vendors.  That free advice you got from the Group isn’t free, it may just be a paid commercial endorsement.

Groups are the “Wild West of Facebook” and yet few people have realized it.  Unfortunately, there are some who have and they are poised to take full advantage of the situation!

Can you do anything about it?  Unless they are breaking the Community Standards (bullying, hate speech, harassment, threats, etc) – nope.  The only remedy you have is to leave the group.

Want to know who is behind a Group?  Click the see all members and then sort by Admins.  That will show you who Admins the group, who can add members and delete posts.  It won’t show you the politics going on behind the scenes, that’s up to you to figure out.

For what it’s worth I admin a few Groups, actively engage in a few, and absolutely refuse to partake in a few others.

Mike Mueller

Mike builds the custom Apps that create the Tabs that make Custom Facebook Pages special. He builds Discount WordPress Blogs and shoots commercial high def video. He's an avid hockey fan, rides a motorcycle (a really fast one), loves strong beer and good red wine.

                          

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