Harry Joiner Re-instated by Facebook

Networking giant welcomes renegade recruiter.

You might recall that The Marketing Headhunter tried to upload his address book to Facebook after former hero, Robert Scoble, announced that the popular social network is the new Rolodex.

Facebook promptly accused Harry of being a spammer and kicked him out. But, now, the networking bad boy is coming home, though not without a stern warning:

Hi Harry,

Your account was disabled because you took repeated actions that could be construed as spam.

For instance, it is a violation of Facebook's Terms of Use to repeatedly send the same message or to make the same post. Facebook prides itself in protecting users from spam, and we take this standard very seriously.

However, after reviewing your situation, we have reactivated your account, and you should now be able to log in. Please refrain from sending the same message or repeating the same post, as further violations of our Terms will result in your account being permanently disabled.

Please also be aware that when a warning message appears on your home page, it will generally be displayed for 24 hours. It can be displayed for longer, however, if you continue to perform these actions. We appreciate your cooperation going forward.

Thanks for your understanding,

Dori
Customer Support Representative
Facebook

Here's my take on the situation. Notice that Dori is the Customer Service Rep dealing with the case now. Previously it was a little weasel named Anthony. Anthony is a power-mad nobody and Dori is a reasonable person. That's the difference.

Comments

[Harry Joiner]

"a power-mad nobody"

boy, that's gonna leave a mark!

[Recruiting Animal]

I'll change it to power-mad bureaucrat if you prefer.

[Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com]

I realize that your comment about Dori versus Anthony was tongue in cheek, but I suspect that the real difference here is that the authorities have been coming down hard on Facebook for its lack of customer service.

There were a number of well publicized incidents where users alerted Facebook to truly serious breaches of its terms and service, such as those involving child predators, yet Facebook took no action. They've since staffed up and are responding to those inquiries very quickly so that new orientation is probably driving some of these changes as well. In other words, it appears that they're now actually reading and acting on the emails that are being sent to them.

[Recruiting Animal]

Thanks for the input Steve but I wasn't being tongue and cheek and your info confirms that because of policy, Facebook customers were dealing with mindless bureaucrats who were quite happy to execute according to the rules whatever the reality.

[Marketing Recruiters]

Well, whatever. I'm glad to be back. It was a valuable lesson for me in the sense that I had forgotten just how much these big websites have all of us by the tail. Google, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Monster, and others could put me out of business if they really wanted to. Then I'd have to rely on the phone, print ads, and direct mail to build my recruiting business.

Horrors!
Harry

[successfultradingtips.com]

Hey,

Awesome that Harry is back, now I am banned doing some permission marketing, leaving a personal relevant message to members of facebook investment groups inviting them to add me as a friend and to visit my new financial blogsite.
The personalized message read as follows:

"Hi, I just joined several Facebook’s Investment Groups recently. My company, Financial Futures, has just launched a new financial blog called http://successfultradingtips.com. There are plenty of relevant market insights for investors. I invite you to browse the blog and subscribe to the email rss. I hope you like it!"

Yes, I individually clicked on over 2000 facebook investment group members with this same message. Since it was relevant to their investment interests I did not consider it spam and a breach of terms of service.

Alas, do you suppose Dori at Facebook will forgive my transgressions and reinstate me?

John Bougearel