How NOT To Do Business on Facebook… or anywhere!

Written on March 24, 2008 by Mari Smith

I had a very unpleasant experience last week: a gal, I’ll call Ms. X, ripped off my copyrighted sales copy for FacebookFortunes.com and FacebookGuidebook.com, put it up verbatim on her Facebook Profile, her website, and on Podclass… and began promoting the programs as if they were her own. I was shocked.

(I’ve been on the Alpha Team of Podclass since spring ’07 and am now a Platinum Member; Podclass is a Facebook app where you can teach and take classes).

Ms. X calls herself a global communications expert. We had only recently become Facebook friends.

I had not exchanged any communications with Ms. X, and here she was plastering herself all over my wall, shoving her business interest down my throat. Not good manners! In fact, this is SPAM.

Clearly, she was new to the social networking world and wasn’t familiar with what’s called “fetiquette”: Facebook etiquette. (Actually, I assert this aggressive approach is not good etiquette anywhere. Period.) I immediately deleted the wall post.

[By the way, I recommend you keep an eye on your Profile (personal) and Page (business) and weed out anything that isn't appropriate. Make sure you keep a nice clean Wall. In my opinion, your Profile is like your blog, website, business card, brochure, photo album, virtual storefront, and more, all-in-one. Your prospective clients, business partners, and your competitors may be watching you closely.]

A week after the Wall post incident, it came to my attention Ms. X had plagiarized my materials. I could hardly believe this gal was presenting classes as if she were an expert on Facebook; she’d only recently joined Facebook and had about 40 friends.

Here’s the actions I took immediately:

  • Wrote on her Facebook Profile Wall.
  • Emailed her through Facebook, asking why she’d taken my material verbatim.
  • Emailed her through Podclass.
  • Emailed her via the contact form on her main website.
  • Called her and left a voicemail message.
  • Removed her as a Facebook friend.

(Why did I write on her Wall? I wrote one line querying why she’d taken my materials, knowing it would push into her friends’ and my friends’ News Feeds. It was important to me I alert others quickly her offerings were stolen materials. It didn’t surprise me she too quickly deleted the Wall post.

Also, even if you remove someone as a Facebook friend, you can still exchange email with one another. To prevent all interaction with a Facebook member, you have to block them as I wrote about here).

Ms. X returned my call and we had a short conversation. She kept asking how she could make it up to me and win back my trust. I had her on loudspeaker with a colleague listening in; my colleague said I was way too kind, patient, and understanding.

Hm, turns out Ms. X blamed her VA (virtual assistant) who’d “stepped down”; and then she sent me a bunch of flowers to my “office” (which is actually a PO Box I check twice a month tops). Oh well.

Here’s the thing: I do not believe in competition. Especially for the solopreneur. There’s only one YOU. No one can “compete” to be you. Even if you and I offer the exact same service, people will always do business with people they know, like, and trust. And, each of us adds our own personality, unique experience, and proven strategies into the mix.

Nonetheless, I cannot abide someone outright stealing from me. I could’ve created an amazing, win:win profitable collaborative venture with Ms. X… if only she’d asked. Sure as the saying goes, “Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.” But, I’d rather be flattered in other ways!

[I hesitated to write this post and expose such an unpleasant experience. However, I chose to go ahead in case even one person learns and benefits from it in some way.]

Now, I’m looking into CopyScape – have you used it? What actions would you recommend to protect your copyrighted materials online? Have you ever been a victim of plagiarism?

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Post Category Facebook for Business, Facebook Tips, Reputation Management, Social Networking
  • http://whyfacebook.com Mari Smith

    @Elizabeth – wow, thank you so much for this terrific information! Yes, you’re right about the high profile part. I do have Google alerts, but will look closer to see if I can add a few more key words/phrases.

  • http://hankinslawrenceimages.wordpress.com/ Patty Hankins

    Mari

    So sorry to hear about your problems with the content thief. I’m really glad to hear you were able to get the situation resolved.

    I’ve had to deal with several cases of unauthorized use of my photos on the web. Since everything on my website has a copyright notice on it, I didn’t bother to contact the individual who stole my content. I went directly to their hosting company.

    For sites hosted in the US, all I had to do was find the contact info for the hosting company and fax them a letter stating who was infringing on my copyright, what content was stolen, where it was located and that I am the copyright holder. Each time the material was removed within 24 hours. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act makes ISPs potentially responsible for damages if they are informed of unauthorized use of copyrighted materials on sites they host and don’t do anything to remove it.

    I haven’t figured out an effective way to get stuff removed from sites hosted outside the US.

    These days for protection – I make sure my copyright info is in the EXIF info on photos uploaded to the web, and put a copyright notice under the photo. I’m using fewer watermarks on my photos – it doesn’t seem to stop the infringing – and interferes with the way the photos look online.

    Hope this helps

    Patty

  • http://thewebcoach.net Donna Payne

    Hi Mari,

    I’m a web developer and once had a client who was struggling with providing copy for her site.

    I had given her basic copy writing tips because she couldn’t afford to have her copy professionally written.

    So, when she managed to whip up pretty good copy over the weekend to meet her Monday deadline, I was impressed and pleased that she came through.

    A few weeks after her site launched, I got a frantic phone call from her at 11pm at home! She said a colleague saw her site a demanded she remove the copy immediately…. you guess it – she plagiarized someone else’s copy! And then my client had the nerve to BLAME ME when trying to explain and redeem herself as to why she stole the copy. Sheeesh!

    Needless to say – she’s not my client anymore!

    Now, I make it very plain and clear – ALL COPY MUST BE ORIGINAL or with written permission. If I find it’s not – you will be fired and all fees due immediately. (that’s in the contract too!)

    No one has time for that nonsense! Cheers!

  • http://www.biztipsblog.com Denise aka The Blog Squad

    Wow, Mari, sorry to hear about this experience. I have experienced this too a couple of times in the past 10 years. One thing, I would have outed the person by name. I certainly don’t want to do business with this person and would like to know Ms. X’s name so I can be on the lookout. If she ripped off your content, she may have done (or do) it again.

  • http://marriagesuccess.com Stan Dubin

    Thanks, Mari, for posting this. And thank you Elizabeth for your add’l info.

    I have considered off and on about protecting my two main eBooks by locking the PDF and requiring an “unlock key” but I figured if someone really wanted to steal my content they could do it with screen captures or other means.

    I realize I make it easier for someone to pirate my materials, but for the most part, I’ve been in good shape there.

    I did find out about someone who bought my eBook and then sent it out to 30 or so of his clients. His justification for having passed it on to his clients was that it would be helpful to them. Hmm. He was taken aback when I contacted him and expressed concern about copyright violation. After a few back and forths via email, he agreed to pay for the eBooks (I gave him a quantity discount) but he was somewhat disgruntled by the whole thing.

    I know the Internet can be a bit of a wild place when it comes to the exchange of information, but I also know people who have a very weak concept of “ownership” are not people I want to associate with. People can make excuses about the “freedom of information on the net” until they’re blue in the face, but let those same folks spend weeks or months (or longer) creating a product they wish to use to assist in their livelihood and then see how they feel when others make copies of their work without any exchange back to them.

    Having said that, I most likely will never lock my PDFs as I do believe the vast majority out there do understand the concepts of ownership and exchange.

  • http://www.judyrodman.com Judy Rodman

    Amazing what some people think they can get by with. Glad you shared the heads up. I have to tell you, your post was worth the whole read for one phrase which makes me your fan for real: you said you “… do not believe in competition… there is only one you…” I am in total agreement. This plagerizer is sadly unaware of this secret of life and business. Glad you are; makes me want to study what you offer even more.

  • Elizabeth Potts Weinstein

    Mari -

    Sorry that it happened to you … but the more high-profile we become, the more likely this becomes and issue.

    My first tip is to set up a Google Alert on your key phrases, titles, and other “signature” content. If someone rips off your sales page or article, and it’s indexed by google, you will know.

    For your key, money-making, or signature products, you may want to actually register your copyrighted work with your country’s copyright office. You still have common law protection in the U.S. anyway, but filing gives you the right to sue, more foreign protections, and better damage remedies. It’s pretty cheap to do but has some costs, so don’t do it for every individual blog post (you can do collective blog posts, though).

    Copyright infringers fall into a few categories, but #1 are the people who don’t know any better. It’s not an excuse, but these people just don’t think they are stealing, that they can take your pictures or writings b/c it’s on the internet. Usually with those people you just send an email (or letter from a lawyer) and they stop.

    Sometimes the easiest way to get an infringer to stop (who does not respond to your cease & desist email/letter) is to go to the ISP or website (like Facebook or eBay). Some hosts will take down a website or profile if copyright infringement is alleged.

    Hope that helps!

    ~ Elizabeth

    Elizabeth Potts Weinstein, attorney at law

  • http://whyfacebook.com Mari Smith

    @Patty – wow, that’s really good to know about the ISPs and the DMC Act. I’ll bet you have a tougher time tracking unauthorized use of your work – is it hard to set a Google alert for an image file? Then people can always change the file name. Hm.

    @Stan – I do hear you on the PDF e-books. I know there are executable e-book programs out there that helps authors protect their content a little more. However, because Adobe is so prolific, it always seems the best way to go for me. When you bring in software, there might be more tech support and/or refunds. Like you, I also believe most people are au fait with copyright and tend to exercise proper protocol.

  • http://bsetc.ca Erin Blaskie

    Mari, this is a great post and a wonderful opportunity for others to learn from you. Now I know what to do if that situation ever happens to me.

    It’s appalling that someone would just blatantly take materials and then blame their virtual assistant (as that’s what I do and I would never steal material and then give it to a client)… It shows that you did the best thing possible!

    One thing you can note though is that the Law of Attraction is always at play so you know the universe will take care of her! :)

    Erin Blaskie
    http://www.bsetc.ca

  • http://whyfacebook.com Mari Smith

    @Erin – thanks heaps for being the voice of the VAs. It’s such a trusted position and I know you’re first class in all you do. I actually think Ms. X used the poor VA as a scapegoat. (I hear ya on the LOA!)

    @Judy – your comment warmed my heart and made my day!

    @Denise – I emailed you the gal’s identity. You make a valid point… Should anyone else wish to know her identity, let me know & I’ll gladly share in private.

    @Donna – yikes, you sure had to learn the hard way too. Glad to hear you were able to tighten up your guidelines as a result though.

  • http://www.adamgershenbaum.wordpress.com Adam Gershenbaum

    Wow CopyScape is a great find thanks!

    There are many people who are educating people on the same subject. It would have been simple for her to look to you as a a mentor and cite you vs actually copying your words verbatim. Not a well thought out decision for her.

  • http://barbararozgonyi-wiredprworks.com/ Barbara Rozgonyi

    Mari ~

    It was worth reading the post to see these words – very empowering and in direct contrast to the story you told.

    “Here?s the thing: I do not believe in competition. Especially for the solopreneur. There?s only one YOU. No one can “compete” to be you.”

    Now, back to plagiarism. . .

    Three suggestions:
    1. Monitor your work online from time to time with Copyscape 2. Contact a copyright attorney to protect your work – like the one I met a social networking event last month.
    3. Research your rights at the US copyright office site: http://www.copyright.gov/

    Thanks for sharing your solutions/story ~
    Barbara

  • http://yeasir.com/blog Jianjun

    Mari,

    Thanks for sharing your experience. This kind of thing is disgusting. My own web site has been copied many times by fellow translators from China. I used to help some of them with starting business! So they reward me with this kind of flattery ;)

    I love your attitude toward coping with such an unpleasant thing and appreciate the link to CopyScape, which is amazingly helpful in detecting copycats.

    I believe what you stated is correct: “Even if you and I offer the exact same service, people will always do business with people they know, like, and trust.”

    Best,
    Jianjun

  • http://hankinslawrenceimages.wordpress.com/ Patty Hankins

    @Mari – we do have lots of problems tracing the images on the web. One thing I’ve discovered is that many of the thieves are pretty stupid. They’ll deep link into my site – directly to the file.

    What they don’t realize is that stealing my bandwidth makes it much easier to find them. For images – I just do a google images search – and put in my domain name. It brings up pages of files that have that as the URL – and what website they are shown on.

    For a few non-US sites that were stealing several images – I just did a little behind the scenes work on my site – renaming the files and fixing the links internally. Then I replaced the file they linked to – with one that said “If you can see this – the website you are viewing is stealing my photos” Generally the deep links into my site were gone in a day or two

    I do have Google alerts set for my name, my business name, and my URLs. I’ve caught several infringements that way as well – from the people who think they can swipe them images and it’s OK as long as they provide a link back to my site.

    The sad thing is – in most cases – for personal use – I’ll grant someone a license for no fee.

    Patty

  • http://moregspinsights.blogspot.com Gillian

    A variation on a similar theme – I used to do a lot of feasiblility studies and business plans.I once found that a client had revised the 3 year financial projections I had prepared to make the project profitable (and therefore eligible for a grant) when it was destined to be a major loss maker … fortunately the person reviewing the document knew me and knew that I would never have produced some optimisitic figures. This scared the heck out of me though … naively perhaps but it had never occurred to me that someone would take my work and then change it and present as my porfessional judgement in order to raise financing. I also experienced someone using my CV and adding me as a consultant adviser in order to win a contract without my knowledge or consent. I have not figured out how to avoid this – short of restricting my work to business coaching.

    Gillian’s last blog post.. Tag Biz – Application on Facebook