Facebook hack big blow for Holy Guacamole
This person got into her Facebook somehow, and changed her password. MIKE SNIDER, CO-OWNER OF HOLY GUACAMOLE
KITCHENER — Mike Snider was on vacation in Italy when he received an email from Facebook saying he was no longer the administrator for his business’s page on the social media giant’s platform.
Snider watched helplessly as the Facebook page that drove customers to Holy Guacamole was taken over by a stranger. Posts appeared on the Facebook page in what looked to be Arabic.
It took about a week for the social media giant to intervene.
In the meantime, Snider set up a new page with a slightly different name, but was worried he would lose the more than 7,000 followers he ’d accumulated during the past fiveplus years in business.
In the end, Facebook migrated those followers to his new site on Thursday.
Snider’s experience is a cautionary one, and underscores the need to protect passwords and be extra careful about adding new friends.
Holy Guacamole’s old Facebook page had two administrators who controlled content — Snider and a manager working for him.
When he contacted his manager 10 days ago about the notice from Facebook, she said her account had been hacked and she could not access it.
“This person got into her Facebook somehow, and changed her password and then deleted both of us from being administrators of our page, so we had no access to our page any longer,” said Snider.
For most people, Facebook is a great way to stay connected with family and friends.
For small business owners, it can be an important way to reach customers.
“The advertising end of it worked well for us,” said Snider.
Snider and his wife Diane started a Facebook page for Holy Guacamole when they opened the first outlet at 14 Duke St. E. in downtown Kitchener in January 2012.
They have opened five more locations since then.
Facebook is the main way he markets and advertises the business.
For a fee, the social media giant will distribute posts on event pages or business pages more widely to other Facebook users in the area. This is called “boosting.” “I spent over $7,000 during the past six years just boosting it, trying to get more people to like us,” said Snider.
“It was a very effective way, especially when you had a good post and you boosted it, it hit upwards of 25,000 or 30,000 people.” He paid for the boosts with his credit card. “My credit card information is on that page,” said Snider.
While waiting for Facebook to get everything sorted out, Snider set up a new Face-
book page called Holy Guacamole Fresh Mex.
After spending thousands of dollars to boost his posts since 2012, and attract followers to his original page, Snider worried he would lose all of them and have to rebuild the list.
In the end, Facebook was able to restore his list of followers.
Facebook has 1.94 billion active monthly users, according to its quarterly financial results released on Wednesday. Businesses, bands, restaurants, city governments, book clubs, festivals, authors, neighbourhood groups and all manner of organizations set up pages on Facebook for promotion and marketing.
Snider credits the social media giant for some of the success he’s had with Holy Guacamole.
On Good Friday, he kept one location open, and promoted fish tacos through the Holy Guacamole Facebook page.
“And it was our busiest day we have ever had in five years,” said Snider.
“We had over 500 people through that day, they were lined up. Everybody knew about it, everybody was waiting for it.”
In the days leading up to Good Friday, Snider could accurately estimate his sales for the day, and lay in enough supplies. All of that was based on comments from customers on the company’s Facebook page.
“I knew exactly how much fish I needed to buy,” said Snider. “We were really well prepared.”
A spokesperson for Facebook said the company would not be commenting on Snider’s problems, but urged users to review the social media’s guidelines for two-factor authentication, login notifications and trusted contacts.