Do you know the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook?
Three billion people are on Facebook.
However, Facebook is widely criticized. Are all the naysayers wrong?
Do you know the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook?
As a social media user, you want to know when you’re getting yourself into when you use a social media site so it’s important to know the pros and cons of Facebook.
During the political season in the United States, Facebook was more criticized than ever.
Therefore, the time is right for us to examine the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook.
By the time you are done reading this guide, you will know the answer to the question, “Is Facebook useful?”
These are the uses of Facebook:
- Promote content
- Make money
- Stay in touch
- Find like-minded people
- Help others
- Learn
- Shop
- Raise money
- Brand yourself
- Make free international calls
- Blog
This post will offer 16 advantages of using Facebook and 10 disadvantages.
Are you ready to learn the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook? Let’s dive in.
Although this video shares some of the advantages of using Facebook, the post shares both the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook.
Let’s get started.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Facebook
Advantages of Facebook
Update March 2023
As people fear TikTok’s connections to China, Facebook’s user base is up.
In addition, Facebook’s stock is up for the year. This is a direct result of the 10,000 jobs cut and 5,000 unfilled positions in 2022. Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg reversed the downward economic trend that plagued the social media giant in 2022.
Update November 2021
If the following strategies for succeeding on Facebook fail, you can always buy Facebook Page likes.
Your social media plan should definitely include Facebook.
Here’s why:
Groups
If you’re looking for a way to market your blog content, there isn’t a better way than Facebook groups.
Many Facebook groups with tens of thousands of people allow you to promote daily and others allow weekly promotions.
There are Facebook groups for any niche imaginable.
For example, I’ve been in Facebook groups for Californians, mid-lifers, Pinterest lovers, Instagram lovers, writers, bloggers, entrepreneurs…
You can have a limited number of shortcuts in your left sidebar to easily access these groups.
Make Money
Business Pages
According to the Buffer podcast, three social media sites will lead the way in the area of ecommerce in 2020: Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Why should you be left out in the cold?
Your Facebook Business Page is a great way to market your content, goods, and services.
You can use this vehicle to let interested people know about sales, new products, product updates, and testimonials from happy users.
The best part: You can put all this on your Facebook page instead of your Facebook wall where it might look spammy.
Facebook Ads
So many people are making money with targeted Facebook Ads, I predict paying to promote will be more popular. To make your Facebook ads game stronger, you can use Facebook publishing tools available in the market.
As indicated above, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are expected to lead the way when it comes to shopping at social media sites.
More Financial Opportunities
Social media marketing is a powerful way to make money. For example, I’ve sold my ebooks on Facebook.
Ironically, I was reluctant to promote my latest ebook on my Facebook wall for fear it would look spammy. However, there was great interest.
Many people write me on my Facebook Business Page and offer me money to be able to write on my blog.
I’ve received financial opportunities on social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn as well as Facebook.
Keep up with Friends and Family
Although you might think this obvious advantage of using Facebook and any social media site might go without saying, using social media to stay in touch with friends and family should be uppermost.
So many stories of happy reunions occur on Facebook.
For example, I’ve heard stories of families separated at birth that found each other on Facebook.
Other happy reunions between people who find each other on Facebook are routinely in the news.
Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg connected humanity on this site. According to 2017 statistics, there were over 7.5 billion people on Earth. Three billion use Facebook. That is a staggering statistic.
Find Like-Minded Thinkers
You can use Facebook to find people who support the causes you believe in.
To illustrate:
A California law implemented in January of 2020 penalizes companies for hiring California writers who don’t reap the benefits their other staff members do.
For this reason, California freelance writers made a Facebook group, California Freelance Writers United.
Also, when Robert Mueller investigated Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook users who supported Mueller formed a group called Robert Mueller Fans Page.
Once, I read of a couple, the husband a staunch Republican and the wife a devoted Democrat. When the political fight fest became too much for their marriage, the husband told the wife to take to social media.
She found like-minded thinkers on social media and their marital bliss was reinstated.
Although these examples are all political in nature, people come together for many reasons on Facebook on both pages and in groups.
Find Like-Minded Content Creators
Use Facebook to network your blog.
You don’t have to blog in isolation.
Many of the blogging friends I’ve made over the years I’ve met and routinely interact with on Facebook.
You can network in private groups, public groups, on people’s walls in the comments section, and on Facebook business pages.
Bloggers may share your writing if you share theirs.
Social media is reciprocal in nature.
People forget this and believe social media is all about taking.
Did you read the screenshot?
If so, you see that I was mentioned in the post, and then notified on Facebook when the admin promoted it.
I then shared his post which extends his reach. Win-win.
You have a choice of sharing to all these places.
Start Your Own Group
If you’d like, you can start your own Facebook group.
There are several advantages to this.
First, if your blog offers a paid membership, you can give premium members an exclusive invitation to join a private Facebook group.
Next, I was asked on Quora where 70 people who didn’t enjoy their LinkedIn group should network.
I recommended Facebook. If they wanted the group to be private to just the 70 of them, starting a group would give them that option.
Here are the directions for starting your own Facebook group:
Click New Group.
Name your group and search for people to add.
Click Create.
Start typing your message at the bottom of the screen. When you click Send, everyone in the group will see it and can communicate.
Facebook is Informative
People promote interesting and educational articles on Facebook.
Let’s look again at the screenshot:
Vishwajeet Kumar shared a tutorial about how to remove the date and time from comments in WordPress.
I didn’t know that was possible before I saw his post.
Whether people share on their wall, their page, in Stories, or in Live Videos, you’ll learn a great deal on Facebook from people in your niche.
Use these articles as references for your blog posts. Comment on them and grow your following through networking.
Update: June 2020
Facebook is definitely informative, but even Facebook has its limits. Zuckerberg refuses information that promotes hate. For instance, he refused Trump’s ads showing a red triangle that was associated with the Nazis.
In addition, to refusing information that promotes hate, Zuckerberg refuses misinformation that could be harmful.
Let’s hear more advantages and disadvantages of Facebook.
Update: October 2020 Facebook has been repeatedly criticized for prioritizing hate for profits.
Shopping
Ads for products of interest to me pop up.
For example, I see ads for SEMRush, an SEO tool, and ads for email vendors, both tools a blogger would need.
June 2020 Update:
Facebook is actually predicted to change the face of ecommerce with its start of Facebook shops (Source).
During Coronavirus outbreaks people are reluctant to leave their homes to go shop. Therefore, both Facebook and Instagram are starting Facebook shops.
Fundraisers
You can conduct a fundraiser on Facebook or donate to someone else’s fundraiser.
Extend Your Social Media Presence
Facebook allows you to have a wider social media presence.
For example, you can go live using Facebook Live or you can put a recorded video on Facebook.
You can have Stories as well as posts on your wall and on your page.
Since you are able to use these methods to establish yourself as an authority in your niche on Facebook, these methods help with branding.
Cross Promotion
When you promote using Instagram Stories, if you set up the connection, the Stories appear on Facebook.
Look:
I put this Story on Instagram. Since I set up the connection between Instagram and Facebook, the Story is in both places.
I took this screen capture from Facebook even though I never put my Story there.
This saves you time only having to promote in one place and extends your reach on both Instagram and Facebook.
There are many tools that save you time promoting to Facebook.
Are you familiar with IFTTT (If This, Then That)? When you set up connections, your promotions occur.
For example, I made a connection between WordPress and Facebook.
When I publish, my WordPress blog content gets published to my Facebook Page. See this tutorial about IFTTT for bloggers.
Buffer and Hootsuite are schedulers that will promote your blog content to Facebook.
Lead Generation
You can use Facebook to generate leads.
On your Facebook business page, you can have a signup form for your blog. Email addresses people enter will go to your email list.
This is your Facebook Page menu. Look at all these features.
See this additional information on generating social leads.
Make Phone Calls
Did you know you can make phone calls on Facebook?
My technical helper in England, Phillip Dews, calls me on Facebook all the time.
If I wanted to call Phillip, I would go to his Profile and Click Message to start a new message with him. To make a phone call, click the phone icon.
If you want to make a phone call using Facebook Messenger, open the Messenger app on your phone. Find the person you want to call, click the name, then click the phone icon.
More information about Facebook Messenger can be found here.
Phone calls on Facebook are free.
You Can Blog
Since Facebook doesn’t have a character count limitation like Twitter, you can put as much text as you want on your home page or on your wall.
If you want to add an image, just click “Photo.”
Self-Promotion is Allowed
Unlike on Reddit, no one will call you a spammer if you promote your content, services, or sales.
Tools even make promoting on Facebook easy.
Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, and IFTTT as mentioned earlier.
Due to the disadvantages of Facebook mentioned in the next section, many people steer away from promoting on Facebook.
You are wasting a valuable resource if you agree with them.
Look:
This screenshot from Google Analytics shows my social traffic for the last month of December when the blogosphere is usually quiet.
You can see during the quietest time of the year, around the holidays, Facebook provided almost 40% of all my social traffic.
If you want to generate blog traffic, you should use Facebook, plain and simple.
Updates
UPDATES November 2021
Have you heard Facebook is rebranding?
Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg decided to rebrand as Meta while keeping Facebook as one facet of a larger platform called “Meta.”
This move came in reaction to some of the disadvantages of Facebook such as whistleblower Francis Haugen’s accusations that Facebook is hurting young girl’s images.
October 2021
UPDATE: Disadvantages of Facebook
On Monday, October 4, Facebook went down for six hours. Facebook explained there was a server configuration problem. Both the ecommerce and communications sectors were crippled internationally.
Facebook Jail memes went out all over Twitter.
Now the entire world is in #Facebookjail muahahaha!!! #facebookdown #facebookoutage pic.twitter.com/fGKLyoH4OJ
— Christian Mezzaroba (@CharasmaticHeel) October 4, 2021
You can read more about Facebook’s outage and the history of Facebook outages here: Facebook keeps stopping.
February 2021
Since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg likes to buy or emulate successful social media websites, there is speculation that Zuckerberg is planning to make his own Clubhouse-style site on Facebook.
Clubhouse is audio. You speak rather than type when you comment or ask questions.
Since Clubhouse is currently invitation-only, having a comparable site on Facebook helps people who can’t get Clubhouse invitations.
Will Zuckerberg replicate Clubhouse on Facebook? Watch this space.
January 2021 Update 1
Reported changes at Facebook: According to Karan Singh of the podcast the SEO Singh Show, Facebook’s reach is dead due to the algorithm changes. However, according to Singh, Facebook might become a search engine.
January 2021 Update 2
After the January 6 insurrection at the Washington Capitol, Facebook, along with Twitter and Snapchat, banned Donald Trump from using the social media site.
For years, Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg maintained Facebook would not moderate content. If misinformation was put on the site, the people should decide the truth.
Then, when the Coronavirus started and “Plandemic” perpetrators put wrong information about the disease in videos on Facebook, Zuckerberg and the Facebook staff took down the content.
Now, Donald Trump has been banned altogether. According to Forbes, Zuckerberg banned Trump from both Facebook and Instagram due to Trump’s stirring up a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Whether you consider Zuckerberg’s actions one of the advantages of Facebook or disadvantages of Facebook, reaction to Trump’s ban is widespread and mixed.
Some people consider Trump’s silencing too long in the making. Others believe we are heading toward a society ruled by technology. When the news about Trump’s ban broke, someone on Quora asked, “Who censors the censor?”
December 2020 Update 1
Once again, people claim Facebook breaks the Sherman Anti-Trust Law which insists you can’t have a monopoly. There must be competition for readership.
The FTC is calling for Facebook to sell its holdings Instagram and WhatsApp.
What’s interesting is the Federal Trade Commission approved those purchases by Facebook and now, in a reversal, calls for Facebook to divest itself of these holdings.
The FTC isn’t alone. Attorney Generals from many states are joining with the FTC in suing Facebook. Since the internet is a relatively new innovation, this case is generally without precedent (Source).
A podcast listener asked how she was being harmed by Facebook having these holdings. Generally, the government intervenes when they feel there’s a threat. He responded her ideas are limited by only being exposed to Facebook and its holdings.
December 2020 Update 2
Facebook’s Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple’s Tim Cook are having a public fight.
According to Buzzfeed News, Zuckerberg claims he is an advocate for small business owners so he is pitting himself against Cook. According to the source, Zuckerberg’s employees are skeptical. They don’t believe his boasts are genuine. They believe his motives are self-serving.
My understanding, based on the podcasts I’ve heard, is that Cook wants consumers to “optin in,” in other words, agree, to allow their data to be given to companies. Zuckerberg insists this is a bad idea.
According to the source of the Buzzfeed article, Apple is trying to implement changes that will affect whether the internet is free.
November 2020 Update 1
As a result of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, Facebook banned groups. In response, Trump supporters are moving their members from Facebook to less mainstream social media sites. These social media sites include Parler and MeWe.
Ten days passed since the U.S. Presidential Election. Social media sites are affected. Facebook is losing members while MeWe and Parler are gaining members. In fact, there were more downloads of Parler so far this month than any other app.
November 2020 Update 2
Facebook has taken steps to combat hate speech. These actions are in direct result of the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the U.S. Presidential Election.
Misinformation and divisiveness followed those events. Facebook’s actions are a response to combat these problems on the social media site.
Related Reading: Here is a MeWe review.
November 2020 Update 3
More advantages of Facebook:
Recent Facebook statistics:
According to Forbes, Facebook Messenger, which has never had a strong reputation for security beat WhatsApp in the area of security.
According to Social Media Today, Facebook Live is experiencing a revival of popularity and the trend toward using Facebook for video marketing is growing.
October Update 1
According to Sprout Social, recent changes have been made to Facebook:
- Facebook is available in dark mode.
- 3-D Photos
- Quiet mode that lets you spend time away from Facebook
- Facebook Messenger for desktop app
- Call to Action buttons. For example, people can book appointments or make a purchase.
- Royalty-free music
- Updates to live video
- Updates to Watch Parties
- Facebook Page Report Exports
- Increased Facebook Group Visibility
October Update 2
According to the House of Representatives, Facebook abused monopoly power. “The report says the tech giants ‘run the marketplace while also competing in it’ and compares them to the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons (Source).” Facebook was named along with Apple, Google, and Amazon.
October Update 3:
There is now a new “Supreme Court” assigned to judge Facebook ban appeals.
October Update 4:
After reversing its original position, Facebook decided to remove content denying the Holocaust. Zuckerberg’s reasoning is that anti-Semitism is on the rise and many young people don’t know the truth about the Holocaust (Source).
However, according to the source, Zuckerberg and Facebook won’t remove content denying other genocides like the Armenian Genocide.
October Update 5
Facebook is capitalizing on its ownership of Instagram to engage in more cross-platform activity.
This month, you can chat with people who use Instagram. Conversely, people on Instagram, can chat with people who use Facebook.
June 2020 Update 1
Notice the black box above Facebook’s message.
The black social media post was seen across social media channels the first week in June when the nation stood in solidarity: racism would no longer be tolerated.
After initially being criticized for its handling of African American Floyd George’s death at the hands of police officers, Facebook donated millions to fight racism. In addition, Facebook posted the message you see in the screenshot on its site.
June 2020 Update 2
Say what you want about Zuckerberg’s politics, as far as being a business person, he seems like a genuinely bright guy.
Consider this example:
Zuckerberg’s Facebook bought Instagram for one billion dollars. According to Investopedia, today Instagram is worth one hundred times that. Instagram is worth 100 billion dollars.
In addition, Facebook bought WhatsApp. Today, WhatsApp is the leading messenger service with a user base of two billion (Source).
May 2020
May of 2020 saw many changes for the social media giant:
Facebook started allowing personalized avatars in comments. The social media site started by implementing personalized avatars in comments in the United States.
Now, Facebook users can share their comments using a custom emoji.
If you are interested in adding personalization to social media sites, here are instructions for making a custom GIF for use on Instagram and WhatsApp.
May 19, 2020
Are you aware Facebook owns Instagram? Vox reported Facebook has new plans to inspire you to shop on Instagram.
Facebook’s motive: This ability to shop on Instagram should prove helpful to people sheltering-in-place at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Apparently, Facebook is riding the increasing trend of shopping online. During the pandemic, online shopping saw a boost from 15% to 27%.
Also, in a recent acquisition, Facebook acquired GIPHY.com. The mega social media site Twitter is already connected to GIPHY. Being able to put Gifs in their tweets is a big draw for Twitter users.
However, there is speculation that companies won’t want to work with Facebook. Due to the debacle of data leaks in 2018, brands are worried their consumers’ data will be leaked if they align with Facebook and may steer clear.
Messenger Rooms
Facebook is jumping into the virtual meeting space with Messenger Rooms.
Given the Shelter-in-Place orders of the Coronavirus pandemic, Facebook’s Messenger Rooms is timely.
Friends and family have been spending time together virtually using apps such as Zoom and WhatsApp. FaceTime is also available for groups if you have an iPhone.
Now groups can congregate virtually using Facebook’s Messenger Rooms, definitely another advantage of Facebook. Wouldn’t you agree?
Update July 2020:
Although Facebook added a new measure of security to Facebook Messenger using biometric device locks, Forbes claims the new measures do nothing to protect Facebook Messenger users.
Plandemic
Have you heard of “Plandemic?” According to reports, people are posting videos with misinformation about the Coronavirus onto Facebook.
For example, people are spreading misinformation about what helps during the Coronavirus. For instance, instead of posting what actually helps, people are posting the opposite of what helps, for example, you shouldn’t wear a mask or stay indoors.
Reportedly, Facebook takes down the harmful videos, but Plandemic perpetrators put them back up.
Facebook is not the only social media site affected by the Plandemic scheme.
More advantages and disadvantages of Facebook:
You can send your Facebook photos and videos to Google Photos. However, some skeptics consider this a disadvantage.
With all the criticism levied toward Facebook, if people wanted to deactivate their accounts, being able to send their images and videos to Google Photos make leaving Facebook all that much easier.
Clearly, May 2020 saw more advantages and disadvantages of Facebook use.
April 2020
Zuckerberg has been criticized for not caring about the opinion of the populace when it comes to politics. Yet, as you can see from this screenshot, he shows he does care about the opinion of Facebook users when it comes to his social media site.
Facebook is revamping its look. Like Twitter, for example, Facebook is now offering a dark mode option.
March 2020
Facebook has risen to the Coronavirus challenge.
I find it personally heartwarming to read about the help Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook team are offering in response to the Coronavirus.
First, Zuckerberg has forbidden sales of potentially helpful Coronavirus products to avoid price scalping which takes advantage of scared people.
For example, Zuckerberg has banned sales of face masks on his site. Since the disease is not airborne, people will waste their money on a product that won’t help.
Next, Zuckerberg is offering warnings, helpful advice, and resources to find more factual information about the virus.
Considering Facebook was accused of spreading misinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election through the sale of Russian-bought ads, making sure only factual information gets disseminated can only help Facebook’s reputation.
Look:
Facebook users see this resource when logging into their accounts.
Finally, Facebook has launched a fundraiser. When people contribute to the efforts to fight the virus, Facebook will match all contributions up to 10 million dollars (Source).
As you can see, Facebook has amped up its efforts to help small businesses.
During the Coronavirus pandemic, people are ordered to stay indoors so local businesses are suffering. By offering this information about gift cards, Facebook users can still support businesses without leaving the house.
People are speculating this will restore some of the goodwill Facebook lost (see disadvantages of Facebook, below).
Facebook included a new emoji so you can react to your Facebook friends when they express concerns over the Coronavirus.
According to sources, Facebook is adding a new pulsing heart as well.
Let’s hear more advantages and disadvantages of Facebook.
Disadvantages of Facebook
The disadvantages of Facebook carry such weight, bloggers are starting to publish articles offering Facebook group alternatives. You can find Facebook group alternatives on MeWe since MeWe is a Facebook alternative and the “anti-Facebook.” More information about the downfall of Facebook and MeWe can be found in these MeWe reviews.
Downfall of Facebook
May 2021 Update:
First, the Cambridge Analytica Scandal resurfaced when a hacker leaked users’ data that Facebook admitted stealing. Facebook’s response: This was all settled at the time.
Next, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Apple’s Tim Cook public feud is escalating. The men are fighting over privacy rights to users’ data that could affect the future of the internet.
Facebook has been caught selling users’ private data.
According to Wikipedia,
“The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal was a major political scandal in early 2018 when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica had harvested the personal data of millions of peoples’ Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political advertising purposes.”
This scandal caused Facebook’s stock to plummet.
In March of 2020, it was reported that Facebook admits keeping tabs on your search data, but will make recommendations based on that content that you might enjoy viewing going forward.
Facebook plans on making those recommendations based on your search history which it collects.
Facebook still collects money for political ads.
After Russia infiltrated the United States election in 2016, Twitter stopped accepting money for political ads.
However, Facebook continues to do so.
Did you know that Mark Zuckerberg’s employees were so outraged that he continues to accept political advertising money, they petitioned him to stop?
He defended his actions by claiming the First Amendment to the United States Constitution of Free Speech justifies accepting the ad money.
However, his employees rejected that argument insisting that free speech and political speech don’t deserve the same protections.
Twitter began fact-checking tweets in May of 2020. Twitter’s Jack Dorsey insists people don’t get free speech protection on Twitter since Twitter is not a publicly owned website.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg responded by claiming the people should have a right to decide for themselves.
Messenger for Kids Scandal
Did you notice this app is for ages 4 and up?
Apparently, with this app, parents get to approve who networks with their children.
However, due to a glitch in the app, children networked with people their parents never approved (Source).
Fake Facebook Profiles
Although this violates Facebook’s rules, many fake Facebook accounts are bots.
People might try to begin relationships with people they meet on Facebook not realizing the user had a fake Facebook profile.
Is Facebook a Monopoly?
Facebook has been accused of being a monopoly that goes against the U.S. Constitution.
The social media site is accused of being a monopoly for several reasons:
First, Zuckerberg’s latest idea is Libra, a form of cryptocurrency.
Yet, historically, when a private entity has control over a public resource, a monopoly occurs.
Also, Democratic Presidential Candidate Elizabeth Warren is calling for Facebook to break up on the grounds that it is a monopoly. If elected president, she plans on breaking Facebook up, she claims.
Facebook Instills Apprehension
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg does not convey an assurance that the data breaches and political scandals of the last few years are over.
MeWe vs Facebook
In fact, Mark Weinstein’s MeWe found a niche as the “anti-Facebook” since it assured people MeWe would never sell data and violate privacy like Facebook. More information about MeWe can be found in this MeWe review. Fortunately for Facebook, MeWe is beset by its own criticisms of spam and negativity on the site.
Also, in interviews, when questioned, Zuckerberg seems evasive.
Look:
What do you think?
People have been so uneasy about using Facebook, there was a recent push to delete Facebook apps.
The #DeleteFacebook movement continues today.
As you can see from these screenshots from Twitter, goodwill toward the company is lacking.
To say branding is important is an understatement.
If I know the importance of branding, Mark Zuckerberg certainly should know it.
Facebook is Frustrating
Facebook groups allow promotion. However, many bloggers wind up in Facebook Jail. Apparently, when they promote their blog content, Facebook’s bots flag their content as spam. Anyone landing in Facebook Jail must wait 24 hours to be released.
Update: June 2020
Facebook instills apprehension for another reason as well.
During the Coronavirus, people put minsinformation about the disease on the site.
Also, Zuckerberg’s Facebook is possibly the only mainstream social media site that won’t refuse Donald Trump’s potentially biased political advertising.
In June of 2020, an Australian news organization took Facebook’s Zuckerberg to task for linking out to potentially harmful and biased news agencies.
The news site recommended a Code of Conduct that would force Facebook to pay if they linked to these sites. Zuckerberg responded by saying he didn’t agree with the proposed code (Source).
August 2020 Facebook Pulls Content
In a seemingly about face, Facebook pulled millions of posts containing misinformation about the Coronavirus. Apparently, the content was exaggerated and contained misleading information about cures (Source).
In the past, Zuckerberg admitted leaving inappropriate content on Facebook explaining he believes the public has a right to decide for themselves what is and isn’t appropriate.
June 2020 Brands Pull Advertising
200 brands are pulling their ads and will not be advertising on Facebook like they normally would. The most recognized companies are Coca-cola and Verizon.
Some companies reported they are not renewing for July 2020 while other brands report they will not be advertising on Facebook for the rest of 2020. Apparently, Zuckerberg has lost 7 billion dollars as a result.
Why are brands pulling advertising dollars from Facebook?
According to the podcast The Instagram Stories, Zuckerberg leaves up racist content believing Facebook users should analyze the merit of the content. Reportedly, Zuckerberg’s Facebook added the disclaimer that the content contained potentially offensive information.
Apparently, that was not enough for the brands that jumped ship.
According to Hitc.com, companies objected to “hate for profit.” According to the blog,
“Lots of people are unhappy with the way Facebook handles content on the site. On the social media platform, lots of misinformation and hate speech towards certain groups get posted, yet Facebook does little to combat such content.
Unacceptable content is often left up on the site despite it containing negative information and violating Facebook’s terms and conditions. Many argue that the reason Facebook leaves up such content is because it gets a lot of views, so essentially they are doing it for profit.”
The NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), commented, “Facebook allows racist, violent and verifiably false content to run rampant on its platform. (Source)”
Forbes offers additional reasons advertisers may be boycotting Facebook.
For instance, on July 1, the month advertisers started pulling their money in large groups, a new law went into effect in California called the California Consumer Protection Act.
As a result of this law, advertisers now have trouble monitoring the effects of tracking users’ behavior in California. Less than one month after the law went into effect, advertisers report seeing a 84% reduction in conversion of Californians in contrast to other states.
More advantages and disadvantages of Facebook:
Clearly, the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook continue even after the publication of this article.
No Longer the Best Place to Work
Each year the Glassdoor news blog publishes the best places to work in America.
Facebook fell to Position 23 this year, a 16 drop fall. The effect must hurt employee morale and could, in turn, hurt job performance.
Facebook fell last year as well (Source).
A September 2020 news article by NBC revealed Mark Zuckerberg released new guidelines for communication within Facebook so employees feel supported at work.
More Updates
September 2020 Update 1
According to BoingBoing.net, Facebook is “crafted to deliver the election to Trump.” The blog posted this claim just 9 weeks before the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Information was released expressing Facebook employees’ concern that Zuckerberg’s desire for free speech on his social media site is designed to help Trump. Employees’ aired gripes that Zuckerberg is actually more committed to Trump’s reelection goals than a commitment to free speech.
September 2020 Update 2
Facebook allows you to add a WhatsApp button to your Facebook Page. This cross-platform approach allows you to boost your traffic and business on two websites just by using Facebook.
Facebook’s functionality includes using both WhatsApp and Instagram since Mark Zuckerberg owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
September 2020 Update 2
Facebook is hosting a Communities Summit on October 1. I’ve been using Facebook since close to its inception, and I don’t recall Facebook ever holding a Communities Summit. Do you?
Apparently, the Summit falls on a sentimental date: the anniversary of 10 years of Facebook groups.
Interest in the event seems high. At the time of this writing, 544,788 people indicated they are interested. Also, there are over 371,000 comments about the event. Most of the comments express gratitude for the invitation. In addition, the information has been shared 17,000 times.
August 2020
What had been a disadvantage of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s refusal to reject Trump’s social media content has changed.
When Trump offered Facebook content saying children practically are immune to the Covid-19 virus, Zuckerberg had his breaking point. He finally refused to post this content that has no medical proof.
June 2020
On June 1, Facebook’s employees took a day off in protest.
What caused this dissent?
Zuckerberg’s employees have repeatedly clashed with him over his reaction or lack of reaction to President Trump’s social media content that could potentially incite violence.
Trump tweeted, “When the shooting begins, the looting begins” in response to African American Floyd George’s death at the hands of police officers.
According to reports, an officer put his knee in George’s neck, and when George insisted he couldn’t breathe, the officer, who was later arrested, persisted in cutting off George’s air by continuing to knee him in the neck.
This caused riots all over America that necessitated the National Guard to be brought out in several states.
Mark Zuckerberg’s employees are reportedly outraged by his lack of reaction. He isn’t putting a warning label on Trump’s posts that could potentially incite violence even when asked to by his employees.
One of his reporters tweeted, “Mark is wrong.”
Zuckerberg responded by encouraging employees dissatisfied with his leadership to speak up.
June 4 update of this situation over Zuckerberg’s handling of Floyd George’s death:
Putting his wallet where his mouth is, Zuckerberg vowed to pledge $10 million dollars to fight racial injustice (Source).
In another update to this situation, a committee is being formed at Facebook to deal with inflammatory issues such as this going forward.
Algorithms are Biased
First, social media sites are businesses. They exist to make money.
Therefore, sites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn give more visibility to sponsored content.
Also, SEO matters as well.
For instance, the longer you are on Facebook, the better Facebook’s bounce rate is. This improves the SEO which means they get more search engine visibility.
What keeps you on websites longer? Videos.
Video marketers have an edge over other content creators.
Since it takes users longer to watch a video than to read textual content, Facebook and other social media sites give more visibility to videos.
Next, social media sites don’t show content people want to see. My brother doesn’t see my content, for example, in his Facebook feed.
Update: Content is Controversial
From the updates to this article, you see Facebook’s content is controversial. Since new evidence keeps getting added about the disagreements over the content Facebook shows to display, I feel “Controversial Content” needs its own section.
To summarize, Facebook employees walked out on Zuckerberg since they didn’t like how he handled content. In addition, advertisers pulled their marketing money since they didn’t like how Zuckerberg handled Facebook’s content either.
Now, in August 2020, the Guardian revealed Facebook’s algorithm supports content that refutes the Holocaust.
Update September 2020:
In an August 2020 blog post, InputMag.com declared, “Facebook let Indian political leaders spew hate speech ahead of elections.”
According to LiveMint.com, “These content regulation lapses cast doubts Facebook’s business model.”
Update October 2020
The Guardian reports that Facebook lost an engineer who resigned with a blistering letter condemning Facebook for not standing up to hate. According to the engineer, “Facebook is choosing to be on the wrong side of history.”
Social Media is Addicting
Since it’s addicting, tools are invented to help people spend less time on social media sites.
For example, the iPhone tells people if their screen time is up or down from the week before.
There is also a tool that turns off your browser.
Social Media Sites are Subject to Change
These changes occur without warning.
Facebook, for instance, suspends Fan pages constantly. These often are made up of active communities built by their owners over a long period of time.
Algorithms change as well and these changes can work in your favor or against you.
Last, social media sites fold. Recently, Snapzu, Livinvia, StumbleUpon, and Google+ all folded. Then, you may feel you spent time and energy at those sites for nothing.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Facebook: FAQ
What is the advantage and disadvantage of Facebook?
There are many advantages and disadvantages of Facebook. The main disadvantage seems to be the lack of data privacy and the main advantage seems to be the large user base since three billion people use the site.
What are some advantages of Facebook?
Since three billion people use the site, Facebook is a powerful place to market goods and services and draw attention to causes. Also, keeping up with friends and family is easy with so many people there.
What is the disadvantage of using Facebook?
Users don’t feel their data is protected. Therefore, users have privacy concerns.
What are the advantages of Facebook for students?
Teachers can start Facebook groups and Facebook pages. This way, teachers can post homework and students can help each other by answering questions. I know of a yearbook teacher who promoted the yearbook in a Facebook group.
Wrapping Up: Advantages and Disadvantages of Facebook
In closing, I love using Facebook, and I don’t say that lightly.
I attribute my growth in large part to the support I’ve received from Facebook bloggers.
I recommend you also use Facebook to grow your blog.
In fact, social media analysts observe all these advantages of Facebook enabled the site to thrive during the Coronavirus. It’s true: Facebook actually saw an upswing in user activity.
However, clearly, Facebook is not without its weaknesses. It is not surprising considering the disadvantages of Facebook shared in this post that Facebook is called “the Beleaguered King of Social Media” (Source).
After the strong success of my review of the advantages and disadvantages of Instagram, I felt a review of the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook would be timely.
After reading this post, you know what they are. Please share this post so people interested in using Facebook for any reason know the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook as well.
I look forward to your views in the comments section.
This post offered 16 advantages and 10 disadvantages of Facebook. Do you feel the disadvantages are so strong they outweigh the advantages? Do you know any additional advantages and disadvantages of Facebook?
Janice Wald is the founder of MostlyBlogging.com and co-founder of the Mostly Blogging Academy. She is an ebook author, blogger, blogging coach, blogging judge, freelance writer, and speaker. She won the Best Internet Marketer Award and the Best Blogger Award at the 2021 Infinity Blog Awards. Wald was also nominated as 2019 Best Internet Marketer by the Infinity Blog Awards and in 2017 as the Most Informative Blogger by the London Bloggers Bash. She’s been featured on Small Business Trends, the Huffington Post, and Lifehack.
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