Facebook is insanely huge now. It’s the no. 1 website visited on the web according to Google Ad Planner.

Facebook Demographics

Facebook Traffic Stats

• 590 Million Uniques a month.
• 38% Reach World Wide
• 760 Billion page Views a Month
• Over 64% are on income over £25K a year, with 57% earning over £30K a year

We also know that Facebook is making a massive move into the SERPs with a number of different initiatives, and with the sites sheer strength, they will become stronger.  We also know they are adding new functionality often.

There are many ways to have a presence on Facebook for Businesses, with Facebook Pages being the most widely used one, especially since you can get a bunch of Insights using the Facebooks inbuilt Page Analytics Platform.

However, it isn’t necessary to have a Facebook page for website owners to understand insights – there is a little talked about functionality that allows you to gain an insight platform for your own websites, without the need of setting up a page on Facebook. This should take under 5 minutes to set up!

Facebook Insights for Domains offers a consolidated view of key metrics for any website, even those that have not implemented Facebook Platform. For example, if a user linka to your site in their Facebook status message, that data is included in the analytics for your domain. You can access sharing metrics and demographic information per domain and per URL so you can optimize your content for sharing and better tailor your content to your audience.

If I need to explain WHY you should claim your domain, you are doing it wrong and shouldn’t work in online marketing. Sorry.

How to Claim your Domain on Facebook

First off – you need to hit this Insights link.

Insights Landing Page

As you can see, there is a simple button to add your domain – hit that

Now you get the option to add your domain and link it to any account or pages that you want to – insert your domain and link it (I normally would add it to my own personal account if it was my blog). If you are running a Facebook Page you can add that to the “link with” so that data is more accessible.

Insights - Adding a Meta Tag To Your Site

On the same overlay / pop up, there should be a meta instruction in order to verify your ownership – you need to place this in your sites header area. Once you have done that – click on check domain.

At this stage, sometimes facebook hangs – don’t worry – it is done – just refresh the page, and you should be able to see your domain – click on the “View Insights”.  In most cases you can historically go back and see your domains usage data on Facebook through this Insights Dashboard. Now you should be able to go far back and see a bunch of interesting data.

Facebook Your Site / Domain Sharing Summary

Insights Dashboard

Facebook: Most Liked and Shared Pages From Your Site

Insights Dashboard - Most Liked Pages

Facebook – Your Domain Demographics

Insights Dashboard - Demographics

Page Specific Data

The awesomeness of insights also lets you query page level data:

Insights - Get Page Specific Data

And that’s it – go forth and claim your websites and your social data!

Over last week, unknown to him, my best friend had a copycat profile set up. We were discussing ways of getting his own properties such as linked in etc appear for his name in the top 20 pages in google SERPs, and I asked him to do some research before we went ahead.  Couple of hours later, he calls me and  tells me someone has gone to the trouble of cloning his whole profile, and has been adding his current friends to that fake profile.

Now if I got a friend request from someone I already know is a friend on facebook, I wouldn’t approve them immediately, I would check the profile. Saying that, it’s not always easy to spot copycats that have done a decent job, and when you get a friend request, normally not a lot of detail is available. So it may pay to check and double check who is pretending to be your friend, especially if a “current friend” re-invites you to be a friend!

Why would someone clone my profile?

Many many reasons.

Spammer – there are a whole host of spammers on facebook now, who create loads f fake profiles and start spamming peoples walls. Some of these are quite sophisticated, after all if someone is your “friend” wouldn’t spam you, right? Right?

Malicious Social Hijacking – this is much much worse. Ex Girlfriends / Boyfriends, or simply someone who doesn’t like you. If this type of a personality creates a copy of your profile successfully, there is no limit to the damage that they can create on your personal life. AND your professional life as well. After all, your real friends think they are talking to you – all the while potentially revealing things they wouldn’t to a stranger.

What can I do about a Facebook Copycat profile?

1.       Report it! There is a report button on facebook, which allows you to identify if the person is impersonating someone, as well as the ability to indicate who the person being impersonated is. I suggest you do that, as well as BLOCKing the profile. More Info on Facebook Rerporting (and link to the Facebook Quick Tips in the Help Centre).

FaceBook Report Button

2.       Tell your friends. One report may not be enough to activate Facebooks spam team – but a few dozen may be. I advised my friend to email everyone he is friends with and explain the situation, and encourage more people to report the fake profile.

Hijacked Facebook Profile

PRO TIP: Dont Display your email addresses.

Although facebook asks you to verify your email address, it doesnt stop the account from being used. (Arrington proved this).  This would reduce the possibility of your account being easier to create and share as demonstrated by Arrington – however wont stop someone who already has your email details.

Will Facebook Take The Fake Profile Down?

Most probably. How long the rocess will take is uncertain, but if many people report it, they will action. Will update this page when that happens.

Facebook said in a statement: “Facebook does not permit fake profiles on its site. Fake profiles are an abuse of our terms of use and they will be removed.

“When fake profiles are reported we thoroughly investigate and remove profiles found to be in violations of our terms of use – just as we did in the case of Mathew Firscht.”  Source

If you feel that you would want to take things a bit further, you can report the copy to the police, especially if you suspect severe malice.

More Reading

• Forbes Blogger Gets Impersonated
• The Law on Impersonating Someone on Facebook
• Facebook Copyright Policy