We Hope He Sees The Link Between His “Tips” And The Consequences

I was managing a client’s professional Facebook page. The owner encouraged me to post something myself, so I posted a link to a related YouTube video that his followers might find interesting. 

I swiftly got a message from the owner who just “wanted to give me a few tips”. After giving me some of the worst branding advice I have ever heard, he shared this little nugget.

Client: “Never give an external link to YouTube or Vimeo or anything like that unless it’s one or two hours long or very good content. If people leave the page to see the video on YouTube, they are surely not coming back to comment on it. If it’s two or three minutes, just upload it to the page!”

I asked him to clarify, just to make sure he was really saying what I thought he was saying.

Yes, he wanted me to illegally repost other people’s work. When I told him this was illegal, he vehemently argued with me until he removed my admin permissions.

I was not sad to see that page go, but I did track down the original creators of the videos in the page’s history and send them some emails about stolen content.