Are you commenting on Facebook to be helpful

I saw this conversation on Facebook the other day, and it totally irked the shit out of me. So I decided why not write a post about it and get the air cleared.

Let me start by saying that I realized some of the comments were made by people who know the poster pretty well but that does not excuse the lack of sensitivity.

Anyway back to my story. As I was checking my personal profile, I saw a post from a connection that said: “help my site has been hacked.” There were over 20 comments on a post that was all of 2 minutes old.

Being nebby, I look at what others had to say.

Warning: This is where I start my rant.

Here are the comments (not verbatim) that totally drove me nuts:

WordPress is not safe to use, you need to switch to Joomla.
WordPress is not safe if you don’t have it set up correctly. Joomla is harder for people to use especially if they are comfortable having learned WordPress.

Is your username Admin?
What the hell does that matter? The account has already been hacked, and that comment only makes them feel like more of a dumbass. Picking a strong username is essential but didn’t help at this point.

You are using a bad host, let me move you to my server.
Great idea, the site is down, so let’s add some more complication by moving an infected site to a new host.

You know I offer WP maintenance plans.
This one took the cake. Obviously, if they knew, then they wouldn’t be in this situation and asking for help. Maybe instead of the sell, you could offer advice and then discuss keeping it safe.

Yes, I noticed that when I visited last week.
Some friend you are. A quick private message could have helped them get this sorted out. I am sure they would have appreciated the heads up instead of the salt in the wound.

The person was asking for help. They were not asking for your opinions on WordPress or a sales pitch.

Being an oversharer (sorry coach), I added this to the conversation.

“One thing you could do is contact your host to see if they have a backup and how old it is. Since you are not sure when the infection occurred I don’t know how helpful that will be.”

“Next, I would contact a company like Sucuri, who can isolate the problem and have you back up and running in no time. There is a small fee for their service but worth the expense. I deal with them regularly, so if you need help give a shout.”

“Option 2 will get you back up and running in the quickest time possible.”

It didn’t stop there. After a few days, I sent a private message to the person asking how things were going and a link to a tip sheet that I have for keeping your website safe. I also offered to take a look at what they had in place to see what other improvements could be made.

For those who had a service to offer and could have been of help, made a terrible impression in my book. Because what I saw, and others to was a need to gain a client and sell as the top priority.

Maybe I gave away some of my secrets, so what. Gone are the days of selling, being replaced by relationship building.

The bottom line is when someone asks for help, just give it.

Has this ever happened to you before, feel free to rant below. Don’t forget to connect with me on Facebook where I share loads of tips and tricks for the tech end of your business.