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I’ve always been skeptical about using Facebook for social media, in fact I’ve had some heated debates with people who suggest that it’s “better than twitter” – but I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve just been taking a close-minded approach to it and if there is in fact some value to be had. I’ve noticed more and more people using it recently, so I’ve decided to give it a go.
How it Started
Gary Vaynerchuk has always been a big advocate of using Facebook to connect with people, and it certainly works for him – he has over 300,000 “fans”. Recently though I’ve noticed people closer to our specific industry using it too. Aaroni for example has a facebook page which he uses in much the same way as a Twitter account, but with added features for discussions, etc.
Personally I’ve had a Facebook profile for years (as most people have), but I don’t use it to connect with web designers or people with similar interests to me. I use it to keep in touch with friends and family who I grew up with / went to school with. These people couldn’t care less if I were to start posting about CSS3 and HTML5, in fact on the few occasions that I have done this it’s genuinely annoyed them. The reason that I’m friends with these people isn’t cause we share a common interest/passion, but rather that we share a common history/family.
From talking to many of you on Twitter, you seem to be saying the same things:
HughCollier @JohnONolan No. I use Facebook for friends and stuff outside of work. Everyone of my Facebook friends are people I’ve met in real life.
g33kguy @JohnONolan No, sure don’t. Facebook is more personal for me. I use Twitter almost exclusively to connect with other designers out there.
therosco @JohnONolan Not so far, just use it to chat and share stuff with real-life friends… one is a web designer if that counts
jmlares @JohnONolan @g33kguy @iktomi @savagemic @jmlares @HughCollier I just don’t think it’s the place to do it, FB is more on the personal level
But Are We Missing Something?
People who are having success with Facebook (for the most part) don’t use Facebook profiles they use Facebook pages. They’re setting themselves up as public figures, brands, or businesses, and using Facebook in this way to connect with new people rather than people who they already know.
Something else to consider is that perhaps we (the group of people discussing this on Twitter last night) are overlooking that we don’t use Facebook to talk to other web designers because we use Twitter. But not everyone uses Twitter.
There’s also something to be said for this whole discussion being industry specific. For example, web designers are far more likely to be tech-heads and be using all the latest and greatest social networks, whereas dog owners may not be in the slightest interested in anything but one service.
Giving it a Try
All of this got me thinking that maybe there are a load of people on Facebook who don’t use Twitter, and who are interested (to whatever degree) in web design, freelancing, and business. It would be foolish to simply assume that everyone worth connecting with in the web design business is on Twitter, so with that in mind I’m going to give it a try and see if I can connect with some new people.
I’m still keeping my Facebook profile seperate and private for friends and family only, but I’ve now set up a Facebook page (which let me tell you, is almost more painful that trying to make a MySpace page look good). I’ll be using this page to pull in all my latest blog posts, tweets, and other updates to try and spread my content to a wider network. I guess we’ll see how it goes!
My one annoyance with Facebook pages is that you have to become a “fan” of a page… I don’t want any fans, I’m not famous, and I my ego isn’t sufficiently big yet that I think I’m worthy of people worshipping me in the way actual fans worship musicians. It would’ve been nice if Facebook had used more social language, like “followers” for example.
What do You Think?
Is this something that you think is worthwhile? Do you think we’ll be seeing more Facebook usage in the future? If you’re on Facebook and you’re interested in talking to me on there, go ahead and check out my page!
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Yo John! I have my Facebook profile linked to from my personal site, so it sees plenty of action from people hitting up http://iamashley.co.uk. That said, it’s simply my normal profile page. The reason? I can’t possibly bring myself to suggest people ‘become a fan’ of myself – who the fuck am I? What I do to ‘manage’ my genuine friends, however, from those I’ve met/made through the internet, is to have a list of internet friends that are restricted from seeing a lot of my personal photos and content. It’s worked out quite well, yet they can still interact with me as I can them. And I do.
I think social media works in some respects. With a highly influential figure like Gary Vaynerchuk, I can see why a lot of people ‘become a fan’ (I have). I’m interested in his life (in a non-stalker/creepy way), and it’s an easy way for him to keep everyone updated, especially as of late with his book launch. It also goes a step further than Twitter disposing of any character limit, and congregating all responses to whatever he posts under one place. But there are people like myself and web designers who I don’t consider ‘figures’, therefore I doubt I’d become a fan of. But looky, you already have some fans, so keep us posted on how it pans out for you. Good luck!
Yeah that’s kind of my feeling on the matter too – but then where do you draw the line? How many friends do I have before I should have a page instead? and then there’s the hassle of not being able to convert a profile to a page at a later date if you ever need to… it’s a bit of nightmare. I totally know where you’re coming from though – I have the exact same concerns.
I agree with what she has to say but the lists don’t always work and I like what you did John. I try to market my business more so then myself so we are a little different. But I don’t add any of my clients on facebook. Facebook = My personal social media place.
I don’t use facebook because quite simply it’s a horrible site; too much javascript nonsense, too much clutter, too many quizzes and no clear path to many things. For me it’s ended up like myspace though without the users being able to ruin their own pages.
I check back now and again when friends message me or I get invited to events, but I try my hardest to avoid it.
Nice Read John,
The main reason I use facebook, is to have more than one option for social interaction and promotion. If we rely to heavily on one platform… we will be knee deep in trouble if it becomes irrelevant…
thanks for the mention
~ Aaron I
Thanks for commenting Aaron, what’s your opinion on auto-importing status updates from Twitter to Facebook? Duplicate content? or valuable because they’re reaching a different audience?
On the TIAL fan page I upload some of the videos and blog posts from TIAL, but I also try to put out a lot of content that is unique to the Facebook page, so that those who have become fans, and take the time to visit the page… get something more than just regurgitated content.
I think “meh…”. I recently added another Facebook account, so I now have 2. 1 for personal use to keep in touch with friends/family, one to connect with clients/other web designers. I must say: it’s a pain in the ass managing 2 accounts, although some of my clients check their Facebook more than their email.
It didn’t bring me new clients, and I’m not connecting with people who I wouldn’t have connected with in other ways, so.. I’m very undecided..
Benefit of using a “page” is that it’s still tied to the same account, no new login or anything – pretty easy to manage
Hmm, I’m very undecided about Facebook. On a personal level, I pretty much hate the place. I have zero time for the quizzes and games that are rife on there but there are a good deal of friends that I’d never see if it wasn’t for Facebook organised re-unions and get-togethers.
On a business/promotional front I can totally see how Facebook could be a VERY powerful marketing tool, but like Ashley said I’d feel like a twat requesting people become a fan of me. Especially as the only person I’m currently a fan of is Hunter S Thompson. I do like the idea of restricting what different people can see on my profile though (to be honest this is something I should already be doing with my current friend list)
Right now I’m halfway through designing a blog (about web/graphic design and photography) which I’ll soon need to be promoting. I think I’d be more comfortable asking someone to become a fan of my blog (which’ll hopefully have contributions from other people besides myself) than I would asking someone just be a fan of me, so once the blog is up I may well create a Facebook page then and see how that goes.
Interesting post though, and thanks for the mention man. :)
I created a Facebook page for my business when I started freelancing ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Satellite/73140776790 ). It sat much better with me for people to become a fan of my freelancing than of me as a person.
Limited profiles don’t work for me personally in this case either, because they don’t limit who sees what I post. Part of the issue for me with my Facebook profile, is as John said, my family don’t care about hearing of an awesome sale on SitePoint books or whatever. Limited profiles doesn’t fix that stuff.
I’ve been toying with the idea of having a Facebook page for a while. I tried it when I first started freelancing a year ago, but back then the feature was underdeveloped and wasn’t really of much use, plus I didn’t have the know-how or integrity to stick with a page and market it – now I do have those.
With the upcoming update of my new website, I’m going to be creating a new Facebook page and use it for business use.
very interesting, ive found facebook alot less useful than twitter. Facebook tends to be for people you have known or already know irl, twitter on the other hand tends to be for people who you will or want to know. Ive also found twitter to drive more traffic and more people are willing to share your stuff alot more than facebook.
I guess setting up a fanpage/group on facebook can have its uses, mainly for seo purposes or just for the fact that nearly everyone has an account there thesedays.
I wondered how you got the twitter tab and the about tab! i’ve tried setting up a fan page and cant seem to do that at all. your fan page makes me want to get it going more.
actually you could probably just edit that to the about/contact page. I figured out the twitter part.
something worth noting – you mention the idea of networking with other web designers. but something you might want to gear your facebook page towards is networking with normal people who might need your services. i dont think people will want to use facebook to have in-depth discussions like they would on blogs/forums because everytime you comment somewhere it notifies your friends on their feeds.
the page is just an extension of a banner ad, in my opinion.
Thanks for the input mr tunes, but you seem to be misunderstanding something… I’m not trying to “market myself to a potential audience” who “might need my services” I’m not interested in any of that. I just want to meet people who are interested in reading what I write about. If I wanted to meet people who wanted to hire me as a web designer, then I’d make a facebook page for my company, not myself.