What I use Facebook for

 

My adventure in the blogosphere has brought me to the exciting world of social networking. I gave in to the building peer group pressure and joined Facebook back in August. Now I get updates every time friends change their status, for example, when a friend joins “The Cadbury’s Wispa Appreciation Society”. Status updates could be considered a form of “microblogging” in themself. Clearly this is thrilling and exciting, and a fun way to keep in touch with friends, but how useful is it when it comes to networking online?

What do you want to get out it?

I originally joined Facebook for purely social reasons. It’s great to keep up with your friends and rediscover old friends, a bit like Friends Reunited, only cheaper and more interactive. You can opt to be a member of a network and connect with people in your region, college or place of work, and I liked the fact that it was an online way of connecting to people who you’re likely to meet offline. It’s helped me to get back in touch with old friends and keep in contact with those who no longer live close by.

I also use Facebook as a bit of shameless self-promotion for this blog. I do this in two ways - firstly I have the WordPress application on my profile, so that my friends can catch up with my adventures in the blogosphere if they so wish. Secondly, I have joined groups whose topics are in a similar niche to the blog (ie green issues, vegetarianism and personal development), and comment on the forums, signing off with a signature of my url.

Groups

As I mentioned, the Group discussion areas are a good place to promote your blog, provided that the content is relevent to the Group interest. You need to watch it though, there’s a fine line between adding to a discussion and spamming forums. Are you actually adding to the conversation? Never, ever put up those url only “advert” type comments, or post your blog URL more than once in the same thread. This should go without saying…but hey, I’ve said it anyway.

It sounds obvious but is worth repeating that Groups are an area where you can get to know people in a similar niche, whether as potential readers or bloggers or both. People will link to your site more readily if you have built up a reputation of someone who has something worth saying and gives useful information, and this is another arena in which to do this.

Applications - a double edged sword.

Perhaps the unique selling point of Facebook is its applications. The real power of the applications is that most of them have been developed by Facebook users, (both out of interest and as a viral marketing tool for other stuff). In August, there were about two thousand apps, at time of writing there are upwards of 9000.

Many of the applications are simply links to the relevent web site (such as 30 boxes calendar), but then use the Facebook profile as a lauch pad. Delicious will list the 5 most recent saved links on your profile. Watch out though, some applications linking to external sites rely on you to update them (like the WordPress app).  Some also require a third party sign-up, so watch out for this. Still others provide a function but carry advertising. 

The Downside of Social Networking

However, I’m not alone in getting fed up of some of the more irritating peer pressure chain letter/funwall/be a vampire type apps (there are several Facebook Groups complaining of the same thing). I get this stuff on email all the time, why do I want it on Facebook? There are many time wasting apps out there, and others that you load up and get fed up with after a couple of months. I recommend having a monthy apps clearout, clearing the virtual clutter from my Facebook profile. Your profile is like your desktop at work - do you have a couple of photos or thingies from home to show your personality, or is the desk invisible under a mountain of clutter? There are stacks of Pro/Con articles over at WebWorkerDaily for various takes on this.

Friend or Foe?

What do you do when someone adds you as a friend and you really don’t want them seeing your profile? Do you add them anyway, or allow them only to access a limited profile? Do you ignore the request? Do you email them explaining your reasons for not accepting their request? What about when you’ve added someone else and they don’t want to be your friend? I’m a bit wary about accepting people I know as friends. Bar a couple of long term blog friends (ie 2 years plus) all my contacts are people I actually know. Am I limiting the networking potential of my Facebook usage or just being careful about who sees my personal information. A whole new minefield of social etiquette is born.

Don’t waste my time

Facebook and social networking in general have many good points, but they have the black hole timewaster lure hanging over them like the sword of Damocles. I do go through phases when I can spend two or three hours on the thing doing nothing in particular, and other days when I update my status and log off again.

How about you? Do you love or hate facebook? What do you use it for? Have I left something important out of this article? Please feel free to comment!