What Facebook Fan Pages Taught Me About Relationships

January 4, 2009 · Comments

Facebook Fan Pages It seems that I’m nearing the arbitrary 5000 people limit on Facebook. People like Jeff Pulver and Robert Scoble and Loic Le Meur and others are in the same boat. To fix this, one has to launch a Facebook fan page or just stop adding friends. It really led to a lot of thoughts and some conversations on Twitter (where else?). Here’s what I think.

Facebook Fan Pages and “Friends”

At this point, it’s a bit different for me. I have to accept that from time to time. But it’s a weird feeling. According to Facebook, I can’t possibly know more than 5000 people. (I feel silly writing this. Tons of people have already written this same blog post.) So, the next step is to create a “fan” page.

The fan page acts pretty much the same way as a profile page, except that the owner of said page can actually do a few more things, include mass messaging. So in a weird way, the “punishment” for having so many friends is that Facebook gives me a way to blanket message them. Huh?

The next question this all brings up is “friends.” Ari Herzog was halfway there in comments on Twitter, spawned from an exchange with me and Alexa Scordato, who offered to “unfriend” me so I’d have some room. This was followed by Meg Fowler offering to unfriend, too.

So wait, it goes further. The next action for people with 5000 “friends” is that my real friends all offer to abandon ship, knowing that they can reach me other ways. So what does that tell you about the kinds of friends you capture and maintain on Facebook? At least from this example, it tells me that my friends and I aren’t using it as a real social hub, that we reach each other on other channels (mostly Twitter).

Fan Pages and Facebook Overall

I use Facebook as part of an outpost strategy. This recent experience all started because I was thinking about where I could put notes about fitness and non-chrisbrogan.com material. I thought maybe I’d use Facebook, but then I realized I was already up to 4694 friends. With a cap of 5000 friends, I wouldn’t be able to build a relationship there.

So, I had a quandry. Start a new platform like a Ning site (as Ari Herzog suggested)? No. That’s too much like filling a pond and stocking it while all the fish are jumping and thriving in the big ocean. Start a Tumbler blog for it? Naw, again, just a bit too much work reminding folks to visit. So, I opted for a Fan page.

But what will really come of it? Not entirely sure. Not sure that it’s the right implementation. But I’m trying it out.

If you want to be my (*cough*) fan, or at least connect on Facebook, please go here.

By the way, if you want to read some great blogs about Facebook, there’s Inside Facebook by Justin Smith (suggested to me by Kari Rippertoe), and there’s Why Facebook, by Mari Smith.

What do you make of all this?

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  • I am not on Facebook and therefore do not have any fans; perhaps I am not a good one to comment...
  • Love the part about how your "real" friends offer to sacrifice and unfriend you so you have room, which of course, leads me to reference "faux" friends ... I like to think of you as just having 2 facebook pages ... :)
  • I always looked at Facebook as the place I could socialize without having to market myself, kind of a "private room." After I started tweeting, I realized that even at 200 "friends," my Facebook page was become more of a collection spot, and there were only a handful of people there I really connected with. Consequently, those people and I had started connecting via email or Twitter, which made Facebook even more obsolete.

    I created my fan page to extricate myself somewhat from Facebook, where I found myself wasting lots of time. I like the "Fan Page" feature, because it allows me to utilize the site when I'm not there. Ironically, it's now become a marketing tool.
  • Why not start a group instead of a fan page? I have a fan page (for business) but never really bothered with it. Groups (I think) are unlimited.
  • I started a FB page for BurnBall recently. It's made a lot of sense for me, and is better than using a group.

    It is kind of weird when you use it for yourself though I guess. Especially that you can now email all your 'fans/friends' when you couldn't previously. I guess the difference for you is that you won't get a wall telling you your fan's story's - unlike the way you do from your personal account.
  • Eniac
    Or u could start ur own microbloggin platform on shoutem :-) fan page has one really cool option that u can target people whom u want to send update. If u have some wide audience brand that can be used to analyse different target groups. But on the other side inviting ppl to fan page is a bit boring process
  • Chris, I'm not sure about using Facebook as an outpost for content. Just this hour I've had to signup to a Facebook group just to be kept informed of a real life arts-activism group. But now I've got to remember enter the walled garden to check out the group page from time to time rather than getting the information where I am. Like in my GMail or on Twitter.
    Chris, I no longer use Facebook in any meaningful way. Like you said, I use Twitter and other apps for talking to "real" friends. I get my news through RSS. So what's left is an ok contact book and a pretty good way to organize parties and events.
    There has to be something better out there for the small groups such as your fitness notes and the arts group I mention. A Tumblr crossed with some sort of email distro list. The type of thing Yahoo should/could have turned Yahoo Groups into.
  • Correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall reading some gripey tweets from you about "ignoring all" requests to add friends / apps / groups on Facebook. Are you rethinking that too? Or does this just apply to silly apps and games?

    I've set up fan pages for companies I work for and my only frustration is that while fan pages are an improvement upon "groups," there is no real distinction on facebook and a mess of unofficial facebook groups continue to grow. I really wish facebook didn't slough off on the definition of groups / fans. pages.
  • Soultravelers3
    I am still caught by copyblogger's astute twitter comment about how young and cute you look now. ;) I get tickled every ime I see you in my Twitter stream ( not that I didn't before, but the latest avatar is the best!).

    I am still trying to figure out the whole facebook thing. Mari Smith certainly has great information on it. I like Twitter the best because of ease & I like how it also keeps me connected to Facebook. I have actually had blog readers who are Facebook peeps come to twitter just to find me ( because they see my stream there) or vote on a twitter only thing.

    Do you have a group? Some people do a group and a fan page.
  • Eniac
    Group have mass message limitations. If u have more than 5k members mass messages are disabled
  • I recently created a Facebook Page for my websites, too. I found it really interesting that the people to become "fans" of my Facebook Page are not friends of mine from Facebook. The first people to "fan" me, or join the group, are people I've made connections with through my websites. I learned I have "real world" friends and also my "virtual" friends and associates, but there is very little overlap. Weird!
  • Fan pages are underutilized, and phenomenal for building relationships/networks. My suggestion would be to keep your personal Facebook profile for your "friends" (you know, the ones who'll offer to defriend you in order to have you build your network) and use the fan page for what it is meant for-- building large groups of people who like and respect your work/you, communicating with them individually or quickly in a group, and sharing information through regular updates.
  • I'm still tying to find my way on Facebook. The Friends that I have are actually friends, family members, people I do business with and people I network with for business purposes. I know each of them, but for different reasons and in different ways. I doubt I'll ever have 5000 friends on Facebook and I don't think I want 5000 friends. I'm content to be your fan.
  • Chris,
    Just became your fan:) I think the page makes sense if you want to share stuff with the world in a broader scope than that available thru a regular fb profile. Right now it seems to me as if becoming your fan on facebook is sort of like following you on twitter (not sure how different the content you offer on your fb page will be) and very different from me being friends with you on fb. kinda ties into my last blog post on differences between fb and twitter.
  • FB just feels to much like the next AOL to me...enough said.
  • I have come to the enjoyable realization that business and pleasure really do meld, if you're successful. Many, many of my clients become my friends, and I wouldn't have it any other way. So it makes sense that some contacts I've made in social places have eventually become my clients.

    It seems like "social media" is just the modern manifestation of a truism that has existed in past successful business models. Treat people like human beings instead of numbers, and you'll most likely always be successful.

    Oh, and I did think it was amusing that your "punishment" for having more than 5000 friends was that you can now mass message them all. Makes me chuckle.
  • Way to go, Chris!! I'm proud of ya making this Facebook Fan Page for pretty much the same reasons I set mine up too. (SEO + unlimited fans are the two main reasons to have a FB Fan Page.)

    I, too, feel just a tad funny when asking peeps to be my "fan." But, hey - if we get into politics we'd have "Supporters" instead of "Fans!!" hehe :-)

    Thanks a mil for the props too. I heart you!

    Cheers,
    @marismith
  • I'm playing with FB fan pages, too. I have some serious issues, especially in terms of the lack of email notification if someone posts a message or replies to a discussion thread. It takes real effort to keep discussions going because of it.

    Still, I can't argue with the numbers. In just the few days that we've taken FB fan pages seriously, we have a nice (for us) group of new people, many of whom are finding us for the first time. When they see a message in their updates feed that their friend has become a fan of Books on the Nightstand, they want to check it out.

    Like anything, I think the use of FB fan pages depends on your goal. We're looking for more exposure, for more readers, and a relationship with more people. It sounds like you are looking for something a little bit different. But do let us know where you end up!
  • Here's what it taught me. For the better part of two hours one Sunday afternoon, one of the most influential people in social media chronicled his frustrations with one social media application using another.

    This frustration was broadcast to 30,000+ followers, who rather than representing a cross-section of America, critically interested in social media. Your headache was broadcast to 30,000+ opinion leaders and influencers in the world of social media.

    Facebook looks silly and arbitrary, and Twitter delivered the message seamlessly.

    This is exactly the kind of public relations crisis created by Web 2.0, and it's one that the next generation of practitioners has better understand.
  • Matt Cheney
    A fan page populated with lots of fans adds to your authority. It's like saying "Hey, I'm like Angus Young or Peyton Manning. My fans don't necessearily care if I spend time with them individually, but they are interested in what I'm up to. Especially if they don't use RSS or Twitter." And it's good for the ego.
  • I didn't realize that FaceBook had a cap on friends. I feel bad now since I just sent you a friend request today, you accepted but if you need more room I can unfriend you. I did join your fan page and I'm sure that if FaceBook has a cap on the number of fans you'll hit that too.

    I always visit your blog and read your tweets so it's not like I can't find your info. :-)

    On the Ning topic, I think it's a great tool. My site All Realms is built on Ning and it's very easy to use and maintain. My blog is on it so I don't have to go to another site to do my blogs. If you ever need someone to help build out your Ning site just let me know, I'd be more than willing to help.

    Thanks,
    Jay
  • I joined your fan page to participate in your Facebook experiment. I'm curious how good of an outpost this will become.
  • I started my Facebook addiction when I was really depressed. It's a low-key, low-energy way to sortakinda interact with people without it taking a lot of effort. I played games, chatted, hung out, made some friends, interacted with some long-distance friends. It helped.

    In the run-up to the election, and no longer depressed, I began using Facebook to share articles and op-ed pieces as conversation starters. I started connecting with people whose comments and conversations I liked and who had particularly interesting points of view. I began "practice blogging" on my Facebook notes as a way of dipping my toe in before committing myself.

    Now that I've committed myself (yikes!), I am of course posting my latest blog offerings on Facebook, hoping my FB buds will read them (and some are), as well as looking to connect with other bloggers and establish a community of like-minded bloggers.

    Through all of this, the people who are my real friends on Facebook see aspects of me they probably wouldn't otherwise. For example, my friends from church would not necessarily know about my political inclinations without Facebook. Especially because I am an introvert and express myself most comfortably through writing, I enjoy connecting with face-to-face friends on Facebook because, in fact, Facebook is where I've managed to really come out of my shell, oddly enough.

    I don't know whether others have had similar experiences or not, but that's my story and I'm sticking to. Thanks, Chris!
  • Hiya Chris,

    Longtime reader, recent "fan".

    The virtual world is a whole new playing field and in that way, it pretty much redefines everything, including the concept of "friends". I have several friends on Facebook whom I have never met, several who are work acquaintances, some that I was friends with 20 years ago (does friendship have a shelf life?) and several who I was not really friends with 20 years ago, but knew of (and a few I am still not sure I ever knew).

    The ones I correspond with most often now are usually not the ones with whom I had or have the closest personal relationships. Also, it is often hard to determine where you draw that "friendship" line. We've met, but I don't think that means I should send you a friend request on Facebook. However, I did just become a fan, So.... for people like me, a fan page seems like a great choice to reach more people.
  • Hey Chris ... nice to see what you are working on.

    So far I've used FB for only family and fairly close relationships. I have not defined the criteria for 'fairly close relationship' to much. It comes down to me knowing that i've met you in person, interacted with you and that you'd be a person interested in family photos, vacations, random things i've done, etc ... It's also a place that i keep a bit more secure so that what i'm sharing is walled off from the masses.

    What's your take on using the tool like this? Is there a reason to use FB as an outpost and allow the masses to 'connect' with you?

    @MariSmith ( Mari Smith ) ... I'd love your thoughts aslo :)P

    --
    http://twitter.com/franswaa
  • Adam Gershenbaum
    The Facebook fan page is akin to the difference between a www.livejournal.com 'journal' and community. In 1999, LJ was the first time I ever heard the term 'create a community' and it was because they also put a cap on the number of 'friends' you had on your journal account much like facebook does. Once you reached a certain number of friends, the only option was to create a 'community'.

    I'd say that the journal or facebook page is more personal, whereas the community or facebook fan page is for more of an agenda that suits the collective mindset of the people gathering in the community or fan page as whole. Collective thoughts vs personal stream of consciousness.
  • Facebook fan pages definitely require more work and promotion than your profile. You end up putting the onus on your fans to check out the page regularly. The only way to draw their attention to it is to send an update. If you send too many updates, people may remove themselves. But, you do get some interesting insights from the fan page. Groups seem to be easier to check and have notifications about what has changed. They're also more viral in nature with their invite feature. The share feature on a fan page limits sends to 5 or 10 at a time or a simple 'post to profile'. I'm interested to see how you like it.

    I actually use Facebook to connect with real life friends primarily. There are only about half a dozen people on my friends list who I am not actually friends with, but just connected to through online life. I prefer to use Twitter as my main networking tool.
  • Facebook, much like any other platform is going to be what you make of it. I appreciate that Facebook allows me to have a personal profile and a fan page for my business that I can keep separate from my personal stuff and where I can post items more directly to my business. The Fans of my business page are likely more interested in what I post there about social media than my personal peeps.

    I also like that fans can join my business page without having to seek my "confirm" first. I'm still a bit selective about who I'll add as a friend and prefer to have some kind of connection with a "friend" other than they just found my profile through someone else.

    Mari Smith gives great advice on using Facebook for business and has many practical tips that you may not have thought of when considering setting up your fan page. You'd be smart to check out her website for more info.

    Off to check out your new fan page, Chris.

    Kimberly (@jkvirtualoffice)
  • I read your blog, so I get why you're popular and why people would want to associate with you. But they seem to want to do it in droves, so I doubt that my "friending" you on FB will offer me any better a relationship than I already have with you by reading your posts or following you on Twitter. And with thousands of "friends" or "fans" - can you really hear what I'm saying, or am I just shouting into a canyon? I guess I'll just continue to mine what nuggets of wisdom I find on your blog and Twitter and pretend the rest of the conversation is just the wind in my ears.
  • @Robyn McIntyre - I just want to say that Chris Brogan is a great guy and I believe he has every intention of connecting with people who follow his work. I had the privilege of meeting him in Vegas in September. After meeting he remembered my name the next few times we bumped into each other. A week or so later, I asked for his help/advice on something; he was on the phone to me within just a few minutes of my emailing him. If he misses things here and there, that's only natural. But his intention is definitely to hear you and connect with you.
  • the bottom line is both social media users as well as social media platforms are winging it. in other words, we are figuring out how platforms are being used and platforms are figuring out how their users use them. obviously the 5,000 limit is an arbitrary one, borne out of one or more minds with a certain filter on the world, or with a certain view of how facebook is being used.

    the beauty of social medial and platforms is that we are learning as we go and in turn are rewriting the rules.

    facebook et al need to listen, learn and adapt if they want to survive. ok, the latter comment is a tad hyperbolic, but still, listen and learn.
  • This is hilariously meta! What a great post; it's quite true that the number of social media channels (and I include the telephone in there) has led to a certain stratification in relationships. Instead of "That's Viggo, he's my golfing buddy but otherwise we have nothing to say to one another. That's Sue, we were married for five years and I was best man at her wedding to Alice," we have "George is just a Facebook Friend, I RT Clarice all the time," and people know exactly what that means.
  • I just built a fan page...

    I need fans though!

    I have a lot of facebook friends but no fans!

    I guess I need to deliver a little more value first and help people out in their businesses personally.

    Thanks for the post Chris!
    I'm loving your blog!


    David King
  • I like the implementation of the fan page. I think it allows for a different presentation as well as organization of information than a profile page. Just like a blog and twitter aren't used the same way. I will enjoy seeing how it progresses.
  • Napril1023
    FB for me is nothing more than email/Flickr/IM all in one - a way to keep in touch with people I actually know. Fan pages are great. Check out Nicholas Kristof (NYT) fan page http://www.facebook.com/kristof. It's an example of more good you can do.

    Thanks,
    Nichole
  • This is an issues I have never had an easy answer for with a couple clients. One thing to realize up front is the update feature from a page is not at all the same as a normal message. It goes to a different page and is much more easily ignored. Groups and events however do allow more direct mass messaging. This along with other issues is why I suggest any brand put up a brand focused page and a subject matter focused group. Both offer different advantages and disadvantages. However, it gets to be a little more work than you are probably looking for.

    You might think about rolling out a social network integrated into your blog. Buddypress (by Wordpress) offers interesting options and would let you centralize everything around the blog.
  • I guess you just have to create a fan page. Not much else you can do.
  • Chris, your post raises an interesting point about the evolution of social networks in general. I wonder if their popularity becomes their undoing in many ways. They each seem to evolve in a few phases:

    - connection between friends
    - linking/popularity growth of some people and/or heavy users
    - recognition of the marketing possiblities of the medium
    - fast growth of mega-users
    - a fundamental change in the way the social media platform gets used (Facebook fan pages and limits, TweetDeck for heavy filtering of tweets, etc)

    I see a fair few people with more than 10,000 twitter followers, and it's similar to having 5000 friends on Facebook, you have made a fundamental shift in the way the medium is being used as you can't possibly keep up with that number of people without significant filtering.

    As soon as that happens, the relationship has shifted, and it becomes *mostly* a one-way medium, not a two-way medium in the same way that more than 5000 people aren't really "friends", they are "fans". It isn't bad or good, it's just a natural evolution of each medium.
  • Bonnie Kirk
    A family member invited me to join Facebook, but I didn't until I began investigating "social media marketing" to reach a very specific niche for a new project, and to relaunch another. I may use Ning for both projects, to create group members can exchange messages that aren't easily picked up by search engines and spammers or offensive people can be blocked without constant moderation.

    So far my Facebook "friends" are family members, neighbors, friends from previous jobs, members of churches I attended in other states, and a couple of high school classmates I haven't seen since graduation. It's cutting down on emails from people who want to stay in touch but didn't have much to say, so they forwarded something stupid they received from someone else. One look at Facebook tells them I saw today's basketball game between instate rivals. I sent a couple of tweets during the game, plus the final score. My tweets automatically go to Facebook. (My replies to tweets do not.) But I went directly to Facebook to post a question about UK's technical. I knew most of these people were watching the game.

    I plan to use either Facebook groups or pages for my projects. Both have clearly defined audiences, and I think "sneezers" on Facebook and other social networks will connect me with people I could not otherwise reach. (At least not with my current budget.) Based on comments here, I'm not the only one confused about the difference between groups and pages. I have joined some of both to see how they work.

    Chris, how about posting a couple of messages on your Facebook wall & ask people to MOVE to your fan page. Then "unfriend" any who aren't family or close friends. Or, shut down your original page, and start a new one limited to family & close friends.

    I spent part of my career out on the cutting edge of technology. I told new hires it was like walking at the edge of the ocean, with waves lapping at your legs, sand shifting under your feet, wind blowing in your face, while you try to juggle pieces of paper. If their eyes didn't glaze over the first week, I knew they didn't get it. I think this describes Web 2.0 right now. There will be shakeouts. Some networks will merge or disappear. Hopefully good ones will survive. In the meantime, we just have to keep adjusting, constantly asking if what we are doing is working, and adapting what's available for specific purposes. Paul Gillin's book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing has helped me learn the ropes.

    Bonnie
  • Bonnie Kirk
    @jakrose - isn't Buddypress just for Wordpress MU users?
  • Well, I don't know. I use Facebook as a social networking place. I think that is how it began, didn't it? I notice more and more that both Twitter and Facebook are being used as extensions of people's businesses, or more specifically places to troll for clients. It seems like the original purpose has been lost to massive collections of "friends" or followers. Honestly, I'm sorry to see it. It seems that everything that begins simple is made complex. Obviously I'm not a business person, but when I realize that someone is following me just to add to their massive numbers (and how do they even find me?!) I usually block them. Except you seemed interesting so I didn't. So, that's just my viewpoint.
  • I only have 1,400 friends on Facebook so I've avoided setting up a fan page because don't something else to tend to ...

    It's making me think about friending policies in different places, the definition of a friend versus a facebook friend or a twitter follower or a linkedin contact.

    It's making me wonder whether or not Fan Page was the right tool or strategy for your goal of having a place to share more personal information information. Why not just a project blog that is linked off your main blog and that you can point to in Tweets?

    It's also making me think that early adopters and those with larger networks have different issues and challenges than those who are just starting or have smaller networks.

    Oh, what I wouldn't do to wipe the slate clean and start over again
  • It's a really strange thing, because I've got "real" friends, and I've got friends that I've met on the web that I don't really know in person yet. I've got friends that I have met, but that I can't call and ask to move the couch. And I do have thousands of connections. It's not bragging. It's not complaining. It just is. That's the number. Thousands.

    So this is like Dunbar's number. He said networks above 150 people are too difficult to manage. 150 was the upper limit. So, do I cull to 150? Do I cycle (which is kind of what I do now), or what?

    I'm just musing out loud because I think this is a potential bellweather for more of us. I'm not unique. I'm just early.
  • I use Facebook to keep up with my real-life friends and contacts; they're almost all on Facebook, and most aren't on any other social network. For me, it's the best platform for that... but that could be because I've had a Facebook account since the fall of 2004 when it first opened for non-Harvard students and convinced a lot of my friends to join!
    At first I wasn't a big, uh, fan of fan pages, but they make more sense now than they used to. The bonus is it will enable your fans to interact with one another, instead of just with you, which is pretty cool.
  • Me and 5,000 of my very closest personal friends went into a bar the other night and...
    Jeeze. I have trouble even wrapping my head around that. I understand social networks, but I think the term friend has gotten pretty stretched in recent years. I might be a real fan of yours (I do follow you via RSS after all), but even if I became your friend on Facebook somehow it would not feel very personal. I think the fan page is the ideal solution. Then you could use your profile page for people who would actually get up at 2:30 in the morning to help you jump your car if you broke down. Those, my friend, are friends.
    ~jon
  • Has anyone tried using the Networked Blogs app (http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/) on either their personal, fan, or group pages - or do you know if it can be integrated with the latter two? This seems like a way to setup essentially a fan page designed for blogs, which you can direct to from your personal account.

    This is the only example I've seen thus far: http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/the_...
  • If you'd like my help moving a couch, I live nearby. What that makes me in your mind I leave for you to determine. OK?

    By the same token, I don't see the point of joining a Chris Brogan fan page, Facebook or elsewhere, for fitness and nutrition advice when I can follow Jason Falls' Twit2Fit Ning community or peruse through the Vegetarian Times.

    I suppose my question all along is along the lines of why you wanted another outpost. For you to discuss topics you don't want to discuss here or elsewhere you currently are, or because there was a request for you to talk about it somewhere else?
  • I met you, read you, and sometimes follow you; friend or fan? I say a fan. You are weclome to friend me, but that would seem to elevate me to some status I don't pretend to have earned.
  • Chris - I think whether friend, fan, supporter, follower, or subscriber, the bottom line is peeps want to hear what you have to SAY. All these social platforms allow us to have a bigger megaphone such that more people can hear our message... and more people can have a bigger sense of community because now I can connect with people who also love and adore you! lol!

    I do feel likes of Facebook has completely changed the true meaning of "friend." A complete stranger - even a downright spammer - could be a Facebook "friend." Which is why I recommend being vigilant about doing Facebook "housekeeping" regularly. Anyone can add themselves as your fan, but you get to say who the friends are. With Facebook at 140 million users, hurtling towards 500 million by 2011, if we can *only* be friends with 5,000 I say pick those peeps wisely.
  • hey chris
    nice post as usual.
    ive got 5000 friends as well and i though that mass messaging from a facebook page only showed up in their "notifications" not their actual facebook email. a bit less direct. mass messaging from a group does act like an email though. i could be wrong on this but i thought that was the difference.
    cheers
    david
  • LewisEvans
    Hi Chris, I don't know you, you don't know me (at least I think I can safely assume that!, but I like the article and you seem to have both fans and friends in abundance. Add another one here!

    I had been thinking of the fan thing on FB, but more and more I am feeling that FB is a little restrictive and the 'friends' are generally random and meaningless. So, unless I have some commercial agenda that I will one day zap them with, it's a bit of a dead end.

    I opted for the ning route (along with my wife, Olga Sheean) to see if we can create a community based around a focus, which people can then network out from. My theory was to present the needle, and then people can explore the haystack if they want to.

    What do you think?
  • Chris,
    I think the problem is that you have essentially become a brand that everyone wants to know. I don't know how many times I've seen you pop up in the "people you may know" box on Facebook. While I feel I know about you from reading your blog, following you on Twitter, and going to the New Marketing Summit, I don't really know you. But, I would be happy to be your fan and have you community with me and share information via a fan page. Personally, I use Facebook for my personal connections. People that I don't mind seeing pictures of my family or that I don't feel like working today. I was taken aback when I got a friend request today from "Middle Ear Thermomater". Not only is it against FB policy to represent a commercial entity as a "friend" I found it annoying and offensive. If I like you, I'll be your fan. But unless we've had a conversation or two, don't call me your friend. You've probably had conversations with many thousands of people but still -- who are your friends? I say, set up a friend page and save the rest of the conversation with us followers on Twitter.
  • I agree with Tamara Gruber... to me, Facebook is for the most part my private life, and I use it to connect with people from my private life. And the reason to have Facebook at all is to share pictures, notes, random musings, and sometimes play games to pass time. I'm almost always unsearchable on Facebook to avoid people from high school or whatever who I never talked to.

    To me, Facebook is a good tool to keep in touch with friends who don't live nearby anymore, or who I want to share my life with but not necessarily want to call up on the phone and talk to them for two hours. If they're interested, they read my note or view my pictures at their leisure. It's also good to coordinate events - to invite friends to a house party, or plan a pick-up soccer game, where friends can invite their friends, but I don't necessarily want to have to become "friends" with their friends.

    I have 50 friends on my Facebook, and follow 50 people on Twitter... only two people overlap between the two services. Twitter is a better medium for information sharing or outpost for content. The fan page on Facebook solves your - and other's - problem with exceeding the limit of friends, and seems like a reasonable solution to me.

    If you're using Facebook in the same way you're using Twitter, then you should rethink how you use Facebook, maybe... JMHO.

    BTW, I subscribe to your blog's RSS, and neither follow you on Twitter nor am a friend to you on Facebook. I find Twitter and blogs more easily coalesce, though, 'cos often the one-liners lead to longer discussions which lead to blog posts... so I'll probably follow you on Twitter eventually. :p
  • @franswaa Great point - thanks for the ping.

    How members choose to utilize Facebook is really a personal decision.

    Many highly successful and visible business people prefer to keep their Facebook account for just close friends and family, while driving the "masses" to their Fan Pages. However, my opinion is that you're missing out on a huge opportunity to position yourself and your business by not building out your network of friends strategically up to the 5,000 mark.

    The primary reasons to utilize your Profile for business are: (a) the News Feed feature - you can create consistent strategic visibility among hand-picked key contacts, and (b) more people than ever are using Facebook as a connection medium and actually check their profile and email - thus you can reach highly influential people you may never have been able to reach before.

    SO - what to do about the real life close friends and family members? Here's my suggestion - set up a Secret Facebook Group and share photos, videos, content that you want to keep private. OR, tweak your privacy settings for certain photos/videos. OR, use another medium like an invite-only Ning group or Yahoo group for friends and family. Facebook Profiles are all-too-powerful to not use them for business purposes.

    Hope this helps!

    @marismith
  • Thank you for the links provided at the end of your post - very helpful!

    I enjoyed using Facebook up until they changed their format. Originally I used my profile as an online business card.

    One of the most powerful Facebook page tools is the Updates - where you can send messages/news to all your fans and even target specific fans if need be.
  • Late to the conversation, but better late than never, right? :)

    It's interesting how Y-gen utilizes Facebook differently. Our networks are already built-in by the time we graduate! Rather than adding new professional people we meet at conferences, for example, we're adding people we meet at frat parties. It's a totally different ballgame, and the relationships that we have with our Facebook friends are therefore very different from the relationships that people who are well into their careers have with their Facebook friends.

    At the age of 20 very few of us are thinking about how Facebook affects our professional visibility or personal brand. Maybe we should be, but the fact remains that most aren't. Moreover, many young people would never consider adding people they haven't met in real life on Facebook, whereas I see older people doing so right and left. For us, it's less of a place to meet new friends as it is to maintain the friendships we already have.

    Some commenters above (and someone @replied a Tweet to me today) suggested that Facebook isn't valuable. Perhaps not in a strictly marketing sense, it's not, but we have to consider the original purpose for which it was created — simply for college students to keep in touch with one another. I don't think your average college student would deny that excels superbly at that.
  • Bonnie Kirk
    Great points, @Teresa Wu. I'm several decades past my 20's, but see how FB excels at maintaining existing friendships. I wanted to stay in touch with someone at almost every place I worked, whether employee or contractor. Email really hasn't worked beyond the first 3 or 4 months after leaving.

    I'm beginning to see my social network as 3 concentric circles. The inner circle is family and friends I stay in touch with often. They want to see my latest photos; I want to see theirs. I have met them, though it may have been virtually while working on projects for extended periods of time.

    Circle 2 is people that I want to engage in 2-way conversations, but less frequently. They could be professional colleagues, high school or college classmates, or former neighbors. (A generation back, these were the people on Christmas card lists that ran in the hundreds - before postage costs and two career households began driving that trend down.)

    Circle 3 is people like Chris, Guy Kawasaki, Darren Rowse, etc. who report on trends, but also set them. I am interested in a lot of things they are doing. Their tweets interest me most of the time.

    Circle 3 is primarily 1-way, with people I haven't met, or met only briefly. But it's not Twitter; I don't catch all of their tweets. It's not their blog; I don't get to read all of their blog posts. What's missing? Probably some interesting guest posts on others' sites. Also, videos of speeches at meetings I have no other reason to attend. (Though if I knew they were coming to my area, I might try.) Right now it's pure chance if I hear of a new speech online, or nearby appearance.

    FB's friends work nicely for circle 1. I think circle 3 might be FB pages like Chris, Darren and Guy have set up - depending on how they use them. Circle 2 is a mishmash of a few FB "friends" who are probably tired as tired of my regular updates as I am of theirs plus some LinkedIn contacts.
  • Interesting read. most of the above comments are true. unfortunatelly i came to late to the post :-(
  • @Bonnie Kirk - I really like your three concentric circles idea. I think you hit the nail on the head. The particulars for me may be different, but the concept is spot on.
    ~jon
  • I use my blogs in which to write my thoughts and opnions.

    I use Twitter and Friendfeed to network.

    I use Flickr to upload photos to share with the world.

    I use Skype and Gtalk to IM with people.

    I've been online that long, that for me the first place I go when I want to contact someone is my email - in my case these days - Gmail.

    So, where does that leave Facebook? It's very much a secondary thing for me.
  • Raul
    For me, Facebook is about keeping up with friends and acquaintances. This ranges from just knowing folks are moving through life (marriages, births, moves, etc.) (more of the circle 2 concept that Bonnie described - I like the analogy!), to coordinating social events with friends ("haven't seen you in a while, want to meet up for Mexican?"), to closely tracking and participating in my best friends comings and goings (photo libraries, comments, etc.) (this would be my circle 1). I agree with a prior entry that it is an excellent way for me to keep up with friends and acquaintances I have developed, pretty much all over the world.

    I have subscribed to groups (products/services I like, fan stuff, etc.) but, except for one (Reading Don Quijote, an online reading group) I actually never click on anything they send me and have them more to communicate to my friends what kinds of things I like (which I guess can still help those businesses). I am not sure I would pursue something in Facebook for my professional purposes. However, that does not mean I do not think others can get good value. I find Twitter better suited to my particular goals at work and LinkedIn for my professional networking/career "management".

    However, if I were to decide there was another objective I could achieve in Facebook (e.g., business, professional, etc.), I think I would create a new profile altogether as I wouldn't want that mixed in with my personal.
  • Bonnie Kirk
    Raul,

    I thought about two Facebook profiles as well. However, the terms of use agreement says: "...you agree not to use the Service or the Site to...register for more than one User account...."

    That was how I hoped to manage my first and second circles, especially since Facebook allows my "friends" to link me to photos through tagging. You never know when a friend or relative might decide to play a prank! And there are probably thousands of college grads who do not want their new employers to see the photos from spring break.

    Bonnie
  • I try not to set up more than one profile on any one service in any case. I do have different email addresses for personal and for business use, and I do maintain different web sites/blogs for different purposes, but I've seen so many folks get so tied up with multiple accounts, and trying to remember what was set up for what, that it often seems too much like hard work to me, and more importantly, not a very productive use of hard work either!
  • Interesting post. I find the whole Facebook page thing a bit awkward for musicians too.
  • I just became your fan #666. ;)
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