Fix Your Facebook Profile Now
Unless you’ve decided to make Facebook your home entirely, where you want everyone to go and find you, the only place that people can have a meaningful conversation, I recommend you swing by your profile and give it a hard look-see from the perspective of someone who wants to know more about your social media presence. You might discover what I did: that many people have turned Facebook into a cul de sac instead of a expressway.
Make Sure You Have a Picture
Every time I see a ? for your face, I think that you’re probably not there, so I shouldn’t engage you. Take the 30 seconds it might take to find a reasonable picture of you. Oh, and a note: don’t use those weird professional shots if you can help it. Just use something that shows me who you are. Save your pro pic for your official bio.
Make Information The Top
Facebook allows you to shift around various elements of your profile. Make sure your information about you module is as high up as it can be, and make sure that has at least your website URL links, and hopefully also an email address (maybe even a phone number).
If Blogging, Install Blog Friends
Use the Blog Friends application to draw attention to your blog and blogs of your friends (upon inviting other friends to use the app, of course). This draws even more eyes and attention to your media. I hadn’t thought much about this until Steve Rubel dropped me a message in Facebook and said he hadn’t seen my blog before until he discovered it through Facebook.
Make the Wall the Top Comment App
Sure, YOU like the Fun Wall, Super Wall, Monkey Wall whatever. But the minute I try to comment and it says, “install the app yourself,” I cancel out of the thing altogether. I don’t want another Wall. I like the built in one. What that means to YOU is that if other people are doing what I’m doing, you’re missing comments. Why would you want to miss conversations?
Pick Apps that Enrich Your Message
This is how I use it, but not how you have to use it. In my case, I use Blog Friends, Google Reader Shared Items and Flickr to give people a sense of what matters to me. This encourages potential conversations, and gives them a sense of what interests you. Your choice of groups also does this, should you belong to any groups. (By the way, I’ve learned that leaving groups often prompts messages by people who see it in their news feed. So, if you quit your friend’s group, be ready for the email.)
Why This Matters
Facebook is a channel to build conversations, enhance relationships, and connect with people and their interests. It’s a rich exchange (or can be) of likes and interests that promotes further conversations. But if you’re looking to engage people in ways OTHER than on Facebook, you have to make sure people know how to reach out to you. If you’re promoting your other activities, make sure people can find them. It doesn’t take a LOT of effort to think about this, but you should give it as much time as you want people to take you seriously.
What about you? How are you using your profile? What would your Facebook profile tell me about you?
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photo credit RoadSide Pictures
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Comments
Chris, under your Privacy settings, you can turn off certain news feed items — including Leave Group. That way you can tiptoe out quietly. :)
[…] Brogan has some good basic tips for auditing and tweaking your own profile in Fix Your Facebook Profile Now. Filed under Social Media by […]
Thanks for a little guidance on this. I see so many people just sort of wondering aimlessly around Facebook…
Ha! Facebook suspended me for not using my real name. The only reason they noticed was because I asked a question in their help section.
I should tell them my real name is Chris Brogan. :)
Great points Chris! Thanks for pointing out that I should update my profile, now if I can get Facebook convinced to take my changes! grrr I tried to update last night & it wouldn’t. Scoble pointed out that their interface isn’t intuitive.
Here are some great tips that I plan to blog with screenshots on to do it for my readers at http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/wordpress/
Jason Preston started with his ideas & I added some specifics.
http://webcommunityforum.com/2007/09/collapsing-and-re-organizing-your-facebook-profile/
Wow! That Connie Bensen. She’s got some great stuff to share. She launched her own blog by the way recently at ConnieBensen.com. Swing by and see it.
Thanks for the tip, Connie Reece. You’ve just doome about 20 groups. : )
And I’m curious how you use YOUR profiles. What are you doing on Facebook? Besides Scrabulous.
Chris, I have added the Profile Web Address app, which adds my name to the URL rather than an ID number. Now you can link directly to my Facebook profile at http://profile.to/conniereece
I’ve also added the My Card app, which lets me create a business card and attach it to messages I send inside Facebook.
I use the drop-and-drag feature to rearrange my Profile layout so that the most important items I want people to see are “above the fold” (in print terms).
I update my status several times a day, and I subscribe to the RSS feed for all my friends’ status updates. That allows me to keep up with them and sometimes prompts me to pay a visit to their FB site and comment.
And now — shameless self-promotion here — for more information you’ll have to attend my “Making Connections” session at BlogOrlando. (http://blogorlando.com/sessions/index.php#reece)
After the conference I’ll send you a link with my session PDF so you can share with your readers.
The one thing I wish Facebook would fix is the way these “applications” get spread. I don’t want fun wall or superwall or any other kind of wall other than the one that comes by default and, yet, I am CONSTANTLY pestered by my friends (who probably don’t know that this is happening, or how to prevent it) trying to enrol me in the apps.
Facebook: Please please please keep it SIMPLE and elegant - it’s what brought millions of people to you.
Mark, I agree about the annoyance of the way FB apps are spread. One thing I do whenever adding any app and the list of all my friends pops up — I immediately click on Select None so that I don’t accidentally spam all my friends. Sometimes it’s easy to continue adding the app without inviting any friends; sometimes not. I think it has to do with the way the developer, not FB, sets up the app.
Thanks for the second mention of Blog Friends, Chris - glad you’re still enjoying our app ;)
In case anyone reading this is having problems installing Blog Friends and/or changing settings, it’s due to facebook: they broke “fake AJAX” last night during a routine update. :oS
We’re trying some work-arounds, but hope they’ll fix it soon; in the meantime, feel free to check the Blog Friends facebook forum for developments.
Jof Arnold (Blog Friends)
I’m always adjusting my profile - I do think I have too much on it and need to condense. @conniereece - tnx for the hints. I’m going to add those today (while editing others…)
Either I’m becoming much more aware of maximizing the different SNs or you’re reading my mind! Worked on the Facebook profile well ahead of the others.
ALOHA.
NEENZ.
[…] Fix Your Facebook Profile Now : [chrisbrogan.com] Some good basic tips on how make sure your Facebook profile is presenting and networking you well. (tags: facebook profile socialmedia socialnetworks) […]
Excellent points you make, Chris. Halleluiah!! If someone’s profile page takes too long to load due to a ton of frivolous apps with images etc… I’m afraid I have to *next* them.
I liked your point about the more natural profile pic too… mine is the prof headshot… I’m off to dig up something different. ;)
To give people a better sense of my interests/focus, I’ve joined a ton of different groups - they’re more like some kind of identity badge than places with tons of interaction. (For more on this, see the group “Psychology of Facebook with Dr. BJ Fogg”).
I also like to strategically pick books for the Books iRead app to show my interests… and, for the most part, my Status updates are strategic too.
Cheers,
Mari
(feel free to friend me: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=566610867)
Chris , I think Face book Bio Pages need an index !
I Am Ok with Corrections , and find my Bio page is overloaded [ My Fault] ! The bio could be set up like a blog roll each app having a link to it,s page ! Most of their apps I find useless but then I am 71 years old and can critsize with Gusto ! Words without order become Semantic Jazz !
[…] , removing all those terrible drunken party pictures ( or not ) and take Chris Brogans advice on Fix your Facebook now. Did I take the Advice, well kinda but trust me I will , honestly I am going to update it real soon […]
Great post and interesting comments. I’m really trying to make my profile on Facebook a more positive and productive place, so this info helps.
I spent yesterday clearing out all those really stupid apps that people forward me, but I recognise the need to add some useful ones as outlined here.
Look me up on Facebook to see how I’m progressing!
Blog Friends is closing
Dear Blog Friend, We’re very sorry to announce that Blog Friends is to close down.
Thank you for this. I appreciate it very much. I went through and tweaked my Facebook page and am much happier with it. More and more, I want to ditch MySpace…
I saw a couple of guys debating on cable news yesterday about Facebook opening up their profiles to Google search. One was all up in arms about it and it struck me as terribly odd to be on a social network and not want to be social - LOL
Thanks for the great tips - hope you have a wonderful day!