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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