As I wrote about last week, I've been spending a lot more time with Facebook this month. I've found that the site is a wonderful way to keep up with and grow your online community. I have met some amazing people such as Kim, Maggie and Cathryn, and have reconnected with some old blogging friends such as Jinal, Sam, Tish and Jack. And I've even connected with some Age of Conversation co-authors for the first time, such as Kofi and Kristin. And of course, I have had several of The Viral Garden's readers connect with me on Facebook, including Brett, Kristen, Anthony, Chris, Sally, Olivier, Cindy, Lisa, Garret (Is this not the best profile pic ever?), and Brenda.But I wanted to especially thank Connie, who has gone out of her way to help me get the most out of Facebook. She also has written a great series on getting the most out of Facebook, and how to use Twitter as a networking tool. Connie kicks ass, that's all there is to it.
So yes, as my sis Ann says, I have drank 'the FB kool-aid'. I have to apologize to Scoble for wondering why he was constantly yammering on about 'The Book' a few months ago, now I get it. The thing that I love about Facebook is that the value you get from the site is directly proportional to what you give. IOW, you need to be a good friend and community member in order to make Facebook worth your while. On a personal level, it's a great way to keep up with your existing friends, and to make new ones. But if you want to use it for networking, you can participate in the thousands upon thousands of groups that are organized around every subject under the sun. Ironically, I 'met' Connie after I answered a questions she had asked in a group, and she read my answer and friended me. I contributed something to the community, and got a new friend. That's the way it should be.
BTW Charlene Li has an interesting post on her experiment using Facebook Flyers. Shel follows up with his own version.
And if we haven't connected already, please click here to add me as a friend on Facebook.
Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing
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6 comments:
Hey Mack,
You are more than welcome, Mack! It was MY pleasure meeting you. Facebook is a great way to meet interesting people like you!
And you're right, you get out of it what you put into it. If you choose to be a friend, then you will have friends. Isn't that life though?
Anyone can feel free to friend me - just let me know how you've connected (so I don't have to ask :) ). Give me a holler if you have questions!
Connie
Thanks for inspiring me to take the time to start figuring out Facebook again. I agree with you and Connie that you get out of it what you put in. I plan to put more in to it now.
Mack:
I started using facebook the first day it opened up to my school(nearly three years ago!) and from a college kid's perspective, the explosion of facebook into the blogosphere and social media community strikes me as, well, pretty comical.
On the college level, facebook is where you find out if your crush is dating someone (relationship status), keep up with friends from high school (news feed), and most of all post pictures of fun times (usually Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights), tag your friends and embarrass them until they untag themselves.
My generation already has a massive network on facebook, but for now it's still in the "social" stage. I assume within the next few years, when we graduate and move into professional careers, facebook will have to be something more than that for us. And that'll probably be the way oldsters ( ;-) ) are using it right now.
Thanks again for the help Connie, you're a gem! Sally I think Facebook is like being a community, the more you give to the community and be a good community member, the more you get back!
Alexander if you think this is funny, you should have seen us 'oldsters' stumbling around trying to get the hang of MySpace last year ;) I finally understood the appeal of MySpace with its intended target, but never enjoyed the experience. With Facebook, I think it will have much longer legs due to a cleaner interface, and the open-door to 3rd-party apps. I think this is one of the things that seriously limited MySpace, along with the rampant spam.
And also, I think Facebook will stick around because you can use it as a 'central hub' for just about all of your social media activity, you can pull in Twitter, your blog feeds, your friends feeds, etc.
But Alexander I bet it is comical for your crowd to see us act like we've just discovered the internet with the way we are gushing over the site that's been old hat to you guys for years now ;)
I found your blog through my friend Sally on facebook. I am just starting to "learn" facebook and didn't realize all the capabilities. Like you, my friends were all pushing me and now that I have taken the plunge it is sad to say I am addicted. I am encouraged and looking forward to how facebook and my business can work together.
Yvonne glad you are enjoying Facebook! And Sally rules, but you knew that ;)
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