In my near daily visits with business people at offline gathers I am always asked questions like…How do you deal with the crap on Facebook? Isn’t Facebook for kiddos looking to get laid? What purpose is there for a business to be on Facebook? You’re on Facebook?..Don’t you have anything better to do?
And the list of questions on Facebook go on and on… Interesting enough, about 90% of the people asking me these type of questions are actively on Facebook. When I turn the questions back to them what I am fining is most people get off to a bad start on Facebook by following someone else’s advice on what they should do on Facebook…many times this advice comes to them with an invoice. That results in them getting a bad taste in their mouth about Facebook.
Not that I am an expert with what Facebook is all about, I have however been able to recently find ways to use Facebook that meet professional and social interest of most real people. With that said I felt it might be beneficial to my viewers, especially for those who ask me the above questions, if I put together a list on How to Survive Facebook.
Get Real
The first thing someone new to Facebook has to do is establish their identity. Facebook can be a great place to socialize but you have to be careful of who you socialize with. Developing a REAL personality on your profile will attract others who are also REAL…just watch out for those who think they are REAL but are only out to exploit the Dark Side of Facebook…I’ll get to that later.
A REAL image begins with posting a real photo of yourself. Make it a good one and don’t change it very often. As you develop your friend list they are going to find you from the photo you post in your profile. If you keep changing profile photo frequently you are going to start losing friends. Its OK to post the wedding album in your photos but changing your photo everyday to highlight the new dog you got will get you lost in Facebook forever. Many people who you may care about…some of whom maybe family..will simple ignore you unintentionally since the visual key..your photo..is not the same as the last time they saw it. Pick a nice clear headshot photo for the profile and keep it. It is all about getting real if you want to survive on Facebook.
Think Again on Being Private
Many of the first adaptors of Facebook joined the site to primarily keep in touch with their Family. Facebook is great for that, but be aware that the cute picture you post on Facebook of your grandkids will now be on Google for everyone to see. You can mark all the privacy tabs you want in the Facebook privacy setting, however as soon as one of the family members accepts someone as a friend who is open to socializing with the entire world..the photo you posted is subject for him/her to tag and BAM..it is on Google. So, be careful out there…privacy is a big issue that Zukenburg really did not envision being as big a problem as it is today. In some cases the privacy issue Facebook dealing with is keeping millions of Real people off Facebook and from what I have found has resulted in probably millions of the accounts on Facebook to be abandoned by their creator due to the lack of privacy of their personal information they preferred to have.
So, I suggest you post only something you feel comfortable in everyone seeing..if it is private to you..do not post it on Facebook. Create a blog or social network for your family only if you just feel like that photo of your little sister sitting on the toilet needs to be shared with ONLY your bother who lives across the country.
When setting up your Facebook account make sure to clamp down on who can see what is on your profile. Blocking your list of Friends from view by everyone may seem unfriendly but will help your close friends from getting bugged by someone who has malaise on their minds. Your survival on Facebook make deal with what you keep public and what you want to keep private. Think this out when you set your account up on Facebook.
Who Should Be A Friend
A friend is a friend..someone you know. However, there is nothing wrong with getting to know someone you do NOT know in hopes they will become a friend. As long as you understand this principle all will be well with your existence on Facebook.
What is taking place…usually from the advice from misguided social mediaist or those with the Twitter mindset that are coming to Facebook by the thousands…is many people are reaching out to become Friends with everyone on Facebook. Why?
Mainly this attitude of having to artificially gather thousands of contact comes from people, places and things who are out to ruthlessly market to as many people they can. As a result, many people request to be a friend with someone only to get inside their network so they can immediately post worthless or uninteresting information. Eventually, enough of these posts will make your Facebook experience a total hell filled with SPAM. So, avoid Friending ANYONE unless you know them or they are a friend of a close friend.
Naturally, the purpose of being on Facebook is to socialize. Who you socialize with should be a concern. Gathering your known friends into your network should be the first thing you will want to do when you get on Facebook. Once you have got that done then you can add friends of friends or people you met offline. Eventually you will have a stream of statuses and links posted from people you know which will generate pleasant conversations. Conversation is part of the core of social networking and will provide you and your friends a reason to be on Facebook. To survive Facebook you need to know who your friends are.
Business vs Social
As I mentioned, many people use Facebook only for the connection to family members. Their intentions are purely personal and focused on socializing only with family, even if their business associates are amongst their Friends. If your intent is to use Facebook for just the social side of your lifestyle then do so. If your intentions are to be on Facebook to exploit your business offerings then do so. If you are intending in mixing the two…well, get ready to confuse everyone and make your experience on Facebook less pleasant.
There is a way of socializing on Facebook while doing business. It requires a more social approach to doing business which many people are either not comfortable with doing or just ignore its benefits. Facebook is rapidly becoming of interest to those who want to promote their business. However, these people are attempting to use an aggressive marketing style they think is socializing when in fact it is pissing people off.
To survive Facebook a business person needs to establish a Fan Page for their business and do all their promotions from there. They get the same coverage and better exposure of their business needs from using a Fan Page than just randomly posting promotions from their personal page. Plus, most of someone’s Friend base are savvy enough to find someone’s Fan Page without it being promoted.
Conversation = Commerce
The key to surviving Facebook is in having conversations. Gathering up hundreds or thousands of people who could careless about having a conversation or even reading anything you have to say is not socializing…and really is not marketing. Gaining someone’s attention to something by broadcasting it out to a sea of smiling faces is a much older method of advertising than old school marketing of which really does not work. In today’s ever changing world of business the marketing method that really works is ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing..or in other words..commerce is developed through conversation.
If you are out to make your Facebook time worthwhile ..or just out to have a pleasant experience on Facebook, you need to understand how to use Facebook and know how to survive on Facebook. Let me know how I can help.
