I joined Facebook last year as a crop of 30 and 40-somethings discovered this cool new thing that seemed slightly more respectable than myspace. I recognized the technology and social media implications quickly. And for awhile, I was addicted. But I lapsed as most of the other "older" people I knew didn't really know what to do with it and it just didn't become a part of my life.
But I revisited it recently as it seems so perfectly appropriate for something my church is doing. We are putting together a pictorial directory. We are also trying to grow membership. And we are organizing events in the community that I hope will draw interest and people. Facebook is a picture book...but it is so much more. However, I know that for many people who are not already on Facebook, my invitation to join is likely to be their first and only visit because...if you haven't joined already, you probably don't see the need or value of it.
Facebook doesn't make it easy for the late adopters. There is no guide to facebook, no tutorial, not even a page of Frequently Asked Questions. I guess that is by design because the nature of the site is that it evolves and is driven by the creativity and use of its users. It's not a static resource. It's an organic thing that people seem to either get or not get. You can always google facebook and find guides to it--but that presupposes motivation. I think the principal and only motivator for the adoption of facebook has been "all my friends are on it." Well, all my friends are NOT on it. But perhaps we all just need an illustration of what to do to begin to see the value...
The main value of facebook, the thing that makes it more than just a website, is that it effectively publishes your life to your friends. For example, there is a "status" with a link to "What are you doing right now?" that you can update with...whatever. I just updated my status to "blogging about facebook." Now, all my friends have a "feed" on their pages so when they log in, they see a little note that says "Dave Atkins is blogging about facebook." It's not an email...and they can (and probably do) disable the notification when it becomes innane and/or overwhelming, but this is just an illustration of how facebook works. Whenever you take any action in your profile, it gets posted to the feed. So, for example, this is what I see on my feed right now:
I don't have a ton of friends, so you see a few people repeated here. But notice how everything in blue is a clickable link. You can see how my friends are adding other people as friends. I could click on a name I recognized and add that friend as well. Other people are using applications or posting things...in each case, I may be curious about it and I can just click on the link to see what's going on. This is the essence of viral marketing activity. It feeds back on itself. Each person who is inspired by curiosity to try something a friend tried contributes to the "virtual buzz" about that thing. And it is all automatic.
When I first joined facebook, this activity alone was interesting for a few months. I would see that someone had added an application that allowed them to display their favorite books, or politician, or generate a map of everywhere they had ever traveled and I would do the same. But after awhile, I have to admit the applications were just overwhelming. People started wanting to bite me and turn me into a zombie. I just didn't have time for that.
One of the features I had an initial interest in--and which seemed very promising for my church--was the concept of facebook groups. Anyone can create a group about anything. And, of course, when you create the group, it get's published out to all your friends. When they join, it gets published out to their friends. So, I created a group for our church.
Within 24 hours, all the young people in the church (who had their own youth group on facebook) had found and joined my group. But the real challenge is engaging everyone else. And with all the befriending and group joining going on...well, we get back to the basic question again...what am I supposed to do on this thing?
Here's what we can do with the group:
- promote events - I created an event associated with the group to promote a Jazz concert by Nhojj to be held February 3 (just before the Super Bowl). That actions does two things: 1) the event is visible to all the group members and 2) the event shows up in the overall Boston network where any user who clicks on it will see the link to the First Church and Parish in Dedham group.
- mass communicate - we can send a message to all group members. Now the church already has an email list, but some people feel the private messaging of facebook is better because it is not clogging up your email with spam and you can easily include links to other posts, events, etc. in the message. If you are on facebook all the time, the private messaging may be preferable to email.
- instant website - the group page is like a mini-website. Other group members can post events, upload photos, upload videos, post comments, and start discussion threads. The church already has a website, but it is a project to maintain it. On facebook, any member can add to the site. Hopefully, people will be responsible, but if they are not, I can modify the permissions, edit the content, etc. And as always, the beauty of facebook is that whenever someone does something, it will be "fed" out to their friends and members of the group.
A couple weeks ago, I blogged about wikis and town government and how that technology could allow mass collaboration to assist the development of public policy. Facebook is different...this is an illustration of social networking, of how we can leverage our connections with other people to spread information quickly. Facebook provides the behind-the-scenes engine to make it automatic so that your actions are communicated to your friends and people of similar interests. Neither technology is a magic solution: we've got a facebook group: we're all set! It takes more, specifically:
- priming - Before I send a mass email to our membership, I wanted to write this article--to illustrate some of the possibilities of facebook to many who are not yet on facebook. If they are already active, they can probably tell me how to improve this! But technology alone is never the solution...it needs people to actually use it.
- maintenance - I don't know if the group is set up just right. Maybe I need to modify some permisions or change the layout or something. It's not a "set and forget" type thing. But the effort is pretty small and manageable, I hope.
- contribution - I posted the Nhojj concert as a starting point. There are other events, I'm sure. And maybe I should start up a discussion group. It would be great if someone else jumped in though...
Finally, there is the question of what else "should" I be doing on facebook. OK, I signed up...I joined the church group...what next?
- consider changing the preferences on your birthday - Click the Edit link to the right of Profile after you login to facebook. Unless you want everyone to know you are pushing 41, change the drop down choice under Birthday so it only shows month and day. If you care.
- search for other friends on facebook. It can be difficult if your friends have names like "John Smith." You can just invite people you know by email address and if they are already in, they will just add you as a friend.
- check out this list of 10 things you should do on facebook
- or these 8 things you can do...
- check out the facebook blog
- Check out all the facebook applications - "applications" are the heart and soul of facebook. I've just described the most basic core features here. Applications are things that thousands of developers are creating to do sometimes interesting things like create a map of all the cities you've ever visited.
I've just scratched the surface. Most people who find value in facebook quickly get addicted to it. We learn as we go. It is different from what many are used to--this is not a place to set up a user account with some fake name or weird screenname like "laughingboy57." And it can be a little intimidating to know that you don't know what information is being sent out to your friends. So try not to take it too seriously, but at the same time do be authentic.
Here's my profile. Enjoy!
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