So I finally bit the bullet and took my own advice and started a fan page on Facebook. Thing is, I have 1100 “friends” on my personal account and not even 100 “likes” on my pro page. So how will I ask for my FBF (Facebook Friends) to go and like my pro page?
1. Now when people ask to “friend” me, I send a response asking them to “like” my pro page.
I hate doing it, but I send a message to them admitting how weird it makes me feel, but to please like my professional fan page instead.
2. (At the risk of dating myself with this reference…) Sally Field, here I come.
Yes, I’m asking you to like me, to really, really like me here.
3. I will send out an occasional status update on my personal page.
I’ll let people know who are not in my family or my “brick and mortar” friends (that is, real, in-person friends!) that I’m trying to migrate all the friends over because I use Facebook as a business tool, and would like to keep my private and public life separate. That way I don’t have to waste people’s time on my assertions that my niece is the cutest baby on the planet and other family debates.
So whaddaya think? Like it?
Brenda Ferber
June 5, 2011 - 10:49 am ·Actually, I think people are interested in how cute your niece is. What I mean is that in our culture, people want to know about the real lives of celebrities (and authors) they love. So I will be surprised if you get people to migrate over to your businessy Facebook. I do think it’s a good way to handle new friend requests from people you don’t know. Maybe. But don’t people go to Facebook for interesting tidbits that make them feel like they know you as a person? Will your business-only FB leave people feeling cold? Not that you are cold, but that the info will not be the info they want from FB.
It’s a complicated issue. It’s really about privacy and what you want to put out there. The line between business and personal is quite murky, especially on Facebook.
shawn banner
June 6, 2011 - 10:07 am ·I must admit, this balance between personal and professional in the realm of social media continues to baffles me. As a novice to the world of social media, I am still unclear how you navigate between social and professional, how you decide whether what you have to say is really worth others’ time and energy, where the line between shameless promotion and fascinating anecdote lies…Is the appropriate solution to maintain dual facebook existances–one for the personal and one for the professional, inviting all the personal folk to visit the professional, but locking the personal gates against errant intruders and fans? And also, I wonder where you find all the time it must take to maintain the blogs, the facebook messages, the regularly refreshed images and such. Do you book an hour or three a day for regular upkeep? And what happens when you just don’t have any interesting news to impart….is that the moment when you should rhapsodize about your especially adorable niece?
katie
June 6, 2011 - 6:59 pm ·Thank you both for commenting on this post! A friend who is a social media expert – far more expert than I am – answered this for me this way:
“It’s not business vs. friends, as Brenda frames it. Many people on Facebook talk to high school “friends” they haven’t seen in 30 years and never will see — meaning people they don’t even really know. Most people’s Facebook friends are in fact not close friends but acquaintances. Facebook is a timekilling diversion for most people in the non-youth demographic. Facebook is about amusing, diverting, informative and always short content — interesting comments, posts, links, pictures, videos and plenty of reunion nostalgia and quick games — which is how most adults use Facebook. Happily, as opposed to what she says below, there are many people who actually want to read about more than the lives of celebrities. Bottom line: your evolving Facebook presence will provide the kind of content that will appeal to the people you want to reach. All businesses are learning that content is the way to “advertise” best on the web. If people enjoy and learn things from your posts, they will want to see more and stick around and share.
No one uses Facebook to really get to know someone. Everyone on Facebook competes to win the “facade of pure contentment” award. Everything, even mishaps and bad days, are treated lightly on Facebook. (This is why the Causes part of Facebook has failed is most cases, and people who talk about serious things are a distinct minority.) Facebook is perfectly named a social network, the water-cooler conversation cubed and cubed again.”
So what do you guys think? Did that help at all?
As far as “The Black Hole Time Suck,” Shawn, you do have to manage yourself. I try to keep my time on it to a manageable amount. I also keep a distinct division between my professional and personal life. It sounds like you need to take my upcoming webinar on using social media, though – hope see you there! (You’ll be notified as to what I’m doing and when via my mailing list. I still haven’t decided whether to do it live or not).