I have been tempted to deactivate my Facebook account for some time. In this short YouTube video, Julian Smith comically explains his frustrations. I concur with all twenty-five of his reasons.
I was ready to deactivate my Facebook account last week. Then I heard Chris Brogan at O’Reilly’s Tools of Change Conference. He put forth a model that I really liked.
To paraphrase, he said that your blog is your “homebase.” This is where you ultimately direct people. On the other hand, services like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. are “outposts.” The purpose of an outpost is to connect with people that otherwise wouldn’t find your homebase.
This makes sense to me. At least several times a week, I get Facebook messages from people who say, “I stumbled across your blog on Facebook.” So, for now, I guess I will keep my account open. Personally, I find Twitter so much easier to use and more rewarding—and certainly less annoying.
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Twitter hands down!
While pros and cons, I use each medium for different purposes. I use Facebook for family, friends, and fan pages to simply follow. I use Twitter for professional resources, mentoring, and other JIT items such as breaking news. I normally don't follow someone someone who is both on Twitter and Facebook because if they want interaction, there is usually a link from Twitter to their FB or blog. LinkedIn is something I haven't fully honed yet but that, right now, is solely networking with other professionals and Twitter is connected to that.
what is so funny is that he points out lame FB functionality that could have been addressed and fixed in the most basic of usability research. Clearly, FB has spent more on pizza for the office.
I have a Twitter account, a Facebook page and a Blog. And I love all three for totally different reasons.
Twitter is where I keep up with others in my business industry. It's also where I feel ok about posting more trivial things that happen in my life.
Facebook is where I keep up with most of my IRL friends & family. It's an easy way for people who know me to find me and my contact information. I don't update it nearly as often but like to use it for occassional pics of the kids, and keeping up with people who I would otherwise NEVER cross paths with in my daily life.
And my blog. My true home on the web. The place I feel like I can truly write as much as I want (I don't like the 140 char. limit on Twitter).
What I also know is that people on FB (that I know) aren't that savvy. So they may ONLY go to FB. So that's where I put occassional links to my blog. Otherwise they'd never find my blog. ;)
They are all interconnected for me but I use them all very differently. My biggest pet peeve is the people who use Twitter to update their FB. Facebook isn't intended to be used the same way as Twitter. IMHO. ;) Thanks for asking.
I actually receive more traffic through facebook than twitter, even though I probably invest more time at twitter.
My recent post When It’s Good to be Wrong About Theology…
I hope I'm not the first to say this, but my favorite thing on Facebook is the "ignore all" button. I also find twitter far more fun and rewarding (I'm in the process of trying to convert my friends). But in the meantime I can't delete my Facebook til i can prove it's guilty of completely wasting my time and not yielding any blog hits.
So true…and funny
My recent post Facebook…again
What annoys me about facebook?
Farmville, fishville, zoovile, mafiaville…..
Status updates that include what's for dinner at your house tonight
OMG…its about time someone admitted all this about facebook, I hate all of the above and more…thanks so much. I will send your message out and be happier for knowing that you too feel like this…I HATE FACEBOOK…..
My recent post Do you act with your gutt?
I too think facebook is annoying – or, really, some of my facebook friends use it in an annoying way. I've thought about deleting it – reducing the daily "noise" – but, for now, the vast majority of my friends and contacts are not on twitter. For that reason, FB is a good "outpost" for me.
I have found several ways to make FB less annoying: 1) Turn off all email notifications. This way I'm not bombarded all day long with FB. I can pay attention to it when I choose to log in and I'm not getting emails all day. 2) Hide, Hide, Hide. I hide just about every FB App from my news feed. I don't care about someones fish or mafia or whatever so I just hide them. Then the only news I'm seeing are my friends posts, updates, pictures, etc. I also hide friends (shhh – don't tell them) that are particularly annoying with their status updates and such. You can still look at their FB page if you want to tell them something or look at their activity but you aren't slammed with it every day. 3) Block notifications/requests. If you have friends that send you a request for every app under the sun, you can actually block all requests from that user. They never know the difference but you don't have to click ignore every time they want to view your birthday on their calendar or want you to join their zoo.
I do like that you can have picture albums vs. the random twit pic. I even like that you can schedule an event and invite your friends – much simpler than contacting everyone individually or sending snail mail invites.
There's good and bad. I just try to minimize the bad and make it work for me in a more efficient way.
My recent post Nothing Like a Clean Closet…
I like Pages on Facebook. I can't stand junk apps and "seductive" ads, and being invited over and over to be someone's friend or fan.
Facebook is close to being the got-to for modern society. Soon people will be utilizing the Facebook Connect feature for purchases. Once Facebook become "modus spendus" look out, the sky is the limit. Don't believe me? Let me ask you this: What did you think of PayPal when it first started to appear? If you're anything like me, you thought nothing of it, but now try making a purchase online without it being an option, if not the only option. Facebook already has the credibility to do what took PayPal years to accomplish.
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