Last month, I went on a week long vacay in Jamaica, mon. I went with my sister and we had an absolutely amazing time on the island. Every day there was sun and dancing and beautiful men on the beach. (Sad face: I’m still having rum and jerk chicken withdrawal.) We stayed at a great resort with lots of other friendly Americans and folks from the UK. What’s funny is that we couldn’t get away from social media even on vacation. Some of our new friends wanted to keep in touch on Facebook. I told them I’d try to look them up. I said “try,” because I knew I wasn’t going to. Not now. Not anymore. No longer will I accept people I’ve only met once as a “friend” on Facebook.
The Phone’s Off the Hook
When I first got on Facebook, I added and accepted everyone as a “friend.” I was just a little more discerning than I was on Myspace. But just a little. I ended up at a point where I had over 800 friends and I couldn’t remember who most of them were. Which kinda defeats the whole point of social networking, right? I mean, think about it. If I can’t remember who you are, where we met, or what we have in common, I can’t possibly help you in your career or care about what you’re doing with your life. And to be honest, it doesn’t do anything for me to hear about what a bunch of strangers did over the weekend. Which led me to rethink how I could and should be using social networks differently and better.
With each Facebook “friend” comes a certain level of noise, most of it useless without context. If I can’t remember whether I met you at a conference or a party or a class in college, how can I really listen to you or “like” your updates? Right. I can’t. You talk, I’m not listening. I talk, you’re not listening. The phone has effectively come off the hook. And it’s been that way for a while. But all of that is about to change.
Because here’s how I’ve decided to leverage my Facebook connections a bit differently going forward.
My “Personal” Facebook Page is Personal
Y’all know how I feel about the personal/professional divide on social networks: it doesn’t really exist. But. There are some things you can choose to share on one network that you wouldn’t necessarily share on another depending on who your audience/followers are. So my personal page will be for my family, friends and people I’ve actually hung out with IRL (in real life). My family (and many of my friends) doesn’t really care about my nonprofit blog posts or what I’m doing with my business. So I post a lot less on my personal page about that stuff and instead push that content over to my fan page.
My Facebook Fan Page is a More Pure, “Professional” Content Stream
You won’t hear about my dating adventures on my Facebook fan page. Sorry. But then that’s not what you came there for, is it? I used to accept every reader of my blog as a friend because that’s where they could get all my blog updates on Facebook. But that was before I started a fan page. So if I’ve defriended you (and by now, I probably have or will within the next 48 hours), it’s not because I hate you (because I absolutely don’t). You should just go here and hit the “like” button and we’ll be all connected again. That is, if you want us to be.
Yeah mon.
You can also connect with me at these other places that are not as complicated as Facebook.
Have you been rethinking how you use Facebook? Or any other social network for that matter?
