Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts

Friday, October 15, 2010

5 common Facebook faux pas

Do you make any of these social networking mistakes? We're all guilty of Facebook faux pas from time to time. It's only when we repeat them continually that we run the risk of being unfriended. Here are some of the mistakes I see regularly and why they're a problem:
  • Being ridiculously self-promotional. Several colleagues at a recent meeting said this was their biggest Facebook pet peeve.  I can relate. A few weeks ago, I received a Facebook invitation from someone who included a promotional message with her friend request. I thought that was odd, but gave her the benefit of the doubt and accepted the request. This was followed by a similar advertising message from her on my wall: "I'm glad we're friends. I think you'll be interested in my product X and my service Y." It's not the best way to start a relationship -- in social networks or in face-to-face networks. 
  • Writing "happy birthday!" to someone on your own wall. OK, this is funny when my Mom does it, but when the rest of us do it, it's kind of silly. Here's how to avoid this: Go to your home page. Under "Events" in the upper right, you'll see the names of any Facebook friends with birthdays today. Click on the name; that will take you to the birthday girl's page. Write your message on her wall.
  • Saying something mean on a wall that you wouldn't say to someone's face. AWKward. This gives us too much insight into your true character. Ick.
  • Writing private messages on your friend's Facebook wall. These messages make the rest of us uncomfortable. It's like we're eavesdropping. Use the Facebook e-mail system instead. Here's how: Go to your friend's profile page. Under his picture, you'll see "Send (name) a message." Click on that and you'll get an e-mail window.
  • Sending "you should 'like' this page" messages to all of your friends rather than sending it only to people who might actually be interested in the business or product. If you're in Michigan and the page you "like" is for a local business, don't send the "I like this page and I think you will too" message to your friends in other parts of the country. Keep it local. (This applies even if you're paid to do this for clients.) Most people don't mind occasional irrelevant messages, but when you do it a lot, you're going to lose friends. (And maybe that's not a bad thing.)
I like how Facebook lets us be our own forum moderators. Let's help these people out by taking advantage of our ability to be in control of our own content. When someone writes something on your wall that's better suited to a private conversation, delete it. (Move your mouse to the end of the first sentence. The word "REMOVE" appears. Click it.). Then respond to the question or comment through your Facebook e-mail inbox -- it's a quiet way to suggest the right way to handle sensitive or private topics. Similarly, when someone writes something on your wall that makes you uncomfortable, delete it, because if it bothers you, it will bother someone else, too.

What's the most common Facebook faux pas you've seen? Tell us!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Has Facebook Replaced Forums for Conversation?

After attending the American Society of Journalists and Authors annual conference on Friday and Saturday, I went online Monday morning to plug into the conference chatter on the forums at Freelance Success and ASJA sites. I had attended a few excellent workshops and wanted to congratulate and thank the speakers publicly so that those who order the conference recordings had input from an attendee about the sessions that were "worth" purchasing. I also wanted to learn more about the quality of the panels I couldn't attend so that I knew what to listen to when the recordings become available.

Usually, by the time I get around to this, there are a few "what did you like about ASJA?" threads already in the works. This year, there were none. N.O.N.E. One showed up on Freelance Success later in the day, but I still can't find anything on the ASJA site where members are talking about "good" panels that will guide those who want to listen to the recordings.

But there's a lot of chatter on Facebook among those who did and didn't attend, with people asking about conference highlights, insights, tips from the panels, and so on. So I'm wondering: Has Facebook replaced forums for conversations? Are those of us who have become accustomed to networking with colleagues in a forum environment shifting our chatter to Facebook? It's certainly working that way for me. And based on what seems to be a decline in volume of threads on the forums where I've been active in the past -- and this is an anecdotal observation only -- I think I'm not the only one who is doing less professional chatting in forums and more on Facebook.

What about you? Are you using forums less to ask questions, learn, and share information and using Facebook more instead? Why or why not?