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I use facebook pages to handle everything that is not personal about me. The pages give people a place to feel connected to you but not intrude on your personal life. Personal gets to be just that...personal.
Thanks for your brutal honesty about your paparazzi...LOL
blessings,
Wendy Merritt :-)
I do have a very limited amount of people that I don't know personally but I strategically request them because they are great contacts for my projects and Facebook allowed me to contact them since I didn't have any contact information from them. For those "friends" i created a Friends List to share only appropriate information /photos of me with them.
Ed ...we've never met ...so.....
Bye from my FB Friends....
:(
As much as love your teachings in 30DC, Edge, etc. I never agreed to your facebook lessons and the hype you made around it. Well at least I have a facebook account, probably thanks to you, but I never accepted these "Hey I'm also doing 30DC, lets be friends" invitations. Because I don't really care about these people. And we can anyway meet in special groups. But my experience showed me that facebook-marketers fill their pages with duplicate content, stuff I've already seen in through rss or on theirs blog.
By the way, you fear about hurting people by de-friending can be neglected in my opinion. I would be more hurt if I'm your friend and you ignore me and my messages (as you probably did with many "friends " lately)
Maybe I'll help and after work I log into facebook and will cancel our friendship
Your not-real-friend
I'm just sad to see you go as I've been following you (not only on Facebook) from the second 30DC and think of you as a friend even if we've not met personally. I saw (virtually) your children grow up and your move back down under.
I'll keep following on Twitter.
Regards,
Your "friend",
Frans
PS. Will you be teaching us the correct way to use Facebook on the Edge?
Facebook - I'm just pretty sure trying to do it from my personal
account is not the answer. There are Facebook Pages, Groups,
Demographic PPC and applications.
The market is moving to Facebook - My guess is we need to move with
them. A KEY part of Understanding The Market is asking, why are they
going to Facebook?? Thats what I'm working on.
Sadly, FB appears to largely have killed creative/useful apps by relegating most of them to the "back tab". The main profile tab has become much more like FriendFeed, without all that FF usefulness/genius :). Made FB more of a "Rolodex with email and pictures" again...
BTW, I am of the opinion that we are seeing the full force of the mainstreaming of FB right now. The growth will eventually subside, while Twitter is only on the cusp of mainstreaming. Grew 800+% last year according to Compete, with now the 3rd most visits of any social media site (and that's not counting heavy users with Tweetdeck, Twhirl, etc. desktop clients!).
Not sure where you get the 36 year math, but if Twitter goes 8 fold from currently ~ 5M users, that would be 40M next year, and 320M the year after, no? Of course it won't stay at the 800% rate that long, but my guess is it will be used by 50M+ soon enough, unless something really drastic happens.
You sound like a very needy person and I would really take a look at doing a bit of personal development . If you criticise a guy like Ed God help the rest of the world
1) You can choose whose updates you want to see on your home page by selecting names via the link at the bottom. This way, all the noise is deleted!
2) You can segment the real friends into a real friends list and then set the permissions of who sees what for which lists.
Many other tricks to use to make it a more user friendly environment. So facebook can be many things to many people. To keep up with friends and to do the business thing too.
I wish I could unfriend so many people (with offending anyone). I, like many, automatically friended when this was all new and that was the 'thang' to do... and well, we did have 2 friends in common and surely I should not be rude. Bah!!!
I don't know bloody half or more of them and will probably never exchange a meaningful anything. I have been far more selective with Twitter and reaping the rewards of a truly great network, interesting conversations, great connections and resources.
Hey Ed, also wanted the opp to say how much I am enjoying Internet Marketing this Week (http:internetmarketingthisweek.com). I was commenting to someone today how the quality of the show is definitely remarkable.
I'll read it again, think about it for a few days, and very likely, follow in your footsteps, Ed. :-)
All success
Dr.Mani
It's strange you know the internet is becoming more and more social and what do we all hate more than anything. A salesperson doing their sales thing at a BBQ, party any social event. The mad MLMer that just won't shut up when you would liek to mingle with the cool dudes etc etc.
We just can't go in as a marketer. we have to be ourselves while socializing who simply has a link to a way we make money. There's so many cool ways to do this yadayada...
Heck! Internet marketing in it's web 2.0 form is only a puppy... in time many IM'ers will mature and come to a point where you are now... what a better place the IM world will be. Most humans will all be IM'ers in some way shape or form eventually.
Thanks for being a true pioneer and taming the new terrain before the rest of us follow you to wherever you are going.... :)
All the best Ed.
Good luck and I will be curious how it pans out for you. Will be watching your twitter updates and I'm sure you'll tell us all about it in your emails.
I completly understand you - if you want to use it as a tool to REALLY follow friends and family - it's the best thing you can do! ;-)
Maybe this is web 3.0 ... ;-))
And I know you'll find a way to use it for marketing anyway... ;-))
So keep going - and be happy that the people who "hate" you for this - are gone, coz they are no friends in any way!! :-))
Many greetings from Winter Germany!! :-)
André
By the way, when I was initially trying to set up a Facebook account I accidentally created two accounts, so it can be done. I ended up cancelling both (which was a bit of a chore if I recall correctly) and starting again.
By the by, I resisted Facebook until last Spring when a high school reunion was looming. My school had a set up on FB to show who was going, scheduling information, etc. I signed on just for that and then my old friends "discovered" me. Then I was hooked. I wanted all of those precious photos of old classmates drinking beer from a bong! Since then there have been family birthdays, parties births and deaths.
Facebook is personal. That's all there is to it. I wouldn't use it as a business tool for all the money in the world. I think you'll enjoy it much more now Ed. Congrats.
I'm just sad to see you go as I've been following you (not only on Facebook) from the second 30DC and think of you as a friend even if we've not met personally. I saw (virtually) your children grow up and your move back down under.
I'll keep following on Twitter.
Regards,
Your "friend",
Frans
PS. Will you be teaching us the correct way to use Facebook on the Edge?
PPS. Sorry for posting it in the wrong place to start off.
that would sure make FB a fun place for me again, anyway. thanks, Dale...feel free to drop my account like Enron stock...I understand and forgive you...sniff...sniff....really, I'll be OK..... ;-)
I will be interested to follow your progress and may well tidy up my own fb friend list, so don't worry I wont take it personal when you de-friend me :-)
But, for you personally, wouldn't it be easier to just set yourself up a second account. A personal account where you only add your true friends. Seems like a waste of time to sit there going through 5000 "friends" to decide which ones you really want to hear from and which you don't.
And, it eliminates the potential you spoke about of alienating any of your fans.
Ben
1. Go to your friends page, and click "Make a new list." Create lists for all your types of friends (family, colleagues, TDC followers, etc.)
2. Select each list, and use the "Select Multiple Friends" to put your friends into the lists. It will be a bit more difficult for you because you'll have to work through 5,000 friends, but do it once and you'll be done for good. Use the filters to make it a bit easier. I would even create a "favorites" list for your top friends.
3. Now that your friends are organized into lists, you can easily see the latest info from your favorite friends. On your home page, look for the down arrow on the right side of the feed menu -- that's the one below your status that starts with "News Feed." Click the down arrow, and select the group of friends that you'd like to view.
I've also blocked many of the clutter-y applications, which reduces the amount of items that make it to my inbox.
That is an excellent tip - but it's excruciating to do - If they had
that functionality when I got all my friends -would have that made my
experience any better?
And here is the other thing - and this will sound like an enormous
wing and that Im so up myself - but if you have a couple of hundred
people a day doing that - It would take at least an hour out of my
life to "categorize" people and then of course I would get behind and
miss people I actually am really keen to see what they are up to.
Outsource it - could do - but doesn't that miss the whole point (more
on this below)
Compare to twitter - I have to do ZERO work - people just follow AND I
can of course message them any time I want with out restriction - if i
sent out mail on facebook to a group with even a hundredth of the
frequency I tweet (or for that matter send mail out to my lists) my
account would be shut down with extreme prejudice. The other cool
thing - if people think I suck on twitter - BOOM! I'm out of there,
blocked of de-followed - no fuss, no muss - Facebook make it to hard
to unfriend and too easy for people to pull the spam trigger. People
will do what ever is easiest and if that's "Call Spam" they will do
it, the Facebook Ninja will hit and you'll be left with the smoking
ruin of an account.
Like I said in the article - With the current tool set I can't
dedicate the time to manage it. Outsource it I hear you say! That's
like outsourcing Twitter - I would never do that in a Million Years -
Twitter is smooth like butter allowing me to respond and get back to
people who need my attention - because I was smart enough not to go on
a "follow you follow me frenzy" (now there is an unpopular stance -
but I'll stick to it) I have very close to zero noise but thanks to
RSS Feeds and live twitter searchers (not to mention the modern
miracle that is friendfeed) I can manage it beautifully.
On Facebook for me, it's the pure magic of seeing my brothers goofy,
slightly drunk face half a world away obviously having a good time.
That to me is the magic of facebook and hard numbers man that I
am...the crowds don't lie... the market is moving to Facebook, and as
a proud card carrying member of the Marketing fraternity my job is to
come up with an ecological and engaging way to do said marketing.
Ed
Excellent article! It's exactly our philosophy (Sylvie Fortin and me), such as with auto-follow on Twitter, and this makes a perfect point. Too much noise makes no friends -- it just becomes a crowded bar where everyone in it propositions you!
Thanks for posting this, Ed. Very cool.
I'm a facebook/twitter newbie, and have been doggedly avoiding using facebook and twitter as a way to eavesdrop on hundreds of thousands of one or two line messages that I didn't need to know from people i've not even met.
Seriously, do I need 5000 people acting as RSS aggregators for me, referring me to every goofy tip, tool and poem they've found online? I've got a Google Reader account that does the job just fine.
And do I need to know every time someone gets a pizza, or is watching the football game, or is taking a pee?
Not really.
Some folks say, "It's like being at a party all the time".
But would I want to constantly be at parties with thousands of people I don't know, have no interest in my business, have no potential of being clients, and likely not going to ever be real friends of mine?
Not really.
Not to mention, the digital age just makes all this unwanted "noise" faster, louder, more immediate, more urgent, more demanding.
Frankly it gives me anxiety attacks.
The trick though, as you say, is to find the balance between mindless wastes of time and valuable, relevant, fulfilling connections. And, in the process, use it to build a business.
Admittedly, I'm a long ways away from figuring that out ...but keeping an open mind.
Will watch your journey with interest - thanks for sharing it.
Lou
Way to go Ed, I pride myself on having met (or at least sincerely wanting to personally meet) every facebook friend I have. If we ever do eventually meet I'll shout you a cafe-latte - when I get back to Brunswick.
Until then,
Logan D. Williams
I lived on MacFarland street until 2001!!! (Still own a house there
actually) and lattes are good
(actually best in the world in my view)
Actually this raises a point on a companion article - I think we
should all network more - but in the appropriate place - I attended a
meet-up in Melbourne before xmas - totally awesome and then Craig
Eubanks (who will still be a facebook friend!) organized an enormous
meetup in San Francisco which was totally cool - A lot of people go to
expensive conferences to do this (like me!) but simple meet-ups in
coffee shops is a superb way to go
You got me on to facebook and I am thankful for it. Just connected with my cousin in Sydney I hadn't talked to for years. You are right, facebook is a fantastic tool to connect with friends and family. I'm sure you know about all of the tools to adjust what comes across on your news feed. I have about 2800 friends myself and I am going to take the time to weed through them and create appropriate lists. I'll de-friend many of them. Just the approach I'm going to take. I think facebook is a great place to build a brand, and I can do that without spamming my friends. If I market something else it might be appropriate to create somewhat of a Chinese wall between my personal profile and the business page. I look forward to your evolving thoughts on facebook marketing on the Edge. Jeff
Everyone! Let's all delete our Facebook accounts so that Ed doesn't have walk alone!
I have about 350 friends - i know 95% - but agree with you - if i dont care what they do - i should just remove them to free up friend feed for important news or restrict who i read news from :)
but - no - not starting to upload all those pics etc again!!!
and removing friends is actually painless
Guess what?
Not one person said anything....great "friends" hey?
Since then an amazing thing happened, a "real" old schoolfriend friended me, which has led to me finding some pictures of 15 year old me that I have either never seen before, or had forgotten entirely. Amazing stuff. Also a reminder about a pash at a school dance (but that is a story for another day). The pleasure I get from using Facebook the way it was intended, far outweighs any business benefit I was receiving the other way.
Enjoy the feeling Ed when every bit of information you see on your wall is something you really WANT to see!
I have lately been in numerous discussions about the "uses" of Twitter, Facebook & Friendfeed. As tools evolve and new ones are introduced, people's perceptions about how they use them change. I think that whatever your personal uses are of any of these services, you should make sure they add quality to your life.
and I think, I was wrong.
That hurt.
I still think people can have a successful business marketing with
Facebook - I think you need to look at the right tools for the job.
Ed
I put this near final Draft up on the blog to get some feedback - next
and final stage is to make it look pretty and put it out as a PDF
report.
Maybe you can start a new personal friends only account.......
Looking forward to your update on this...
I hope it goes well mate.
All The Best
Its funny, I was thinking the same thing.
Its seems that just this past month I have received so many actual "friend" requests from high school / co-worker and friends.
They are just getting into social networking and I've enjoyed my conversations with them.
I may be right with you on this one.
take care -- no offense taken.
So couldn't agree more Ed with your post.
Caro :-)
Anyway, I've saved you the trouble of "removing me from your friends" and will be looking through my list to narrow it down even further. I was wondering what to do about my FB problem and you've voiced it and made my decision easier.
Smiles
@peacefulwarrior
I have to wade through a ton of stuff to get to a message from my daughter. She and many more of my friends love Facebook - I hate it because, as you pointed out, I'm using it wrong! It's for friends dummy...not strangers.
Thanks
David Perdew
bottom of the email is relative. many high profile marketers are fond of hiding the unsubscribe button and actually promoting this horrible tactic to their followers. not smart and makes it easier to hit the spam button
big jason
have to say - I don't want you on my mailing list. It just sad, used-
car sales tactics - Thanks for bringing it up Jason
Ed
'
Just a quick note, I have followed you on twitter and facebook since the Thirty Day Challenge in 2007. I understand where you
are coming from. I don't approve everyone who requests it on facebook and don't follow everyone on twitter. There is just too
much noise if you do. I too use facebook to stay in touch with people who mean something to me. While I haven't met everyone
personally yet they do have something I find interesting to contribute to my day what they can teach me in the process. One thing I find is
people are interesting and getting to know them is fun but the numbers can get to be overwhelming if you let them.
The way I look at it is this: With over 165 million active members on Facebook - and hurtling towards half a *billion* within the next 16-18 months, if we can *only* have 5,000 of them as our friends, then those 5,000 spots are to be coveted. I see my 5k friends as a mix of high-level influencers, potential clients, dear personal friends and family members. Facebook is powerful for creating consistent visibility - it's not who you know, it's who knows *you*! ;)
FB Groups are great for messaging up to 5k members. FB Pages have their place for SEO. Well-created and respectfully promoted FB Events can be effective.
As for everything else, I always encourage peeps to make *best friends* with the "Ignore All" link at the top right of the Requests page. In fact, I use the incoming app requests, pokes and other nonsense as a way to screen who I might unfriend. Not that I can never interact with that person, 'cuz there's always my Page, Groups, Twitter, blog, etc. etc.
Also - you'd mentioned you missed out on important data in your News Feed from family members etc. - for sure I recommend creating Friend Lists and then click that teeny down arrow in your News Feed filters to only view data from specific lists.
Best of luck on your new-and-improved Facebook journey!! I'll be watching to see if you dump me and add me back. haha!! I love ya either way.
Cheers,
@marismith
Always Interesting
Ed
Frankly, that post you just wrote was something I was thinking of doing lately. I think I'll just go ahead and do it now!
Before I go, I'd like to point out that in the process of adding "IM friends", I was able to convert some of them into real friends. These new found fridnds are definite keepers!
Good luck, Ed!
We can't be everything to everybody. But we can focus on people, relationships and creating goodwill.
BTW, remembering the lessons of "The Tipping Point", I guess the 150 rule stands its ground, even on Facebook!
it would take ages of my time to fine tune for 5000! Besides, i need
to make time to consult with people like you!! Look froward to
speaking next week!
I think the thought-stream in your article was refreshing because as I have proceeded through the use of social properties for my life and business, I have gained a more thoughtful appreciation for what the assets will bring to my life, my music, my business and my people. Each one of these facilities should be used differently. Please continue to share your thoughts. They are much appreciated.
If I were on your Facebook, I would not be offended.
Frank Dobner
This is an awesome tactic!
The people that really know marketing know what your really doing & it totally makes since... Having 5,000 people on face book is truly worthless. But having 5,000 people in a group on face book that will grow at a steady rate of 300 to 500 per day that you can eventually persuade to join your mailing list ... Now that is Face Book at it's finest!
You're my Internet Marketing Hero!
Sean
Your article is an interesting read. Unfortunately I did not follow Barack his election campaign; though I was planning to do so on my domain http://www.presidentialelectioncandidates.net because from the beginning I believed it would be a historical campaign.
What I am doing at this moment I am going through the website http://www.Barack20.com and I’ve ordered the book Barack 2.0 by Brent Leary and David Bullock at http://www.lulu.com/content/5508095 and I am looking forward in reading it.
What I find interesting is that other heads of states, i.e. the prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands are lending elements of the Barack media campaign. The prince of the Netherlands recently went on a trip and instead of taking an army of journalist with him he decided to do a blog himself (not comparable with Barack his campaign but it is a step into the right direction).
I foresee that in the coming elections in any other countries they will copy Barack his concept of campaigning and focus more on the Internet thus attracting a younger audience. The question here is, how will they target the older voters? Traditional media, news papers, magazines, television, radio, etc?
Coming to face book, I have around 150 or so “friends” on my private account so it is still manageable. Though I believe that getting these people to “move” and do some action, either subscribe to a mailing list, buy something, click on a link is ratter hard to do. Why? Most people that are on the Internet now are approximately 30 years old and grew up with the Internet thus result that they learned their way in filtering messages, emails and sales letters. So unless you have a laser targeted campaign, sales letter, etc. then it will, to my opinion, be hard to get the current generation to move.
Or am I wrong?
Just my thoughts!
Marc Witteveen
This is an awesome tactic!
The people that really know marketing know what your really doing & it totally makes since... Having 5,000 people on face book is truly worthless. But having 5,000 people in a group on face book that will grow at a steady rate of 300 to 500 per day that you can eventually persuade to join your mailing list ... Now that is Face Book at it's finest!
You're my Internet Marketing Hero!
Sean
Data points, Barbara
in their TOS that it's one person per account. And when they strike -
they strike in the dark of night with no warning and no recourse...
If you start getting popular a jealous competitor is bound to dob you
in.
Ed
On another note, I do not think it is necessary to spend too much time comparing Facebook to Twitter - totally different purpose use, and benefits for the marketer and "regular people" as well. Twitter is an amazing service and it's beauty is in it's simplicity. I hope that never changes.
Thank you for inspiring so much thought and discussion.
James
http://www.Twitter.com/AskJamesHolmes
I can honestly say that I've had several conflicting reactions as I read this post of yours. One was: eyes rolling and going
"Oh, brother. Now this marketer say this and that...and people are going to think it is GOSPEL, please!" and the other reaction is:
"Okay, I totally understand the part where you say that you don't want to miss any personal messages from nieces or friends, family
that you actually have a relationship with.
That said, I disagree with you. Yikes! The nerve....she disagrees with him and all the "big wig marketers agrees!" Yep. I disagree with
you and I feel that for YOU deleting all of your face book friends makes sense. But, please, I hope people don't think that just because
it is right for YOU that they should automatically, like stupid sheep follow in your shoes.
Personally, as far as the marketing....I totally HATE when marketers or anyone sends me a auto-follow message on Twitter to "go check out a free gift" and it leads me to a sign in page to get on their newsletter so that they can market the hell outta me and suck my wallet of money! Umm, how about sending me a freaking beautiful photo or a poem that inspired you that day.....Do you all think we're stupid? Well, some marketers do think we're stupid (oops, wait, I'm a marketer too!). I HATE those twitter messages and I hate it on facebook, so, I do agree with you on some angle. Your post just upsets me, to be honest.
Because I just want people to think for THEMSELVES and stop jumping on the next freaking 'marketer's train.' Okay,
as for me and my 12 friends of facebook, I'm not done yet. And my goal is to make as many face book friends and twitter
friends as possible. Why?
Because I totally "get it" about relationships. I have only 12 facebook friends because I've just arrived on the scene with social
media (thought it was stupid to just "collect" friends!) but once I 'got it', I realized that someone like me who takes her online
friends OFFLINE would do swell having 15 million facebook friends (not that there won't be a limit). I actually spend time
getting to know people and their likes, and birthdays, how many kids they have....and send them a short note about it MINUS
a "here's a free gift" link to a sign up page so I can market the hell outta them.
I actually contact people online and invite them over for a brainstorm session, coffee, and etc......
So, if you are just about "collecting" friends and don't give a rats behind about people then it will
bite you in the rump and people will delete ya.
I don't know. Maybe you and I agree more than we don't agree. But something about
your post..........
Oh, I'm sure you won't be adding me as your friend but, what the heck.
I'll live. :-)
I'm at: http://twitter.com/yvesmariedanie
I think the sentence "I would not recommend anyone following this
course of action" might be a clue to my view.
Good points and really appreciate the post!
Ed
Plus, you're going to hold your friends to people you've met face to face? My networking rounds isn't robust enough for those standards. I find that's one of the beauties of Facebook -- when I see their picture, it IS like we met face to face. And the, when we actually do, it's like we're "old friends."
My best, Donna
Founder of the "Write a Book in a Weekend Club" on Facebook
http://WriteABookInAWeekendClub.com
This resonated for me "I want to experience Facebook like a REAL person."
I have recently looked at my facebook friends and realised many i don't know and now taking note of what Mari Smith says, hit that ignore button.
i will be interested to watch your re birth on facebook
Thanks for sharing
By the way, while I'm on Twitter ... I've noticed something you might want to mention to your peers.
In the last couple of weeks I've had what looks like people masquerading as Frank Kern or Brad Fallon mass adding people to Twiiter (including me or course) ... only to post a Twitter update or two to some affiliate offer ... and then the said (potentially) imposter Twitter account being closed down (by Twitter admins or otherwise).
Good post again. Cheers Id Doyle!
- Danno
There IS a way to TURN OFF the junk....scroll down to the BOTTOM of your news feed...it says "Options". Click that. You will see a cool tool with SLIDER TABS that you can move up or down. Move those to select how much info you want to receive about people, groups, notes, photos, etc. It WORKS.
BELOW THAT...there is a feature that lets you TYPE IN THE 200 people whose news / info is important to you. 200 people. You wouldn't miss any more family news. So type in your family, Dan, Joel, the Lab, etc. I have over 1100 friends, my family and mates from boarding school days in my friends list. I always catch all of the news from family and friends because I use that 200 favorite people tool. I also put you and Dan in the list, btw. : ) News and photos from THOSE 200 people gets PRIORITY in my feed.
And when you redo your profile, put all of the people in LISTS. It's a feature on the left in the Friends area. My friends are organized BY LIST into 30DC, their niche, etc. Every time I add a friend, they go in a list. I plan on having 5000 friends this year, but I will know at a GLANCE who loves cricket, who is in the 30DC, who has over 4000 friends, etc.
That said, it will be fun to watch you rebuild.
Kim Fleming
have to sort and it's not something you can outsource. The tools are
not in place to handle scale and if I managed to do the sort - I could
message so infrequently it would be useless.
You could have a professional Facebook personna that doesn't have friends, but just accepts "fans" without having to have them all be friends.
I like everyone else who is trying to' make it' online is twittering and Facebooking but I have never quite understood what all the fuss is about with #s of followers or friends. On Facebook I only have 70+ friends, combination of family and friends and acquaintances. Some people I have never met except by association but have added 'as friends' or followers because I have wanted to because their bios are interesting or they are operating in a particular area. I do not automatically follow people who follow me on Twitter, I do hope that somey who follow me do so because they like what I have to say and the same with Facebook. I say to each his/her own and good for you, do what you wish.
I was just thinking the other day the very same!
Should I delete all the non-face-to-face friends I have on facebook from a SN course I took?
This post lets me know that it's a good move.
Can you answer this? Should I send a message to my Int. Mkt. "friends" on facebook with my Twitter info. and tell them to keep in touch with me there. I've never done a group email on facebook so... is it possible? Is this a good move?
Thanks as lways for your straight forward honesty.
a small number of people is no problem, any sort of large numbers is
painful and rightfully so.
I hope you get this as I really want to get your feedback. Maybe I am simply a misinformed idiot so please be gentle in your response, but from what I can see Twitter is almost completely useless from an IM standpoint.
1. If someone is following more than say 100 people, the activity on their Twitter board is enough that they would have to be on it at the right moment to catch an update with a market offering.
2. No one in their right mind has their twitter set to send every update to their email (non-direct message) that has more than 100 people as their email is filled almost instantly.
3. Product/market offerings that are sent via direct message are quickly picked up as spam and the account is presumably closed...
Am I missing something here? I am feeling like I would rather sit on a rock and watch the stampeding herd run off the proverbial cliff rather than get involved... I hope to hear your response.
These are great points and it deserves it own post - working title -
Why Everyone missed the Twitter Point
Ed
I first got on it after going through your 30DC course... (bloody awesome by the way!) and was excited to be able to follow the 'gurus' and learn as much as possible...
This excitement soon got swamped by the dozen of here's my newest product launch link (i don't mind the pitches, but can I have content first? lol) , not to mention the 30 'Frank Kern is Now Following You' request I get daily...
Was I a fool to think that I was actually getting to set in on 'inner circle' discussions?
--- On a completely different subject.... Just to let you know that I have an extremely hard time with your videos... now hear me out... I love them! but I'm so distracted by your Bad A amp collection! - Holy (diety of your choice)!!!!
If you haven't checked out the Genz Benz Black Perl I would totally recommend! - I like that better than my Dr. Z... Class A... and with my Gibson SG-Z it bloody screams!
Peace bro...
Another Great Post
So to believe now that you have several thousand friends just because you have a facebook account is ludicrous! Really how is friendship when you have to devote all your time to maintaining those friendships? In all truth, they are really what they are described as..SOCIAL NETWORKING sites. They enable you to get your message across to a great number of possibly like minded people, they are great for sharing insight and information, and yes you will make some friends,but come on, be honest the thousands of subscribers cannot possibly be all your friend.
I found that I couldn't even hear my friends for all the noise my associates were making!
Won't be getting rid of my facebook friends!
Also, you can put people into lists and manage them in that way.
I also have another secret account for one particular niche. Seems like you say that is wrong! Whoops!
I have plenty of interaction with people in the right places with the
right tools (well in my view anyway)
I think this whole theme is worthy of another post.
Thanks for commenting!
Ed
I wrote a blog post, "Why it doesn't make sense to follow ten thousands of people on Twitter. (Twitter Nonsense)" Same applies to Facebook as well of course. It's quite counterintuitive that Facebook lifted the 5000 limit on friends.
Most of my real, old friends are in the internet stone age (Europeans!). So I didn't really consider Facebook as a personal tool. However as a marketer you don't want to put your effort at the mercy of vague Facebook policies, right?
It's simply not a good broadcast tool.
Let's celebrate meaningful relationships.
Yours
John W. Furst
PS. "See" you on twitter.
PPS. Making it easy to unsubscribe and a bit harder to report spam (people think twice, "is it really spam?") is a good way to go.
PPPS People, grow your email lists instead.
really poor broadcasting tool.
BUT
The market is FLEEING to it - so I need to work out a way to be there.
Ed
I am sure you'll figure out a way one way or another.
... scary when you say they are FLEEING.
Yours
John
P.S.: Besides that:
According to facebook terms any commercial activity is confined
to fan pages. (Of course they don't define the exact conditions
where "commercial" begins (creative commons doesn't do it
either).
Is promoting your own website, where you sell stuff, have
advertising on, etc. ... Is that commercial already? Or if your
website is registered under your LLC? (They could say
yes anytime and kick one out.)
And fan pages seems to play no more than the role of a
an underdog.
;)
sandy
I go on facebook once or twice a week or so just to catch up with old friends and that’s how it should be, if I added 5000 people and every time I log in only to find that 2000 people have sent me video links, (SHEEP) lol, ect... then what’s the point in using facebook only to know that you have 5000 REAL FRIENDS that you can catch up with
Loved the article, and so glad that this kind of issue with facebook is being recognized
All the best Danny
I still follow you on twitter and RSS your Blog Feed so no biggy.
Just been reading you article and have to say that this is the same for me with bebo.com. As I live in Ireland, I believe that it was better for me to use bebo as it is rated as the number one social networking site over here.
I did believe that having as many people join me as a friend would be great for my marketing adventure but turned out to be wrong, all I get now is people clogging my inbox with spam and dont actually get to hear from those who I actually know.
I did loose faith in Twitter for a while as I believed that my mesages were just being left to the wayside but since a few of my friends are now starting to use it, and it is being talked about a lot over here too, I thought it was time to give it a second chance.
I know your probably thinking that I should be reaching to the far corners of the earth, and your correct but my original niche at the time was only suitable to those wo were living in Ireland and that it why I restricted myself to Irish networking sites.
Anyway, enough of me blabbing on, hope your "new" facebook experience is very enjoyable.
Kind Regards,
Ken Scully
Continued success!
I think it is great that you have come to this conclusion, since I also feel Facebook can be great for keeping in touch with friends, but I never found it helped me create new business associates or led to business. Now I understand more clearly, since you have put together this report.
Diana
I was thinking about wiping all my real friends and family but keeping my Facebook friends,... I too have been having trouble traversing these two worlds. This is a much better Idea.
Be gentle on me when you hit that button! No, disregard that request,...I am going to nuke you first,..<-;
Ed
I like what Fred G puts in his books about putting in deliberate typos to keep the pedants happy
TallPaul
However, Twitter seems a bit more fun, and allows one to send messages that people actually hear!
I think this is funny, two nights ago I bought from godaddy www.facebookheather.com Can you believe it was even available?
Heather Ann Havenwood
Good point about Facebook being for in-person friends, people you have actually met. I cringe at the thought of people I've not met, or at least interacted with meaningfully online, sending me friend requests. It just goes against logic for me -- why would you want to clutter up your feed with other people's stuff that has little to no meaning to you? Not that it can't or it won't ever -- just that "friending" people who are more like strangers than friends is not a very responsible, or healthy thing to do.
I think you are making a smart decision to start over, and good luck!
btw - found this article through a video on thesocialmediasource
People can leave a group just like unsubscribing from an email....
So essentially, you can build a list of targeted people, and have the means to contact them.
The people in the group of full control to leave it or join it at will.
This solves all the problems, you mentioned above, and you can leave the social side of facebook to your friends.
Groups are for business, social can be for friends.
I have also done the same thing and accepted every friend request there is, and you may be right about that, but the above mentioned techniques can remedy the solution and still allows facebook to be a viable marketing solution.
I hope you get to read this Ed, and BTW, I was happy to buy Mass Control from your affiliate link.
I am looking forward to our one on one phone call, for your insight into my business.
Thanks Ed.
You have always given great content. Also love the market samurai. What a nice piece of software!!
David Cheyne
want ing to be friends - when it's 1-200 people a day - (I know, I
know poor me!!) its impractical and not something I can outsource.
(Even Tim Ferris would find outsourcing the choosing and grouping of
Friends a bit extreme!!
Ed
I try to bear in mind who the friends are rather than indiscriminately sending en-masse and have set up separate groupings for church friends, online marketers, best friends...
I think it is good to get into the mindset of people using something before rushing in trying to work out how to market to them and then saying "This does not work".
I won't take it personally being unfriended by yourself and find ways to provide value so that experts like yourself would want to genuinely be friends with me on facebook because of the benefit..
Good luck and I'll keep up to date on your blog and fan page..
Paul
Cynthia
May be competition is the real solution
Ed
extraordinary growth
Ed
though some of your readers might appreciate the recent article I wrote concerning this issue, I explain how you can tweak your profile and manage your personal and business contacts at the same time, using a combination of features. Using your segregated lists, managing your newsfeeds and adjusting your privacy setting.
How To Manage Personal Friends And Business Contacts On Facebook - http://budurl.com/5dk5
If you want to market to people - twitter away! ;o)
Patrick