I am so amazed by the power of Facebook….LOL!
Wanna keep up with the vacation plans of your high school classmate who now lives in Montana…check Facebook!
Wanna build your text lingo/slang skills…check Facebook!
If you need to keep up with who’s beefing with whom….it’s on Facebook!
Need to build your gaming skills…there’s Facebook!
Facebook is the sounding board for the masses. Now I know Twitter is pretty popular….but even your tweets feed into Facebook. I knew that Facebook was the ish when my mom and her oldest sister both had accounts.
Because of Facebook, you can now be privy to every joy and pain of its congregation. There you can follow any ideology of your choice. You can be influenced how to spend your money. Shoot, I am using a fan page to share my blog posts. And if you really need to know how your coworker… friends… child… mate feels about anything, just check out Facebook.
And don’t even post a philosophical quote (yes…I am notorious for my Maya quotes) or make a random observation about something! Man, you will surely launch an inbox war. Or you may have to delete friends….or heaven forbid it…have yourself deleted from another’s friend list.
And it can make, break or revive a relationship. I am amazed by how often the relationship statuses change on Facebook. And then there are those people from your past…you know the ones I am talking about…those people who disappeared without a word years ago or you have managed to avoid them for almost 10 years. Wham…there is the friend request! And my goodness…I have gotten friend requests from third cousins of my third cousins or old high school classmates. They don’t really know me…but they consider me worthy of friendship! LOL
Now don’t get me wrong…the Facebook experience has been very insightful and amusing. I have read the most inspiring material…quotes that have made me take on new projects with gusto…testimonies of true “more-than-conquerors”…links for blogs about uplifting others…that truly makes me appreciate Facebook’s ability to connect and connect quickly. I have read wisdom spewed forth from the mouths of individuals that are babies to me, and I smile, “like” and rejoice every time I read it.
Michael Baisden, award-winning author and radio personality, has expertly used Facebook to connect with, retain and recruit his audience. It’s no better way to stroke the average Joe or Joanna’s ego than to read his or her comment from your latest Facebook status on your radio show. I mean…Mike thought it was so worthy he felt compelled to share it with millions of listeners all around the country.
Advertisers and the retail industry are hitching their wagons to the Facebook train. And they are reaping the benefits. And everyone who is a marketing consultant (like me) is trying to teach others how to use this social media tool to their advantage. Every day at work I spend at least twenty minutes deleting spam from my computer about some social media webinar, book or course that is gonna guarantee me mega million results.
I think it’s an awesome idea to teach entrepreneurs, organizations and corporations how to use this medium effectively. But what about the rest of us…what about the casual and social users of Facebook? I really believe that there should be a course in Facebook etiquette. I really don’t think people realize just much accessible Facebook makes them to the world.
I was sitting in a youth ministry meeting this past week. I wished her a Happy Belated Birthday and she looked at me strangely. She then asked me how I knew that she had just celebrated a birthday. I then reminded her that she had sent me a friend request six months earlier. Even though it displays her “username” and the demographic information has her at least five years older and married, her picture is there. (That is the only reason I accepted the request.) So I told her that Facebook e-mails me a listing of birthday notifications and she was on the list. I also told her that because she is my friend, I pretty much see everything posted on her Wall. And I made sure that I emphasized “everything.” I haven’t seen anything from her this week…or lil’ girl may have deleted me as a friend!
I am in no way denouncing Facebook. I truly see its value. And I often won’t know what is truly going on with Imani if I didn’t check her wall occasionally. (Such a sad state to be in with your child!) Plus I have truly enjoyed some of the lively banter that I have engaged in with friends I don’t get to see very often. And it has help build and solidify new friendships that I wouldn’t trade for the world. (Shout-outs to my friends in South Florida and North Carolina.)
But it is really easy to get caught up in the Facebook drama land! And it is easy to get burnt when you don’t learn how to properly navigate its highways and byways. (Can I get an “Amen!” somebody?) Yes, it has extraordinary power…but can you really handle it?
Wanna keep up with the vacation plans of your high school classmate who now lives in Montana…check Facebook!
Wanna build your text lingo/slang skills…check Facebook!
If you need to keep up with who’s beefing with whom….it’s on Facebook!
Need to build your gaming skills…there’s Facebook!
Facebook is the sounding board for the masses. Now I know Twitter is pretty popular….but even your tweets feed into Facebook. I knew that Facebook was the ish when my mom and her oldest sister both had accounts.
Because of Facebook, you can now be privy to every joy and pain of its congregation. There you can follow any ideology of your choice. You can be influenced how to spend your money. Shoot, I am using a fan page to share my blog posts. And if you really need to know how your coworker… friends… child… mate feels about anything, just check out Facebook.
And don’t even post a philosophical quote (yes…I am notorious for my Maya quotes) or make a random observation about something! Man, you will surely launch an inbox war. Or you may have to delete friends….or heaven forbid it…have yourself deleted from another’s friend list.
And it can make, break or revive a relationship. I am amazed by how often the relationship statuses change on Facebook. And then there are those people from your past…you know the ones I am talking about…those people who disappeared without a word years ago or you have managed to avoid them for almost 10 years. Wham…there is the friend request! And my goodness…I have gotten friend requests from third cousins of my third cousins or old high school classmates. They don’t really know me…but they consider me worthy of friendship! LOL
Now don’t get me wrong…the Facebook experience has been very insightful and amusing. I have read the most inspiring material…quotes that have made me take on new projects with gusto…testimonies of true “more-than-conquerors”…links for blogs about uplifting others…that truly makes me appreciate Facebook’s ability to connect and connect quickly. I have read wisdom spewed forth from the mouths of individuals that are babies to me, and I smile, “like” and rejoice every time I read it.
Michael Baisden, award-winning author and radio personality, has expertly used Facebook to connect with, retain and recruit his audience. It’s no better way to stroke the average Joe or Joanna’s ego than to read his or her comment from your latest Facebook status on your radio show. I mean…Mike thought it was so worthy he felt compelled to share it with millions of listeners all around the country.
Advertisers and the retail industry are hitching their wagons to the Facebook train. And they are reaping the benefits. And everyone who is a marketing consultant (like me) is trying to teach others how to use this social media tool to their advantage. Every day at work I spend at least twenty minutes deleting spam from my computer about some social media webinar, book or course that is gonna guarantee me mega million results.
I think it’s an awesome idea to teach entrepreneurs, organizations and corporations how to use this medium effectively. But what about the rest of us…what about the casual and social users of Facebook? I really believe that there should be a course in Facebook etiquette. I really don’t think people realize just much accessible Facebook makes them to the world.
I was sitting in a youth ministry meeting this past week. I wished her a Happy Belated Birthday and she looked at me strangely. She then asked me how I knew that she had just celebrated a birthday. I then reminded her that she had sent me a friend request six months earlier. Even though it displays her “username” and the demographic information has her at least five years older and married, her picture is there. (That is the only reason I accepted the request.) So I told her that Facebook e-mails me a listing of birthday notifications and she was on the list. I also told her that because she is my friend, I pretty much see everything posted on her Wall. And I made sure that I emphasized “everything.” I haven’t seen anything from her this week…or lil’ girl may have deleted me as a friend!
I am in no way denouncing Facebook. I truly see its value. And I often won’t know what is truly going on with Imani if I didn’t check her wall occasionally. (Such a sad state to be in with your child!) Plus I have truly enjoyed some of the lively banter that I have engaged in with friends I don’t get to see very often. And it has help build and solidify new friendships that I wouldn’t trade for the world. (Shout-outs to my friends in South Florida and North Carolina.)
But it is really easy to get caught up in the Facebook drama land! And it is easy to get burnt when you don’t learn how to properly navigate its highways and byways. (Can I get an “Amen!” somebody?) Yes, it has extraordinary power…but can you really handle it?
RSS Feed