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[This post is part of our series, 31 Days To Build A Better Blog. We used Darren Rowse's workbook to get our website, Soap Box Included, up and running. You can follow our series here.]
This is the Day 16 activity of 31 Days To Build A Better Blog. I encourage you to pick up your copy of the workbook and utilize it to improve your blog.
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Day 16 of 31 Days To Build A Better Blog focuses on solving a problem for your readers. So as an example, I will be doing that here today.
One of the questions I get asked frequently is, “Which social network should I use to promote my cause?”
My answer? Not Facebook.
Here me out on this one: I think Facebook’s days of being beneficial to any organization are over.
Finished.
Done.
Why? Let me tell you my Facebook story:
In 2004, Facebook was just starting to spread to other colleges. Some friends and I really wanted it at SUNY Potsdam, and so we bombarded the folks at Facebook with requests to open their service up for our school. Eventually, they caved, and for a time things were good.
By good, I mean that when I paid for an advertisement, the results were amazing. When I participated in a group, the conversation was interesting and the trolls were (for the most part) non-existant.
My biggest Facebook success came when I helped successfully spread the game Humans Vs. Zombies to colleges across North America. I did not invent the game, but I was the guy who kicked over the dominoes and pushed the game onto Fark, Digg, and Facebook. The Facebook group for Humans Vs. Zombies and National Zombie Day became the focal point of the game’s viral spread.
Thanks Facebook.
Around this time, Facebook opened it’s doors to high school students. The conversation on the groups went from good to poor, the trolls were everywhere, and the things that annoyed me about MySpace were now on Facebook.
I also noticed that advertisement success was becomming limited with fewer click throughs. Uh oh.
Then Facebook opened up to everyone. The conversation got slightly better since there were more adults around to keep the high schoolers in check, but the annoying MySpace habits picked up, and pretty soon my fellow Gen Y members were pushed out by the baby boomers and Gen X-ers.
Not entirely a bad thing, until you realize your Mom and Dad are on Facebook too. And not only are your parents there, but the hiring managers for many companies are there too.
So now you didn’t just have to worry about the school’s dean prowling through your photos (and they did, I interviewed serveral of them on the subject), but now people who might hire you can get onto your profile and look around too.
Thank God Facebook is a closed network … right?
Then Twitter happened.
Facebook tried to buy Twitter and failed.
Facebook then decides to become Twitter. Why? Because they’re arrogant enough to think they can top Google, so why not the Twitter people too?
I’ll skip over the numerous user revolts because the design changes never really bothered me until Facebook tried to mimic Twitter. At that point, I stopped being a fan and grew worried about what they were trying to do to what was once a nice, semi-private tree fort.
They missed the mark, Facebook is a closed social network, Twitter is an open conversation and publishing tool. They are not the same thing, not even the same category.
But now Facebook wants to be open. They know that’s the winning formula on the web, but the problem for us is that your data is starting to become available to developers who want to play with the Facebook API.
And if you don’t know what that is, essentially it means people who build programs and websites can grab your information (like a status update) and put it into their program. This has not fully happened yet, but the day is coming sooner than you think.
(Update June 24th, 2009: A day after I posted this, Facebook made the default setting for their users public.)
So much for the closed, almost private network, which is what brought people to Facebook in the first place.
I made one last effort with ads about a year ago A big one actually. I went to NYC and met with the Facebook folks about attempting a very large advertising buy. The thing was, none of the companies I talked to wanted anything to do with Facebook (or Myspace, or Google. All things I was pitching.)
Granted, the 2007 web and the 2009 web are different beasts, but it’s telling that even today, big brands are still reluctant to get onboard with Facebook.
After that, I started to check out of Facebook and more into Twitter. I found over time that, I really didn’t want to talk to too many people from high school, and after I graduated SUNY Potsdam, I didn’t need to check Facebook as often as I used to to see what my friends were up to. The majority of people I am friends with today are fans of this website or folks who follow me on Twitter.
The big myth about the social graph, Facebook’s key selling point, is that you care about what people you’re only vaguely connected to care about. I do, I’m a naturally curious guy, but try convincing an advertiser and the average user that. Remember Beacon?
I’m not saying Facebook will go the way of MySpace. With Facebook Connect, they’ve pretty much guranteed their existence for another five years, but a different kind of existence than what we know today.
The web is moving toward one online profile to access the numerous services we use. But how many of you find yourself just logging into Facebook to log into a site that uses Facebook Connect? I do.
So from a 2004 rabid Facebook junkie to a 2009 “I only log into Facebook to use Facebook Connect”, I don’t feel it’s worth setting up shop there. In fact, it might be time to dump Facebook.
It’s 2009. Twitter and Friendfeed are the thing these days, not Facebook. And if there is one rule that seems to stick about your social networking presence it’s this: You don’t need to be everywhere and you don’t need the attention of everyone to succeed.
So if you don’t need to be everywhere online or in front of 200 million part time users, wouldn’t you rather use a tool or network that best fits what you’re doing?
Recommended Reading To Start Your Blog:
ProBlogger: Secrets For Blogging Your Way To a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
31 Days To Build A Better Blog By Darren Rowse
