Every day, millions of adult Facebook users interact with each other and learn a little about their friends and colleagues–as well as the world they live in.
Also every day, a growing number of users turn Facebook into a wasteland of corporate communications and a dumping ground for all of their social media feeds.
This latter sect will lead Facebook to either a slow, inglorious demise…or some place that only marketers go to talk about how great they are to each other.
Is Facebook doomed?
Facebook is a great place to promote your company and to better engage customers. Setting up a business account or fan page is an effective way to release company news…and build new brand advocates. I also think, as does social networking blog Mashable, that Facebook has a strong potential for targeted ads.
But…
You may have seen the recent news that younger people are using Facebook less. Facebook has witnessed a 20 percent drop in college students. Really? Wasn’t Facebook founded by a college student for the purpose of keeping college students connected? What’s happening?
One reason is the fickle nature of teenagers; what once was cool is now passe. Another reason is the entrance of new social networks. Yet another reason is that when kids see their moms, dads, aunts and uncles posting vacation pictures and updating their statuses, Facebook is suddenly…lame.
Now, I fear, the same thing is starting to happen with 20, 30 and 40-somethings who are growing weary of their Facebook “friends” posting never-ending PR reports and automatically-regurgitated Twitter communications.
Twitter is a different site with a different goal. From a personal point of view, Twitter is an easy way to voice your opinions and learn from others. From a business perspective, it’s a great medium to communicate to clients in real-time, resolve issues, publish announcements, and enhance thought leadership.
However–and I know many disagree–these tweets should not be automatically linked to your personal Facebook account…at least if you plan on using Twitter as a regular communications tool.
It almost makes me not want to log in sometimes when the entire screen is filled with the pushed tweets of one person communicating to clients about their new software.
I want to read more about you than your software.
I’ve talked with people who have “blocked” or even “de-friended” users they highly respect because of this Twitter spam. And it is spam.
So, I have four steps we all can take to save Facebook once and for all:
- Examine why you’re on Facebook in the first place. If you’re not comfortable sharing personal information, or you have no desire to, then there are great business networks available such as LinkedIn and Plaxo focused exclusively on business.
- Launch your company’s Facebook campaign smartly. I view business pages and fan pages as “opt-in” marketing. When I become a fan of your company or product, I am saying “I want to stay in touch with your brand.”
- Don’t “friend” users you’ve never had interactions with. Seriously! What’s the point of having virtual friends you never interact with? The point with sites such as Twitter is mass exposure. The point of Facebook, at least in my opinion, and I know some will disagree, is interaction with people you know.
- If you plan on using Twitter as a place to communicate with customers–and Twitter is an amazing platform for this–seriously rethink linking those tweets to your personal Facebook page.
Facebook is a great network for both personal and business interaction…because people want to do business with people they know about. But if Facebook goes all business, it’s going to become a rather lonely place.
-Justin Rubner
Great article and great website!
I have never used Facebook for personal reasons although I do use Twitter.
You have nailed it: Facebook’s insisting on twitterify itself is what will ironically kill it. They think by making fb the outlet for everyone ‘s updates, will somehow make people check more often.
To the contrary, this is creating information overload and sooner or later, a burnout will result.
This is the inevitable fate of all social networks. Their success leads to their demise.
The eventual demise of Facebook ( just like Wal-Mart to small businesses) will be a great thing for other website owners who have lost so Many of their member, like list sheep, to Facebook.
Thank you.
Justin:
As I am now officially old and in my 40′s, I’ve been working hard at not being a complete and total social marketing Luddite.
But knowing that I am what I am, we’ve hired some younger folks at our company who do Twitter and other new media related work for our clients. I still don’t fully “get it” (Twitter). Maybe I never will given the industries we serve.
I do like Linked in updates though…basically Twitter like but in a consolidated format that happens to also be our social networking home base for work.
Our team thinks Linkedin has proven to be invaluable in building our research community of interest and as a hugely positive and high ROI tool for us and our clients. I’ve mentioned this and other details in your blog before.
Facebook for me is about talking to my nieces, nephews, sisters and my old friends.
Would you believe that I found out via Linked in that my 14 year old son had a new girlfriend?! How’s that for a example of not only the power of Facebook, but also its potential for the undoing of our basic human connectedness? While it at once draws us closer together it also in some ways keeps us apart.
So much for face to face communications! This is a sign for me that maybe we’ve all become a bit too addicted to social media than we would like to admit — both in the workplace and at home.
There is still no substitute for a face-to-face breaking of bread (invite open by the way), a hand written thank you note, and simple phone calls.
Maybe you could tell some of your old reporter friends that… they (particularly the young ones) are getting more and more net/net, twittery and less and less relationship driven by the year.
This is almost as sad as me finding out about my kid’s new girlfiend on Facebook!
Regards,
Don