"Tell us: Is it a social no-no to use Facebook to peddle your business?"  Not in the least! Why would you care if someone from your 6th grade sneered at it anyhow? I use Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter, Digg, Linkedin and any others I come across.  When you’re trying to promote a business so it will work, you have to contact people who aren’t trying to sell you their business. The internet is full of them. It’s like preaching to the choir… useless. 

The social networks are people NOT trying to sell me anything except their life story, which I haven’t time for. However they might be interested in  "If you want to make money working at home…" because they just passed by on their way to whatever, well, I’m happy to tell them about the program.

I’m not embarassed that I want to help people out of this terrible recession… and I can, so I tell everyone on the internet… especially those who are there to chat and chat and chat and chat….. and endlessly chat.

I would very much like to hear one success story about someone who got a job or, for that matter, made a significant business connection on Facebook. I may be a hopeless throwback to the Iron Age, but as a boss, the last place I would look for a talented, smart employee would be on Facebook or Twitter. (I recently had occasion to read a post on Twitter, which was: "Dinner tonight is at P.F. Chang’s. Yums." I rest my case.) Also, I don’t mean to be difficult, but I think I may have a bigger problem with use of the word "oogly" than the use of Facebook. If I could give 2009 graduates one tip, it would be to stop text messaging, stop tweeting and stop telling your life story — which only your mother would be interested in — in cyberspace. 

I don’t think it’s a social "no-no" I believe it is a wonderful tool to use. I know of people who think promoting their business on Facebook smacks of desperation. They believe that by doing so it sends the message that their business may be in trouble and that they are trying anything and everything to gain new business. Umm…Hello…your business isn’t doing well! And more importantly why do you care what others think as long as you have  new clients/customers.

But, people don’t think like that, they are obsessed with appearances and perception by their peers.  I’m not on Facebook and wouldn’t be for personal reasons, but I applaud those that use it not just as a social networking tool but also for business purposes.

Oogly?  Is this a new hip word or an old one?  Either way, it’s faintly childish.

Anyway, I think that Ann is still overly focussed on herself because she actually believes that her 6th grade friend is going to read and think about a buisness link that she’s posted.  A great many of my "friends" post a great many things.  I don’t have time to read everything, so I often pass over links posted by people whom are my friends because we were curious about what’s up with each other but not really interested in becoming close friends.

I also find the idea of not friending your children’s friends a little weird.  Some of the adults I dealt with as a child are now my friends.  Certainly I’ve set the privacy settings so that they don’t see everything (just as I do for people who are more colleagues than friends), but it isn’t that weird.  Now, if they started writing on my wall and communicating with me all the time, it would be quite strange.

This author sounds woefully uptight.  I’m over sixty, have young and old friends on FB, and once in a while we get into interesting discussions (last one was on "personality driven economics").  My previous professors and classmates are on FB and it’s nice to keep in touch that way. Exulting over an achievement by posting on FB is simply a way to let your friends share your joy.  Never occurred to me that it was boasting or obnoxious.  And all of my friends who are in business for themselves use Facebook to keep in touch.   It’s online socializing and usually is good for business.   If FB makes you nervous, stick to email. 

 

OMG!  One thing for sure is that there are stats available in several different business categories on how social media is NOT driving business decisions.  Here’s one from Brandweek on how social media is rarely used to guide purchases http://tinyurl.com/qevf5t.  

Let me know if you want more.  But the stats are out there.  Read Ad Age’s web newsletters.   Take an hour a day (some day 10 minutes), and do your social marketing, and that’s it. Kids have ‘oodles’ of time to twitter and FB (not to mention they stay up all night), but we don’t.  Time marches on. 

To my mind Facebook etc. is more about establishing a presence out there on the net - & It’s all PR time - think of yrself in People mag! That material will show up when you are googled & will give the impression that you, of a certaine age, are engagee - and with it - & not hopeless with the media of this brave new world. P.S. Facebook is getting more & more commercial all the time.

Though many simply use FB for social networking, I also know a few that use it for peddling their businesses.  I don’t see a problem with that either!

I’ve never heard of anyone getting a job offer due to FB, but I’ve heard about several people NOT getting a job offer due to FB!  I work at a university, and sometimes our scholarship committee will FB students who’ve applied for a scholarship.  If their essay is all about how they’ve so very involved in their church and missionary work, etc, yet their FB is about being blind drunk all weekend… well… perhaps they aren’t the ones whom we invite to campus for interviews!

Facebook is an easy "platform" if you will to create an instant, up to date website for yourself or your business…  For those of you who cannot build your own website this is ready made tree of networking, Blogging, Tweetering, and Googling.  We look at it as just another marketing avenue.

On the negative side we are so inundated with marketing…  When is enough, enough?  Are we thinking for ourselves or being told to think a certain way with this new media culture?  

Thank you Ann for this modern column (or Blog as the new culture calls it) - you gave us food for thought!    XO   The Dog Bowl.com