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What's your role on Facebook?
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Which face do you present to your Facebook friends?
As social networks evolve and entrench their places within people’s daily activities and lives, it appears many people are carving out their places. I’m not talking about any given organization’s role on line. We all see companies have set up fan pages on Facebook and send out tweets mostly to drive consumers to spend money on their offerings. Celebrities promote their brand. Charitable organizations promote their messages. But average people are claiming their space as well.
Some think of Twitter and Facebook as their diary. Their postings can be as simple as whether they just took a bath or decided not to (both events apparently worth posting). They note what they’ve had for dinner, and if it’s mouth watering enough they elicit oohs and aahs in their comment section. If an amateur chef puts their designs on something that takes effort, it isn’t uncommon for others to run out and start following recipes of their own.
Others document their travels, either by posting pictures of exotic places or they give a running commentary on what they’re seeing or who they’ve encountered. These notices can range from someone attending a cool party in Manhattan, or in my case, the posting of a bucolic scene in the middle of nowhere. Like reading National Geographic, it’s an opportunity to see something on Facebook that you’re just not going to otherwise see in your daily routine.
I’ve noted many who post pictures of their kids or what they wore on Halloween. This is a great way to keep in touch with friends’ lives that you seldom see, yet wish to. I originally joined Facebook to see my children’s pictures, because Facebook is where the pictures were getting posted. Since then I’ve got to enjoy seeing great things; a graduation ceremony; their pleasure at a ball game. And other things that make me want to gouge my eyes out (my daughter’s sexy Halloween costume).
Some folks Facebook diary includes using the photo sections for a place to display their art. I enjoy appreciating their talent and where else can you get so much appreciation and feedback in such large numbers?
Because of their work, there are a number of my Facebook friends who are on line all day. They have access to current events as they happen and post important ones on their page. This serves an important role. By reading these posts on my Blackberry while traveling, I’ve avoided a traffic jam from a big accident, I learned of bad weather in the city I was traveling to and just yesterday found out some important news events that I otherwise wouldn’t have known about (while stuck in all day meetings).
Many of my female Facebook friends tell me about a male friend of mine who trolls pretty profile pictures and tries to set up dates. I’ve warned them away from him, but you have to admit, Facebook has certainly given Match.com a run for their money. It’s something about the age demographic of the recent Facebook enrollees. A little older, a little divorced, a little challenged about how to meet new people. For them, Facebook is a dating site. Before that first date you can become the other person’s friend, see their picture, and learn about their family. A shy comment about a cute posted picture can easily turn into an invitation to coffee. I’ve seen shared travel plans result in an opportunity to liaise in a mutual destination.
Here’s a comment from my blog: “Ron, I am the Denver Biblical Wisdom Examiner and a pastor. I am a recent avid user of Facebook and many of my "friends" are now calling me Pastor Facebook because of what I post and the advice I dispense”.
Well, he’s not the only one getting called some form of “Mr. Facebook”. I recently put time in to promote my high school’s all year reunion. Most of that promotion took place on Facebook. At the actual event I heard more than once, “Here’s the guy who put this all together” (not true, just the Facebook guy), or “Here’s the guy who keeps sending me all those emails on Facebook” (OK, that’s true and I’m sorry. Jeez.) We raised a lot of money so I’m glad I did it, but before we were through we had more than 2000 Facebook folks as members of our groups or who had responded to our event invitation. I don’t like to think of myself this way, but in this slim venue, I was, in fact, the Face of Facebook.
So, the next time you poll your friends about what your next “tat” should look like, or before you post a picture of your pet as your profile pic, think about what YOUR role on social networking seems to be.
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