Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Returning to Facebook after a year out
It was probably inevitable. After just over a year without Facebook, I'm back. Why? Actually, for the same reason that I left.
That reason is that Facebook is too good to miss - and that's why I'm back. I'd "closed" my account for a number of reasons. The main ones were that I was tired of "vampires Vs zombies" and other nonsense, and that Facebook had originally been a friends-and-family thing only ... but that quickly changed as business connections started adding me. The line between business contact and friend is a a very blurry line in many cases.
This time I'm back with a dumbed-down, locked-down profile. It took about 20 minutes to go through the various settings and tighten my security preferences away from the very liberal defaults ... 12 hours later I have 35 friends - a mixture of business and social contacts.
It's good to be back. Yes, really. It had become clear that I was missing out ... "oh, I posted those photos on Facebook" was a comment I heard many times - followed by the "oh I guess I could send you a couple of them". Not being on Facebook was requiring people in my network to make the extra effort.
Together with Twitter, it should be a powerful combo. As I've previously commented, Twitter gives me the feeling that I really know the people I'mstalking following a lot better. Add in Facebook and we're going to get really intimate - as long as you let me share.
As for what's on my Facebook profile? Well, my friends are welcome to take a look. I've turned off the infamous "Wall" (this is Facebook sans frontieres) and won't bothering with any third-party add-ins, quizzes etc. Just the plain vanilla version. I've already added a couple of pictures from a weekend skiing trip and I'll probably add more stuff that gives the impression that I'm a wholesome, sporting, family man. Which of course I am.
That reason is that Facebook is too good to miss - and that's why I'm back. I'd "closed" my account for a number of reasons. The main ones were that I was tired of "vampires Vs zombies" and other nonsense, and that Facebook had originally been a friends-and-family thing only ... but that quickly changed as business connections started adding me. The line between business contact and friend is a a very blurry line in many cases.
This time I'm back with a dumbed-down, locked-down profile. It took about 20 minutes to go through the various settings and tighten my security preferences away from the very liberal defaults ... 12 hours later I have 35 friends - a mixture of business and social contacts.
It's good to be back. Yes, really. It had become clear that I was missing out ... "oh, I posted those photos on Facebook" was a comment I heard many times - followed by the "oh I guess I could send you a couple of them". Not being on Facebook was requiring people in my network to make the extra effort.
Together with Twitter, it should be a powerful combo. As I've previously commented, Twitter gives me the feeling that I really know the people I'm
As for what's on my Facebook profile? Well, my friends are welcome to take a look. I've turned off the infamous "Wall" (this is Facebook sans frontieres) and won't bothering with any third-party add-ins, quizzes etc. Just the plain vanilla version. I've already added a couple of pictures from a weekend skiing trip and I'll probably add more stuff that gives the impression that I'm a wholesome, sporting, family man. Which of course I am.
Labels: facebook, social networking
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Un-networked
One of my favorite business networking sites is LinkedIn, which has grown from a contacts database with bells on into a valuable resource that I'm consulting to find out background information on potential clients.
Building contacts is one thing that all diligent networkers are focused on - as is evident from the daily network updates I get via RSS about who's added whom as a connection on LinkedIn.
On LinkedIn's homepage I also get shown names of people I might know and therefore wish to add as connections - this leads to a quick quiz asking for some salient details of where/when you have come across the contact in question.
One of the radio buttons is labeled: "I don't know this person" which I've always found amusing, but never clicked - until now. I couldn't resist.
The next step was the equivalent of a Jack-in-the-box exploding out of my laptop screen ... the whole browser window (Firefox 3, naturally) went grey and I got a severe telling off, as shown in this screenshot. "Your invitation was not sent. Invitations should only be sent to people you know personally."
Sorry LinkedIn. I won't do that again. Promise.
Building contacts is one thing that all diligent networkers are focused on - as is evident from the daily network updates I get via RSS about who's added whom as a connection on LinkedIn.
On LinkedIn's homepage I also get shown names of people I might know and therefore wish to add as connections - this leads to a quick quiz asking for some salient details of where/when you have come across the contact in question.
One of the radio buttons is labeled: "I don't know this person" which I've always found amusing, but never clicked - until now. I couldn't resist.
The next step was the equivalent of a Jack-in-the-box exploding out of my laptop screen ... the whole browser window (Firefox 3, naturally) went grey and I got a severe telling off, as shown in this screenshot. "Your invitation was not sent. Invitations should only be sent to people you know personally."
Sorry LinkedIn. I won't do that again. Promise.
Labels: social networking
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
To Twitter or Not to Twitter
To Twitter, or not to Twitter: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by Twittering end them?
With apologies to Francis Bacon.
Labels: social networking
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Goodbye Facebook
Obviously billg is more hip than me, as he beat me by several days in deleting his Facebook profile, but we're in the same club as mine's gone. I just got so sick of banality - like being notified that I've been bitten by a vampire or that someone's bought me a virtual Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster.
A couple of weeks away from the site made me realize that I wasn't missing it any more.
What a fickle lot we are. When I first signed up for Facebook, way back in the annals of history (it was almost a full year ago, I'm sure), it was just The Best Website in the World. I visited every day and carefully added only friends - not business friends / associates / clients / colleagues. It was my social networking site for letting my hair down. That is, until my business contacts piled in. Feeling that I could not easily refuse them (sorry! you got the wrong me!) I also changed my profile to make it a bit more corporate ... and a bit less fun.
That was the start of the slippery slope. But it was the endless banal applications that tipped me over - skiiers vs snowboarders, vampires vs werewolves, etc. And having found most of my Facebook-using contacts the thrill of discovery has gone. I really still like the status updates but Twitter does it better. But that's about the only thing I still valued on Facebook. And having reached that point, it was time to go.
Of course I had a few last-second qualms about deleting my profile - what would I be missing out on? Well, nothing I can't get elsewhere on Flickr, Twitter, from email, IM and actually meeting and talking to people.
So I've gone. My account is deactivated. I'm an ex-Facebooker. I've disappeared. The account deactivation process offers cowards an easy way back - just log-in again as usual and receive an email on how to reactivate. Let's see if I'm missing anything...
PS I take back that comment about Twitter - I've deleted my account there, too.
A couple of weeks away from the site made me realize that I wasn't missing it any more.
What a fickle lot we are. When I first signed up for Facebook, way back in the annals of history (it was almost a full year ago, I'm sure), it was just The Best Website in the World. I visited every day and carefully added only friends - not business friends / associates / clients / colleagues. It was my social networking site for letting my hair down. That is, until my business contacts piled in. Feeling that I could not easily refuse them (sorry! you got the wrong me!) I also changed my profile to make it a bit more corporate ... and a bit less fun.
That was the start of the slippery slope. But it was the endless banal applications that tipped me over - skiiers vs snowboarders, vampires vs werewolves, etc. And having found most of my Facebook-using contacts the thrill of discovery has gone. I really still like the status updates but Twitter does it better. But that's about the only thing I still valued on Facebook. And having reached that point, it was time to go.
Of course I had a few last-second qualms about deleting my profile - what would I be missing out on? Well, nothing I can't get elsewhere on Flickr, Twitter, from email, IM and actually meeting and talking to people.
So I've gone. My account is deactivated. I'm an ex-Facebooker. I've disappeared. The account deactivation process offers cowards an easy way back - just log-in again as usual and receive an email on how to reactivate. Let's see if I'm missing anything...
PS I take back that comment about Twitter - I've deleted my account there, too.
Labels: social networking
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Getting social (online)
I'm increasingly fascinated by online networking groups - like LinkedIn, Facebook (although I'm far too old for MySpace) - and will be focusing more on this subject in future.
To kick off, I've just found a new social networking site called InterNations that looks quite interesting, this time focused on expats. In my home town, Munich, there are a heck of a lot of members who are born-and-bred German, but it's good to have a mix.
Get it right, like LinkedIn appears to have done so (it's making money), and a social networking site is a money-spinner.
But how many sites do people really need? And is it really too late for a new site to launch? Right now I'm using LinkedIn for international marketing and general networking contacts, XING for German stuff and Facebook for goofing off.
Most are open to all, some are by invitation only - and the level of difficulty in getting an invitation varies. For Orkut, for example, just being Brazilian is probably enough to know someone who is a member and can invite you.
The hardest club to join right now is aSmallWorld. After spending a lot of time and effort in getting an invitation, I have hardly been enthralled - and to be honest I was equally disappointed when I met aSW's CEO Erik Wachmeister at DLD last week. He didn't seem to be that impressed that I was one of his members, and certainly didn't want to make conversation with me.
To kick off, I've just found a new social networking site called InterNations that looks quite interesting, this time focused on expats. In my home town, Munich, there are a heck of a lot of members who are born-and-bred German, but it's good to have a mix.
Get it right, like LinkedIn appears to have done so (it's making money), and a social networking site is a money-spinner.
But how many sites do people really need? And is it really too late for a new site to launch? Right now I'm using LinkedIn for international marketing and general networking contacts, XING for German stuff and Facebook for goofing off.
Most are open to all, some are by invitation only - and the level of difficulty in getting an invitation varies. For Orkut, for example, just being Brazilian is probably enough to know someone who is a member and can invite you.
The hardest club to join right now is aSmallWorld. After spending a lot of time and effort in getting an invitation, I have hardly been enthralled - and to be honest I was equally disappointed when I met aSW's CEO Erik Wachmeister at DLD last week. He didn't seem to be that impressed that I was one of his members, and certainly didn't want to make conversation with me.
Labels: social networking, web 2.0
Monday, November 12, 2007
Plaxo: the social outcast of social networking sites?
"Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie." The Fellowship of The Ring - JRR Tolkein
So many rings, so many different uses - the same applies today to social networking websites! Just like Tolkein's rings, there are different sites for different needs - MySpace and Localisten for the kids, Facebook for friends, LinkedIn and aSmallWorld for business networkers.
The thing is, there are so many of these sites now that people are forced to pick and choose. I can't join them all: I'm already on XING so I don't need Viadeo, which I understand is quite big in France; I have a user:pass somewhere for the Calando Club but never got past the front page, and so on. I've Twittered a few times but when I'm also updating using Facebook, why repeat myself? As for Dodgeball ... well. I'm just too old for a site like that.
Perhaps when Web 2.0 really lives up to its name, one of these social networking sites will emerge as an aggregator for content from all the others - pulling everything together into one big, happy family.
So far Facebook is the surprise early leader here, allowing me to at least pull in lists from LinkedIn and XING, and to belong to the aSW user group.
Just like in real life there's also a social outcast among social networking sites. Step forwards Plaxo, a site that began life as an online repository of business cards. Boy, did I get sick of those automated emails asking me to update my contact details - sometimes even presenting me with a poor quality black-and-white scan of my business card.
Then last week, Plaxo reinvented itself, launching a service called Pulse, and I started getting invitations, starting as a trickle but by late last week, this had turned into a deluge (in terms of social networking site invitations, anyway).
I had to try - and Pulse isn't too bad - it looks like the Facebook friend updates. There are still some glitches - for example it doesn't seem to want to let me confirm all of my network contacts. It also shows promise in being able to sync with other sites like last.fm and Flickr, and some others I don't (yet) use such as Furl, Jaiku and ImageShack.
For many people, Plaxo is still the social outcast but perhaps Pulse is the start of its rehabilitation?
It's clearly going to take a while for Plaxo to win the hearts of many - who, like me, tired long ago of those facile "update your business data" emails that would have bounced anyway if I'd changed my email (doh).
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie." The Fellowship of The Ring - JRR Tolkein
So many rings, so many different uses - the same applies today to social networking websites! Just like Tolkein's rings, there are different sites for different needs - MySpace and Localisten for the kids, Facebook for friends, LinkedIn and aSmallWorld for business networkers.
The thing is, there are so many of these sites now that people are forced to pick and choose. I can't join them all: I'm already on XING so I don't need Viadeo, which I understand is quite big in France; I have a user:pass somewhere for the Calando Club but never got past the front page, and so on. I've Twittered a few times but when I'm also updating using Facebook, why repeat myself? As for Dodgeball ... well. I'm just too old for a site like that.
Perhaps when Web 2.0 really lives up to its name, one of these social networking sites will emerge as an aggregator for content from all the others - pulling everything together into one big, happy family.
So far Facebook is the surprise early leader here, allowing me to at least pull in lists from LinkedIn and XING, and to belong to the aSW user group.
Just like in real life there's also a social outcast among social networking sites. Step forwards Plaxo, a site that began life as an online repository of business cards. Boy, did I get sick of those automated emails asking me to update my contact details - sometimes even presenting me with a poor quality black-and-white scan of my business card.
Then last week, Plaxo reinvented itself, launching a service called Pulse, and I started getting invitations, starting as a trickle but by late last week, this had turned into a deluge (in terms of social networking site invitations, anyway).
I had to try - and Pulse isn't too bad - it looks like the Facebook friend updates. There are still some glitches - for example it doesn't seem to want to let me confirm all of my network contacts. It also shows promise in being able to sync with other sites like last.fm and Flickr, and some others I don't (yet) use such as Furl, Jaiku and ImageShack.
For many people, Plaxo is still the social outcast but perhaps Pulse is the start of its rehabilitation?
It's clearly going to take a while for Plaxo to win the hearts of many - who, like me, tired long ago of those facile "update your business data" emails that would have bounced anyway if I'd changed my email (doh).
Labels: social networking, web 2.0
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