the client services blog
This morning, Facebook invited me to invite all of my AIM contacts to join Facebook.
I don’t feel like spamming 29 people to join Facebook, but they will doubtless add thousands more users today through this tactic.
They asked me to give them my AIM info so they could tell me who wasn’t connected yet on Facebook, then gave me the opportunity to invite them all at once, via IM. Smart move!
My Facebook profile now has a link to my LinkedIn profile, and vice versa.
More and more, I am making business contacts through Facebook. I haven’t started arranging social events through LinkedIn yet…
LinkedIn vs Facebook?
LinkedIn is better at showing me details of a person’s work history, and how I am connected to them. Facebook is better at showing me how someone is connected to various groups or people I don’t know but would like to.
How they work together
Case in point- on Facebook I joined the Web Strategy group, because I read about it on Jeremiah’s blog. On the discussion board for that group, I left a few comments, and then browsed some of the other people in that group. I saw one firm that looks like a potential business partner, so I looked at the guy’s Facebook profile and clicked over to his LinkedIn profile to see who he was. Convinced that talking to him was worthwhile, I facebooked him (sent him a message via facebook) which he returned within a few minutes. After a few messages back and forth, he recommended that I talk to his CEO, who is also on facebook.
Play by play
Catch all that? Here it is again:
1. Jeremiah’s Blog
2. Jeremiah’s Web Strategy Facebook group
3. Web Strategy Facebook group discussion forums
4. Interesting person’s facebook profile
5. Same person’s LinkedIn profile
6. (scope out company website)
7. back to facebook to message them
8. messages back and forth
9. facebook message to CEO of that company
The only trouble is that my Facebook profile is built for my friends and college networking, not business networking, so I need to spruce it up a bit. As Ian says, this is what transparency really means…
These Come From Trees organized a Facebook group to further their cause. It has 123 members.
I just got this message:
Diggs to date: 9
Smart use of facebook. +1 to Peter Kazanjy. The sticker/idea he is spreading:
Barack Obama is on facebook. If you have an account, you can see his profile here.
John McCain also has a facebook profile, but it is much skimpier.
For example, Obama has posts on his wall and has written 10 notes, while McCain has none on either count.
Barack has posted one event, a speech he did on February 2nd, which received 100 responses. Apply the rule that only 10% of people ever speak up in the social media world, and Obama probably reached an additonal 1000 people or so with that event.
He also posted his announcement of his presidential ambitions. Not hard, as he is just importing his blog into facebook, which I do as well. But that one note has gotten 240 comments so far, after being posted on Saturday.
David Berkowitz has noted Facebook’s advantages over MySpace, and also how Obama is using Myspace.
I want to see how much effect politicians using facebook and myspace have on the election. If you can get 1,000 college students to post to your wall…. who cares? Can that be converted into more votes? More action?
I know it works for commercial enterprises. Our client Veoh got mentioned on Techcrunch yesterday, which is a nice publicity boost, and gets them some more respect in the net community.
But how will it work in politics? Will it hurt McCain that Obama is using facebook and myspace in a smart way while McCain is doing little? Do enough people care?
UPDATE: I just noticied you can send Barack a message via facebook, but McCain has messages turned off. What kind of message does that send?
When I want to keep in touch with someone college-aged, I don’t ask for their phone number. I ask them to facebook me.
That’s shorthand for “add me as a friend to your facebook profile.” Sometimes, I give them my name and they would have to search in facebook to find me. More often, I give them my name and tell them to search a common friend’s friend list.
The friends list is a usually public list of everyone you share friend status with. So when I meet Doug through my friend Bob, I don’t have to remember Doug’s full name. I just remember his name, or even just his face (most facebook users put photos in their profiles), and look through Bob’s friend list to find him.
If facebook went down, I would not know how to get ahold of many of my friends. I some of their cell numbers, but for some people, leaving a message on facebook is at least as reliable as calling them.
If you are involved in marketing to people under 30, read up on facebook and myspace. Understanding how your target audience communicates is crucial for crafting spreadable marketing messages.
