Thursday, December 11, 2008

My Facebook experience: "We happy few.."

How has my Facebook experience been? Generally good, but it has brought certain personal truths to light. Facebook has underlined, bolded, and italicized for me the thing that I already knew, but never experienced in quite such a definitive way. The truth: I am sadly lacking in social capital! On Facebook, I have a mere handful of contacts in contrast to oh, say, my nieces, who have hundreds of friends.

I have a feeling they'll really regret that when they get old enough to have a Christmas card list.

Facebook's CEO estimates that the average member has about 130-150 friends, with some highly driven individuals accumulating over a thousand. A THOUSAND???? When I think of my "real" friends, the ones I'd call at 3am when my car has broken down in Philly, I'm really talking about three -- well, maybe five people if I include the ones that would deep down be mad at me for calling. And of course these folks are not even on Facebook.

Quel business model!
Actually the guys at Facebook are purty clever -- what better way to ensure the growth of your business venture than to link growth to popularity and gear it toward teens and twenty-somethings? Don't get me wrong, I like Facebook and am (sort of) active on it, to the extent that I can in my friendless state. The apps are a hoot, very creative, and for people whose status messages say more than "going out to the barn" every night Facebook is a good way of keeping people posted on your activities.

Why bother?
I was hoping to use it to connect with the folks who read Behind the Bit and maybe find a little more about who is actually reading it, and what they like to read about. For that purpose, Facebook has not been the kind of tool I'd hoped it would be. No doubt there are horse people on Facebook, but they ain't readin' my blog. And BTB has a "try not to be obnoxious" marketing philosophy, so how would they find BTB?

My point...
I'm sort of taking the long way around to point out a new icon on my sidebar -- my blog is now part of the Facebook network. Bloggers, readers, you can join me on Facebook. Please!

Updated to add: I'm under Stacey Kimmel and my blog is under the app Blogger networks. Or, just click here...




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10 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 12, 2008 at 12:00 AM

    Well Stacey - I tried to add you as my friend on facebook but couldn't find you! behindthebit@gmail.com doesn't come up either! Think of the blog readers that could be your friends... plus it would increase my 'friend' number as well :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stacey Kimmel-SmithDecember 12, 2008 at 6:24 AM

    Well, I'm under the name Stacey Kimmel, but I'm wondering if I should start a group? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Silver Age SaraDecember 12, 2008 at 7:53 AM

    I tried Facebook but left after a couple of days. I decided to join Twitter instead and that's been working well for me. If I return to Facebook, I'll definitely add you as a friend.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Stacey Kimmel-SmithDecember 12, 2008 at 7:59 AM

    I'm on twitter at sek4278, but I haven't been posting much there :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousDecember 12, 2008 at 10:03 AM

    I wasn't familiar with the Blog Network on Facebook; thanks for introducing it! I added your blog, sent you a friend request, and set up a page for my blog too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lasell Jaretzki BartlettDecember 12, 2008 at 3:17 PM

    I'll find you on Facebook. It never occurred to me that bloggers are on Facebook. But that's silly because I am -- on FB and blogging... *g* Is there a Blogging About Horses group there?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Stacey Kimmel-SmithDecember 13, 2008 at 10:10 AM

    Would anyone be interested in a horse blogger's group?

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousDecember 15, 2008 at 9:22 AM

    Hi Stacey,

    You should also consider twitter

    http://www.twitter.com

    There is a growing community of horse people & professionals there. Get signed up and I'll put you on my list of horse people that twitter. :)

    http://www.theequinest.com/horse-people-on-twitter/

    ReplyDelete
  9. Stacey Kimmel-SmithDecember 15, 2008 at 9:30 AM

    Hi, I am on twitter at sek4278 ! Maybe I should change my handle to Behindthebit. Where can I find you on twitter?

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousDecember 15, 2008 at 9:45 AM

    Yes, a Facebook Horse Bloggers group would be great. Send me an invite if you set it up.

    And yes, I think you should change your Twitter ID to BehindTheBit. I'm jackiebaker and 2010WEG on Twitter.

    ReplyDelete

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