The buzz is now all about Facebook, as the newest and most useful, portable, easily configurable online social networking tool.
Who is using facebook, other than
me?
Joined on 03-21-2001
Los Angeles
I followed your suggestion and signed up, but I don't know what to do with it. I'd be interested to know if you find value in it. I was initially put off by the requirement to give them my webmail login info, but finally did, and they searched the address book at the email account I use for commercial contacts, and I'm not interested in Facebooking any of them. I'm still leery of giving them access to really personal data.
Facebook doesn't have any of my HS classmates. I don't know any of the alleged college classmates that turned up, and I doubt that they were my really classmates, so I'd feel silly contacting them on that basis. I don't want to join a regional network, because ... well it is hard to explain ... just reclusive habits and not interested in spending virtual time with people just on the basis of location. So what else is there to do there?
I tried to post a TechSoup blog entry about this, but for some reason it didn't show up. Until I figure out what happened with my account, I will link the article that I posted about here:
NTEN's beginner's guide to facebook.
Check it out!
Joined on 03-21-2001
Los Angeles
Nielsen Ratings have an interesting report (from a British persepctive) on
who is using Facebook, Myspace and Bebo.
I was not looking for this information, but noticed this morning that imrworldwide.com was trying to run javascript on a news.BBC.co.uk webpage. So I tried to visit imrworldwide.com, which redirected to http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/ and their latest Press Center item was this report.
Joined on 03-06-2001
TechSoup Member
Me! :wink;
Joined on 08-18-2004
TechSoup Member
Well, as a member of an Online Community of Practice called "Webheads n Action"TEXT GOES HERE, I have opened my space in Facebook and am enjoying its social utility, building applications, learning about friends and likeminded people. We can share photos, links and videos, and interconnect with members of other groups. In short, it's fun :spinsmile;
I searched for webheads in action and got no results. Can you link to the group page so we can join it?
Joined on 06-22-2007
TechSoup Member
I use Facebook, and my personal account is actually linked to our Group profile for The Humane Society of the United States (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2539101144). We are also participating in the Causes on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2318966938) and Change.org (http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2700056252) 3rd party applications, which have been all the rage lately.
I have personally been converted from a MySpace user to a Facebook user. I love how clean the site is, how they go about controlling spam, and the 3rd party apps they've opened up to.
Carie Lewis
Internet Marketing Manager
The Humane Society of the United States
clewis@humanesociety.org
http://www.linkedin.com/in/carielewis
Joined on 03-21-2001
Los Angeles
Some observations, while still trying to see how Facebook can have value.
It is really hard to figure Facebook if the initial guided steps fail you. All I kept seeing was the nag to find HS and College classmates and to join a network. Those steps failed me, but I kept getting the nag suggesting that I not "skip" those steps.
Meanwhile I did explore regional "networks" and I discovered some useful stuff in the Applications, such as Causes. I did join a regional network and then quit it, as it seemed that finding things of interest would be too time consuming, so I quit that network, and thought I would not have any use for that feature. (Later I played with the Marketplace application, and to find things in a region one basically has to be a member of the regional network. When I was going to join the Los Angeles network, I was warned that one can change regional networks only twice in 60 days, and that if I changed now, I would be stuck until September. So I declined, at least until I know better.) Rather than let Facebook log into my webmail accounts, I exported my address books and fed it csv files, and found a few friends.
Finally I "skipped" the recommended setup steps and a lot of stuff became visible.
And how do you know what your link is that you can direct people directly to your profile? Well, partly to answer my own question, I think I got a link emailed when one of my Facebook friends accepted me.
How do you add your own org to, e.g., the Causes application?
Facebook is great to stay connected with my friends and family. I don't really use it to network -- that's not my goal -- though I'm not opposed to the idea.
But I much prefer to use Facebook in an informal and fun way, rather than professionally. It's a nice break from the work routine. :wink;
Yann
Joined on 06-22-2007
TechSoup Member
Jesse -
Unlike MySpace, your profile isn't visible to the outside world by sending a link. You have to be a Facebook user and logged in to view profiles.
With the Causes application - information is fed through Project Agape, and you can contact Randall Winston to get added at randall@project-agape.com.
Check out the Change.org app as well that just launched: http://apps.facebook.com/changes/home.
I've been playing with Facebook a little bit.
One thing that I loved about FB was the ease in which I could load in friends. I downloaded a vCard from Plaxo and then imported the contacts in the vCard directly to FB. Very cool, quick and easy.
Joined on 05-01-2007
TechSoup Member
I've been using Facebook quite a bit to network both personally and professionally, but I'm also using it to help spread the word out about Causes that I feel strongly about. Take a look at my
profile and feel free to add me as a friend.
I've also written a couple of articles about Facebook that might be of help.
One is a
beginner's guide to Facebook for non-profits and the other is
on using the Causes widget to promote a nonprofit/charity
Joined on 07-11-2007
TechSoup Member
Not really. I'm going to try LinkedIn. It seems more grown up.
Joined on 03-21-2001
Los Angeles
Wired has an interesting
article today on how Facebook has changed dramatically in the past month or two. It has useful information for newbies about protecting privacy.
And here's another
article on the pros and cons of the Facebook environment.