Facebook thoughts
Looking around the blogs I read, the buzz for the last few weeks has been all Facebook, all the time. Before that, it was all Twitter. There's also a bit of Pownce buzz going around. I joined Twitter and Pownce, although I can't really say that I've seen a lot of value in either one; there's tiny bits of information conveyed in both, and the people I really need to talk to I deal with via IRC and IM. Sure, if I had a gazillion people to track, I'm sure IM would get out of hand. Then again, I couldn't possibly keep up with that many people, either.
So anyway - that leads me to today's ponder point: should I be using Facebook? I can tell from Scoble's posts on it that it can suck down time if you let it; on the other hand, it might well be a useful way to make and keep contacts - see Dare Obasanjo's post today, for instance, on some of the high profile users.
So I'll toss the question out for feedback: would using Facebook pay me back enough dividends to make up for whatever time I would have to sink into it?
Technorati Tags: web 2.0, facebook, social media
Comments
I answered you here
[Robert Scoble] July 16, 2007 21:46:51.000
I answered you here
Unintended consequences?
[Mel Riffe] July 16, 2007 23:40:28.812
I was configuring/populating my Facebook account when it offered to automatically add my Gmail contacts.
Is 'social spam' the unintended consequence of social networks? The more networks you and/or your friends join the more invites you'll send and/or receive.
Just a thought.
Cheers, Mel
It depends
[Chris] July 17, 2007 11:26:18.028
Chris here from Scoble's blog
"So I'll toss the question out for feedback: would using Facebook pay me back enough dividends to make up for whatever time I would have to sink into it?"
It really depends.If you have a legitimate reason like college kids do for using Facebook as an alumni contact, then ok.
Even if it's for business contacts. If you're just signing up to these services to follow a crowd or a trend, then no, it will not be worth it.
Some times you can benefit from following a trend, but in this case, the benefits from the trend are being artificially advertised.
Back in 1983-4 you could have bought a cabbage patch kid for $200. If you really wanted one, that's fine. If you bought one because everybody else had one, you were stuck with a $200 piece of garbage.