17 Reasons to Use Facebook
Facebook is a social networking tool. It helps you stay in touch with people you know (whereever they are), keep up to date with colleagues, reacquaint yourself with old friends (such as school friends) and even meet new friends with similar interests in your area or around the world.
If you are interested in finding out more, we are holding a workshop – Social Networking – at QUB, Belfast on Saturday 21 February. To book a place, phone the School of Education (Open Learning) on 028 9097 3539/3323 or email openlearning.education@qub.ac.uk.
I am also co-hosting Facebook Fridays (a one-off event) which will take place at Blick Shared Studios, 51 Malone Road on Friday 27 February. To book a place, phone Blick Shared Studios via email info@blickstudios.org.
Reasons Why People Might Use Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites
There are many reasons that people want to network. Some of the more useful and popular are highlighted below.
Personal Uses For Facebook
None are mutually exclusive; you may enjoy most or all of these common reasons. Perhaps you will discover more reasons of your own. Please leave a comment if you do.
1. To keep in touch with friends/family in different countries.
2. To keep in touch with friends/family who live around the corner (!).
3. An alternative to email/texting/phoning.
4. Use of IM (Instant Messaging).
5. To meet new friends/join new groups/develop new interests.
6. To store your book collection and discuss with other readers.
7. To store your photo collection.
8. To keep up to date with organisations, such as Sensei Learning and Performance (ahem!). We are on Facebook. Become a fan here to be kept informed of future events. You can always un-become a fan if you wish.
Business Uses For Facebook
1. It’s Opt In. People have to choose to Become a Fan of Sensei on Facebook. People have to choose to add you as a Friend. And, they can just as easily opt out again.
2. It sounds obvious, but people who are already using social networking are already interested in connecting/networking. You don’t have to convince them. This is the whole point of Facebook.
3. Create a group in Facebook.
4. Connect with your business colleagues.
5. Promote your Blog (use Simplaris Blogcast for example).
6. Promote your website and contact details.
7. You could create a public, professional profile and a private, personal one and display what you want in your personal profile but whatever you think useful only in your professional one. This gets a little awkward to manage at first though, and I’d recommend maintaining one profile instead, but with separate permissions for business and personal contacts.
8. Create a profile for your business.
9. You may want to try the Six Degrees of Separation experiment, which got 4 million joiners in just a few months. That could certainly expand your customer-base.
How do you use Facebook? Leave a comment to let us know.
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