Bluelime Media - Interactive Solutions with a Twist

Facebook is surprisingly useful

Recently a friend of mine sent me an invitation to join her network on Facebook. I ignored it at first, thinking back to my first experience with the social networking site; I had seen how my college-aged step-daughter uses it. She and her friends post tons of photos and notes for each other, mainly centering around recent parties etc. Theirs is a socially active world with time to spare, compared to mine. So Facebook didn’t seem like it was a place for me.

But recently the site has broken past it’s college bounds and people from all walks of life are signing up. I was convinced to try it out after reading reviews by Alexandra Samuel and Rob Cottingham.

The first thing you’ll probably notice after joining is the surprising amount of time you can waste on Facebook. You’ll be busy adding friends and checking out the addictive feed of updates from your network. But for me at least this faded to a reasonable level after a few days. (Just be warned - you might want to sign up on a Friday with a bit of time to spare!)

After you’ve added your friends you can also join any number of groups. (I joined the Coastal group, since I live on the Sunshine Coast, and the “Common Sense: Does it Still Exist?” group, just for fun.) Groups can post photos, notes, and start discussion threads. As Rob and Darren Barefoot have discussed, these groups can be amazing tools for activism and knowledge sharing.

I agree with Rob: Facebook is extremely easy to use. I also like the fact that they’ve kept the advertising to a sane level, which keeps it feeling like a service rather than the cash grab that some banner-heavy websites have begun feeling like lately.

Since I recently moved and became a teleworker, I’m finding Facebook is good for some reconnection with past colleagues. It’s a stand-in for the water cooler talk that keeps you in touch just that little bit. But since you can choose when to log into it, it’s less disruptive than, say, an instant message or even an email.

Other notable features are

• a good degree of control around who can see your information and how you’d like Facebook to update you, etc. You can make your info public or only viewable by approved friends or networks.
• events listings - post your event for view by friends, select networks, or all of Facebook. Big potential for events-promotion here (launch parties, rallies, craft sales…).
• the ability to import posts from your blog, so you won’t feel torn about where to write. Some bloggers may take advantage of this feature’s potential to drive some traffic to your site.
• an interesting alternative to personals sites, perhaps. With the ability to note your relationship status you can quickly announce to your network when you’re back in the singles game.

Watch for new features to arrive soon, as Facebook is now encouraging third parties to create custom add-ons.

That’s it for now. Gotta go see what’s cooking in my network!