The Facebook debate - can we take you seriously if you’ve never used it?
I’ve recently seen a flurry of blogs about the merits (or not) of Facebook as a social networking environment. I was stirred to action when I read Elsua’s blog this morning, which in turn refers to the question posed by Mitch Joel “Can you claim to be in social media without having a Facebook account”.
Now, whilst I don’t disagree with many of the points made by Elsua, or for that matter Euan Semple, who writes about Facebook being all froth and no substance, I would like to pose the following question:
If you’re serious about Social Media, and profess to be an ‘expert’, where there is a major gathering of like-minded socially-active individuals, can you afford to NOT be there?
Yes, there are a lot of shortcomings with Facebook, but if you want to comment about it with any authority, you need to be a part of it, not a bystander watching on the periphery.
Hi Steve! Great thoughts and very nicely put together! Thanks for adding further up into the conversation. You almost nearly convinced me to dive in and join the rest of the crowd. But, to follow up further from your conversation, I am very serious about social media as I feel it is helping change all of the negativity around KM that we have been “suffering from” all of these years. However, from that to say I, or whoever else, is an expert, it is an understatement. Lots and lots of stuff has been written about what an expert is and what is not.
And I feel that if I would join Facebook and start using it would that make me an expert on the subject? I don’t think so. I just become another user, like with many other platforms. And like everyone else. Everyone that claims to be an expert in whatever the field clearly needs to show they have got that expertise and leadership to show it and I am not sure about you, but I know a very few of those. And certainly not in the social media space where people are just getting started with it
I prefer to say, more than an expert, that knowledge workers become knowledgeable about a particular subject, which they do, but from that to say they are experts for just using one tool or another is a bit of an understatement.
My authority to comment on what I see about Facebook is not such. People may agree with it or not, but what gives me the capability of exercising that authority. Do I have any diploma or certification to justify that authority, or is it going to be based on how I get to use the tools, because if that is the case there are then millions of experts with authority on Facebook. WOW! Never thought about that. Why would I want to add further up into the clutter, eh?
Oh, and one final comment, to say that Facebook is a social network, when they themselves deny that fact is not helping much social computing and Facebook. It is just a platform to aggregate content, just like with any other application out there. Before was MySpace (Do you have a MySpace address?), then OrKut (Got another account there?) and so forth. Facebook is just the next one up. Pretty interesting and exciting, but just because everyone decides to jump into the river does not necessarily mean we can walk along the coast, right?
(Yes, you nearly convinced me to join Facebook. The closest I have been thus far
)
Luis,
thanks for the comment. I didn’t want to get bogged down in what constitutes an ‘expert’, but just to say that for many blog readers who are new to, or excited by the social media/social networking agenda and who read what are quite often well arcticulated and cogent discussions on the topic, they will quite often attach the ‘expert’ label to the author. So, you may humbly deny being an ‘expert’, but others may perceive you to be one - like it or not!
The other point I’d like to make is that it is usually easier to make a difference (in this instance improving the many deficiencies of Facebook) by being on the inside looking out rather than the outside looking in.
My last point is on what does or doesn’t consitute a social network; I think the academics are running the asylum on this one. It’s a social network - full stop. My daughter used Facebook to post an event about her engagement party, arrange the venue for the party, send invitations to her friends, engage in on-line dialogue with those who were attending and those who couldn’t, and posted various pictures after the event. If this isn’t a social networking activity then I don’t know what is!
I would add that I don’t have accounts on other ’social networking’ sites, such as Myspace, and doubt I ever will. I thought I’d just see what the buzz was all about by joining Facebook. I found there’s some quite interesting third party applications being developed there, but will reserve judgement on whether any of these will change the way we connect, learn and work together.
Again- thanks for your comments.
Steve
Hi Steve! Thanks a bunch for adding further up into the discussion. Lots of good stuff in there! You bring in a good point about expertise and being an expert and in a way I am not going to deny the argument. I think you have won on that one
It is just perhaps that I always consider other folks who have been there before me years ago doing this stuff as the experts. I am just on a continuous learning process to perhaps one day become one of them, heh
Oh, yes, I couldn’t have agreed more with that statement and I have been doing that for the various dozens of social software tools I get to use on a regular basis. However, there is one thing that we need to be realistic about. If I would ever get to access Facebook and jump in, do you think that the Facebook developers would be listening to someone like me claiming, for instance, that the RSS feeds are broken, that the closeness of data is not helping at all to expand the tool, that over here in Europe there are some serious issues regarding privacy that should be worked out, and the groups interface is very very poor compared to other platforms?
I seriously doubt it. In fact, I know of a few of those social software tools that I have been using for a while where I have provided lots of constructive feedback on how to help improve the user experience and time and time again, and unless you are an Internet star, you are completely ignored. I can come up with half a dozen of those apps. where the end-user community has been completely ignored on their feedback input to improve whatever the offering. So, while I certainly agree with your comments quote above, I still think we need to be realistic, even if I join Facebook I would not have a chance to change some of the things I find could improve a bit. Quite a lot, actually.
RE: Facebook being a social networking tool, I am not re-inventing the wheel in here, Steve. It is the same group of folks behind Facebook, the ones saying that it is not a social networking tool, but a platform to aggregate content and share it with others, like plenty of other data aggregators. I am not saying that, they are saying it themselves. For what purpose? I don’t know, because your description above on how it can be used would be one of plenty of social networking tools. Go figure.
You last comments about not joining MySpace are the same sentiments for me regarding Facebook. To me, it has got to come up with a consistent and solid approach as to how it is going to change the way I interact online already with a number of different folks. So far I haven’t found it compelling enough to make me switch, so why would I want to add further clutter to my online daily interactions? Don’t we all have enough already of those? Ever faced social networking fatigue? Not that I am, but if things keep moving forward like they are, it will not be too long before I do, before we all do.
Thanks again for helping me out get through this and convince myself whether I should join or not. It is getting close.