Geeks On Site PR Director dives into Facebook… Finally!

Sept. 30, 2010 - PRLog -- According to Wikipedia, “Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004 that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc., with more than 500 million active users in July 2010, which is about one person for every fourteen in the world. Users can add people as friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.”

With a lot of trepidation, I “got” a Facebook profile.  You have to understand, it was hard for me.  Never one to keep up with the latest electronic gadgets or cell phones, and always technologically challenged (Windows 7 and Excel frustrate me to no end) I was not sure I wanted to make my obvious ineptitude public.  Also, I can be talkative and out-going, and I definitely hold my own in social situations, but I was extremely shy as a young girl and that has never completely faded away.  When I say “extremely” shy I mean my face would turn bright pink when a teacher called on me, and nearly fainted at the thought of giving a presentation in front of the class.  Finally, I am somewhat of a control freak, so images of friends writing crazy stuff on my “wall” and my relatives posting naked baby pictures of me kept flashing though my mind.  And what is a “wall” for that matter?  Did I really want to risk that kind of embarrassing exposure just to network with people who, as it is, I hardly bother to email or call anyway?  And I have never been one to follow the crowd; I am way too independent for that.  In the end, however, curiosity got the best of me and I joined the millions of Facebook users.  

Initially I joined for my job.  I am Director of Public Relations at Geeks On Site, and therefore in charge of getting the word out about the company.  My assistants (each about 10 years younger than me) were enthusiastic about social networking.  After numerous meetings, some research (on my part, they are already personal Facebook users and Internet savvy), weighing the pros and cons of “putting us out there” I decided we would go for it.  Then I learned that business profiles needed to be linked to a real person to be created, so after much debate we collectively decided I would be “the one.”  Feeling very much like a lamb being led to the slaughter, my 3 assistants huddled around my desk and coached me through the process: I had set up my profile, find pictures, put things I liked, post links, enter my professional bio, and a myriad of other things that I did not mind the entire world knowing. Next, I had to start searching for people I knew to invite them to connect with me. After that, I had to learn about settings.  My assistants explained this was very necessary for me to know, so if for example, pictures popped up with me eating a McDonald’s Big Mac like a ravenous wolf and drinking chardonnay through a straw while dressed in sweats (um, not that I have ever done that- it was actually a Whopper from Burger King) I could “remove the tag”, i.e. get the picture down immediately!!!  Finally, I learned a list of terms commonly associated with Facebook.  A photo of me could be “tagged”, I could “like” something and then someone else could like that I liked it, someone could poke me, people could write on my “wall”, I could “share” things I am interested in with others, and on and on.  More importantly, I could “remove” posts and arrange my profile using “ORM” or online reputation management tactics- all handy when you make yourself public. After I completed my profile, sought out friends and family I wanted to be in touch with, put the word out to customers about our business page, assured myself my assistants did indeed have my back by monitoring my page, posts, etc. I waited impatiently for what was going to happen next.  

What did happen is hard to explain.  It was absolutely amazing.  Much to the amusement of my assistants, I became a different person.  I was touched by how quickly people responded to my requests to connect.  Many I had not spoken to in literally ten to twenty years (but they had been important people to me when I was a child).  Having been out of the country and used to doing things on my own, I realized how isolated I had actually been in recent years.  I suddenly felt overwhelmed.  I remembered so many good times, so many fun and funny moments I had shared with all these people.  I thought about how I am who I am because of some of them, and I am a better person because of having known all of them.  That leads me to another great feature of Facebook, which shows you “people you may know” based on your friends connections so you can connect literally to anyone from your past as long as they have a Facebook page.  Being as 1 out of 14 people in the world do, it is pretty easy.

What we at Geeks On Site found fascinating during our research about social networks was the demographic using Facebook.  I was happy to see my age group (mid-thirties) up to folks in their sixties were on Facebook.  Some statistics showed women over 55 years of age as the largest growing Facebook user group (easy to believe after I perused my mom’s profile and saw that some of her friends have over 300 connections!).  And they all talk, all the time.  Considering some friends of mine (from the over 40 crowd) have trouble text messaging or chatting online I was really surprised.  And impressed.  

In conclusion, Facebook is fantastic in my book, and I am well on my way to getting Internet for my BlackBerry so I can check my Facebook whenever and wherever I want.  Seriously, it took minutes to set up my account and Facebook claims it will always be free to join, but what I received in return, connecting to friends I thought I might never see or hear from again has made the whole ordeal worthwhile.  Not to mention I get to offer Geeks On Site customers who are Facebook users special offers, contests, prizes and a forum in which to communicate.

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