Friday, September 16, 2011

Facebook: Page vs Profile


I love Facebook. I really do. I love the opportunity it gives me to interact with others. In our house we use it to keep up with family, coordinate babysitting jobs, get homework assignments from friends, chat with people who live across the world or in the very next room. Yes, I have been known to chat with my daughters while we're each doing homework. Uh...supposed to be doing homework. :) There are some really cool animals you can make on chat btw. But I digress...

So I've seen one question come up a lot this month and the great debate over pages versus profiles for writers. Despite my love of social media I found that there is only so much time, and deciding where and when to use it is important to know.

So let's break it down.

The Profile:

Pros
  • Full interaction with pages, people, profiles, and applications.
  • I can catch up with people at a click of a mouse and post content for others at any time of day.
  • It's easy to like or comment on someone's post. Instant validation!
  • The new upgrades also mimic GooglePlus and the ability to post to only specific people. Or leave some out of the loop completely. Sorry people, but Cakewrecks.org would have a field day with my attempts at birthday cakes.
  • Speaking of which, I got wished Happy Birthday by no less than 90 people, including their personal thoughts of what I mean to them. That's a lot of "birthday cards" folks. I felt like a queen on Facebook, if just for one day. :)
  • Can post to and from Twitter.

Cons:
  • Limit on number of friends you can have. You can't have more than 5,000 friends and believe me I know people who are pushing that number. They've considered starting a page [hence today's discussion].
  • Mixing of personal and professional life (if you also use this to communicate with family). Which also means less privacy when interacting with friends or making comments on others' walls.
  • The occasional security breach.
  • Not everyone is a "friend" per se. Maybe this isn't a pro or a con. But often one's profile has a mix of acquaintances, fans, or fans who want to be friends. This can be GREAT of course, but only now that Facebook has implemented ways to be able to share some things with just family (which is what I was using it for before).

The Page:

Pros:
  • Unlimited number of friends/fans
  • Wall postings, picture sharing.
  • Purpose for page is defined by its existence. You're here to chat with me or see updates. We may or may not know each other, but that doesn't matter.
  • Private. Administrator does not have to be divulged. Great for bands, businesses, or those with pen names.
  • Can post to and from Twitter.
Cons:
  • Can't post to others' profiles from your page, only other pages.
  • Double the work in maintaining when you have a profile and a page.
  • Friends of both profile and page may get double posting updates.
  • Can't add flair application to my page. Drat! I have some hilarious ones I'd like to share, but can't unless I put them in a picture file...hey, that's a PRO! :)
So how do you use YOUR Facebook page/profile? Are you friends with people you've never met? Are you listed amongst an author's friends? How does it make you feel to be a friend versus a fan?

All comments are welcome! You can leave a thought here or on my page. :)

Have a great day!

6 comments:

  1. I went with a page after I found out that having two separate profiles (one for personal, one for pen name) was apparently against FB policy.

    I don't love either way honestly, but the page was the better way for me to go.

    However, they did just add a "subscribe" feature to profiles where people can subscribe to you without having to friend you. Then only your updates that you make public would be seen by subscribers. It's kind of a hybrid of a page and profile. (I can't use it though because I have a pen name and my personal profile is my legal name.) But if anyone's interested, here's a post describing the pros/cons of the new subscribe button: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/VHTwVYTrLb0/

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  2. Awesome Roni!!!! This new feature slipped past me. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. I haven't been on FB much lately and it threw me for a loop yesterday when I went to share a status. I feel like I've been out of the loop. I have a personal site only, but will need to start a fan page sometime. It all sounds so confusing to me, so I think I'll do that later rather than sooner! LOL! Just feeling a bit overwhelmed lately.

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  4. I know what you mean LynNerd. There are so many ways to interact with people that we could spend all day doing so. And with all the changes Facebook is making, even those who are on it everyday are having to figure it out again. :) Let me know when you get a page up!

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  5. Hi Karen! Thanks for visiting my blog and for following. I'll let you know when I get a page up. One more thing to add to the "To-do list!"

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  6. I just joined FB a couple of months ago, so I'm still trying to figure it all out. My agent said I needed an author page eventually, so I made one--and accidentally made a personal page at the same time. Somehow.

    But I'm liking the personal page, to connect with my family and closer writing buddies. And the author page is there for whenever I get published and morph from being a writer into being an AUTHOR. ;o) If I can, I'd like to have just the "acquaintances" and barely-know-people (or not-known) as fans on that page rather than adding them to my personal page. Somehow.

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Tell me how you really feel. Come on, I Dair YA.