Facebook Musings

I read Shane Watson's thoughts on Facebook in yesterday's Sunday Times Style magazine with interest, and perhaps just a little twinge of offence. I have already checked my facebook profile 4 or 5 times this morning, I've had a giggle to myself about "friends" who have piled on the pounds, I've felt a sense of pride towards others that have been doing well for themselves, and I feel as though I haven't stopped reading about Facebook just recently - from their search for a new PR representative in the UK in PR Week, to thoughts on the applications of Facebook for Higher Education marketing in the THES.

I'm a fan. It has to be said. I think it's good that there is a place where I can still have some kind of contact with people that I don't have the time or inclination (let's be honest) to see on a regular basis. I've also been on the receiving end of Facebook being used as an internal communications tool by my previous employer - I thought it was quite a fitting way to be invited to the staff summer party!

It's unlikely that I'll be setting up a Pickle Jar Communications Group on Facebook any time soon, but my "Tracy's Great North Run" Group (I'm running it this coming Sunday on behalf of The Stroke Association) has certainly helped me to drum up sponsorship from "friends" that I otherwise wouldn't have sucked any money from! And this is where my point really rests - at the moment, for me, Facebook is pure social networking. I don't see it as a business tool, and it isn't a substitution for having "real" friendships either. It serves a whole different purpose to me, and a different purpose again to the next person. Understanding of its usefulness as a marketing tool is still embryonic, and it's for us marketing-communications professionals to work through this and offer creative solutions for its use - or not. Time will tell. For now I'm quite happy to continue using it to check-up on my acquaintances and the odd one or two "real" friends.