Facebook is your personal Internet address; are you home?

Not everyone needs a Web site or a blog, but everyone should have a home address on the Internet.  Facebook has exploded over the last few years as the location of choice.

I believe it’s important to think of Facebook as your home address and act accordingly.  Facebook is a place to keep up with friends, family and associates.  Invite anyone you would like to keep up with, enjoy having over for tea or to your office for good conversation.

It is true that some people abuse their guests with quick pitches and multi-level marketing opportunities. Just like the offline world, people with poor taste and timing often find themselves lonely.

You don’t have to open your door to everyone.  Set the ground rules in your profile. My Facebook home is wide open to my community with the condition that community members understand that this where I share a lot of personal thoughts. I talk about my family, share photographs, talk a little politics and share career news.  If members are more interested in a business relationship I suggest Linkedin or Twitter for New Media Photographer content.

Is Facebook a waste of Time?

Yes, if you respond to every status update, share every detail of your day or play the time-consuming games such as Farmville or Mafia Wars.  Facebook can take just a few moments of your day with a few status updates. With a quick scan of recent friend activity you may take an extra five minutes to respond to the most interesting news, comments, photos, videos or links.

No social media site needs to dominate your days.  Set personal rules and follow them.

Pages vs. Groups

Technically you should have only one Facebook account.  Business owners like to have a Facebook presence for their companies.  Fortunately, Facebook offers two options.

When it comes to promoting brands, companies and personalities,  a Facebook page is the way to go.  First, there is no limit on the number of fans you can have.  The walls come down for pages and they are open for indexing by search engines.

Every time you post to your page it is displayed on your followers’ pages.  So, if you have 1,000 fans, your announcements are distributed to a 1,000 Facebook pages.

Facebook groups are good for organizations, clubs and special projects. They offer unique setup and administrator controls.  Like the standard Facebook page, a group is a closed community.  In my opinion, the No. 1 advantage of a Facebook group is the fact that the administrator can send an e-mail to each of the group members. But,  unlike pages, the distribution is limited to 5,000 members.

Is Facebook effective?

If you are looking to connect with family and friends, Facebook is a great place to hang out.  Many of my connections are people I’ve lost touch with in the last 20 years.  So, I don’t find it necessary to communicate every day.  If they’ve waited this long, a couple days without an update will not hurt anyone.

If you plan on using Facebook to combine personal and business life or to drive traffic to your Web sites, I would recommend submitting more updates to keep the signal to noise ratio down.  It’s important to avoid having most of your status updates look like sales pitches.

I believe the standard Facebook site is more effective for retail photographers.  Encouraging high school seniors, engaged couples and families to connect with you can be very effective for following up and offering new opportunities.

Although standard Facebook accounts can work for commercial photographers, my recommendation would be to focus on developing an effective Facebook page.

I know a number of photographers who are using Facebook effectively. Take advantage of the photo tagging options; it can be an effective tool in driving traffic to your Facebook address.  It is highly recommended to have a plan and a set of personal guidelines on how you use this social media platform.

Remember, Facebook is your home address on the Net and it may be a while before it will be time to move. Use this valuable real estate wisely.

Rosh