The Right and Left Brain Blog

I have been a member of Facebook for a few months and have acquired over 100 friends through a variety of means. This blog is meant to provide the initial perceptions of a 64 year old novice learning about Facebook.

My first comment and recommendation is to learn with a mentor, which I did with Susan Payton at Egg Marketing & Public Relations. I joined Facebook to facilitate my business networking and to find additional outlets for my blog.

My first observation is that Facebook is very easy to use, invite friends, communicate, and meet lots of new people. Most of my friends are new relations that I invited through various searches. One of the interesting aspects is the variety of people you meet and learn a little about. While I find older, business orientated people more interesting to me, the exposure to younger people has been fantastic. Most profiles clearly differentiate people looking for partners, social advocacy, business and/or more intellectual interests.

Facebook is definitely easy and fun. I like the short messages and the ability to find pictures of friends and relatives and find out what people are doing. It also is a great source for what people think about what’s going on in the news, travel and in recreation. You can get instant reviews from people you respect about just about anything. It is simple to both add links and post longer messages.

There are some unexpected side benefits. The quotes are generally great and more members should include them. One example, which is extremely appropriate for the times is: “Never get used to anything.”

All kinds of interesting groups are available with lots of innovative content. There are some nice quick conversations that are both fascinating and fun. The speed and ease of Facebook cannot be underestimated in making the information easy to sort and read when appropriate.

The only real issue with Facebook is the potential conflict between fun and meeting specific goals. There is a lot of talk abut how great it and social networking are for making both personal and business relationships .However I have seen little in the way of goals, measurement and results to validate the rhetoric. In addition everyone portrays themselves as an expert but you read little documentation of results from all the potential consultants.

In summary, Facebook is a new tool capturing millions of new members and participants. The challenge is to continue to learn how to use it and not let it become another here and gone media device. In addition we need to understand the potential of the vehicle and utilize it effectively.