Facebook

What do you recommend I do with Facebook

  • Delete the Facebook account - it's passé

    Votes: 11 55.0%
  • Keep the FB account

    Votes: 7 35.0%
  • There are better sites to meet your goals

    Votes: 4 20.0%

  • Total voters
    20
  • Poll closed .

Ukuleleblues

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I created a Facebook account for our band named The Charleston Hot Shots. Basically I just wanted to have a FB link to our web site by the same name. The site has a 200 + "Friends".

I am guessing 96% of the friends I've never met and a good 90% have never seen us perform but I get status changes, birthday notices, etc. in my email for them. If I go to our FB site news feed it consists of political rants, uplifting quotes of the day (fine, but one person posted 5-10'a day had postings from all hours pm through 2am, 4am,etc.), folks complaining about stuff, nothing uke or music related.

Then I get friend requests from realtors, salesman, folks with an agenda/ax to grind, people who have 3000 friends,etc I have to go and read their site to decide whether to friend them (if your site has a pic of a uke or you holding a uke you could be an axe murdering, salesman, wanting to overthrow the govt, you are automatically in.)

So I don't think the site is worth the overhead to maintain. Maybe it is just a setup issue. The goal is to push folks to the website and make it easy for folks to find us if they need a uke band.

On top of this I saw some videos on YouTube how intrusive FB is and I personally hate the user interface.

What should I do? Are there better sites that will accomplish what I want to do? Will robots come in the middle of the night and take me away?
 
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I don't know much about this, but I think you need a Facebook "Page", not a FB "Profile". My understanding is that a Page is set up more for businesses, public figures, etc...you have no friends on a Page, just followers. I think that should eliminate most of your problems. That being said, I don't have any direct experience with a Page.
 
I don't know much about this, but I think you need a Facebook "Page", not a FB "Profile". My understanding is that a Page is set up more for businesses, public figures, etc...you have no friends on a Page, just followers. I think that should eliminate most of your problems. That being said, I don't have any direct experience with a Page.
Thank you! Does anyone know if with a page account if I can post to another page, I have the same FB issue with our uke club. I post to the local cafe we play at on their page when we are going to play as a reminder and then thank them and compliment their food after we play. Will a page account allow me to still do that? Anyone know as this seems to be the solution.
 
Rather than a FB account, you might consider creating a FB "page" that people would "like" instead of "friend".

For instance here is the page for The Folk Project, an organization I belong to.

https://www.facebook.com/FolkProject?ref=ts&fref=ts

Once you have created a page for your band you can fill it with photos and videos and add a history of the band, etc...

You can also creat separate "events" for your gigs. Here is the Folk Project event page for our upcoming Uke fest in late August.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1508465692709817/?ref=5


Scooter
 
As administrator of a Page, you can post and comment as that Page on other businesses' pages.

The one downside of using a page is that Facebook wants you to pay for the privilege of advertising to your followers, so they aggressively filter the statuses of pages unless you pay to "boost" the post. Typically, if I make a status update on my page, fewer than 10% of my followers will see that post, unless people start liking and sharing it, increasing the visibility.

Moreover, you should review your notification settings - you don't need to be getting emails for everything.
 
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Thank you! Does anyone know if with a page account if I can post to another page, I have the same FB issue with our uke club. I post to the local cafe we play at on their page when we are going to play as a reminder and then thank them and compliment their food after we play. Will a page account allow me to still do that? Anyone know as this seems to be the solution.

Yes, a page can post to other pages, as well as people's timelines. You can also "share" your events to other pages and individuals' timelines.


Scooter
 
I voted "keep the FB account" but only because your keeping the account will help me reach my goal of being the only human being on the planet without a facebook account!

John
 
I voted "keep the FB account" but only because your keeping the account will help me reach my goal of being the only human being on the planet without a facebook account!

John

Wanna start a club? I don't have one either. Unless they start delivering my paychecks via FB, I never will. :cool:
 
Wanna start a club? I don't have one either. Unless they start delivering my paychecks via FB, I never will. :cool:

The club has now swollen to three members, no FB for me either.So many people have tried to get me to join, no thank you, no way no how.
 
The club has now swollen to three members, no FB for me either.So many people have tried to get me to join, no thank you, no way no how.

I'm not so sure we should be discussing a swollen club in polite company, but hey - Welcome Aboard!
 
I did like Scooter and Goaucats suggested and created a FB page. I did it for the Band and the uke club accounts. Facebook is so un-intuitive, I came close to joining the no-FB club about 10 times. I am still reserving the option if this doesn't work out. I've been at it since I first posted this morning and its 6pm. For most everything I did I had to search the web for instructions. There are certain things you can't disable, other things they want money for, other things you have to indian track to figure out how to do. It smacks of sleeze, ripoff, BS and personal intrusion all around.

I have both sites pointing to the proper web sites with nothing that needs to be maintained on a regular basis. Thanks Scooter and GoAUcats!!! Now I don't have to see cute/weird pics of of folks new 3 headed puppies, read why some politician is the Antichrist, view what someone ate for dinner, or fend off salesmen and agents that want to spam my page with advertisements for their service or crap. YEAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
 
I have a Facebook account for the Ukulele Band of Alabama and we don't get any kind of bad traffic, but it isn't a personal page, rather a community page. You can also set up a business page, whatever suits your needs. Pretty easy to maintain. I don't get anything in my email. I just go to the page and take care of messages and such from there. I also set up one for our ukulele fest, this coming September. Here's the UBA page. https://www.facebook.com/ubalabama

I've also gone to www.weebly.com and set up webpages for both. So, we have a presence on the web, but it is very basic.
 
...view what someone ate for dinner...

True story - a few years ago my youngest daughter was living with us and she got my wife set up on FB. Shortly after I was in my home office working one evening when my wife dashed in to gush, "Becki is fixing Glenn tacos for dinner!" I did the slow turn, the long stare, and told her that I like our friends but if I was the least interested in what they were having for dinner then I would be on Facebook and that, unless we'd been invited to dinner, I really didn't much care what Glenn was going to be eating...

John
 
I voted "keep the FB account" but only because your keeping the account will help me reach my goal of being the only human being on the planet without a facebook account!

John

Wanna start a club? I don't have one either. Unless they start delivering my paychecks via FB, I never will. :cool:

The club has now swollen to three members, no FB for me either.So many people have tried to get me to join, no thank you, no way no how.

I'm not so sure we should be discussing a swollen club in polite company, but hey - Welcome Aboard!

Can I join the no-FB club, too? :)

That makes what - six of us? I'm in good company. And the "swollen club" joke gave me a much-needed laugh, so thanks for that.

...

I am guessing 96% of the friends I've never met and a good 90% have never seen us perform but I get status changes, birthday notices, etc. in my email for them. If I go to our FB site news feed it consists of political rants, uplifting quotes of the day (fine, but one person posted 5-10'a day had postings from all hours pm through 2am, 4am,etc.), folks complaining about stuff, nothing uke or music related.

Then I get friend requests from realtors, salesman, folks with an agenda/ax to grind, people who have 3000 friends,etc I have to go and read their site to decide whether to friend them (if your site has a pic of a uke or you holding a uke you could be an axe murdering, salesman, wanting to overthrow the govt, you are automatically in.)
...

Facebook's reason for being is, pure and simple, marketing - which is what you're describing in these two paragraphs. If you want to use it for marketing, then you have to expect that YOU will, in turn, be used for marketing. Fair is fair :) Kidding, sort of, but in all seriousness, there are other ways of getting your site to rank high on Google (which I'm assuming is your goal) - through sharing inbound links and being creative but honest with SEO, I've managed to get first-page SERP placement for a number of sites, all without involving Facebook.

ETA: I killed my Facebook a long time ago, but before taking that extreme measure I adopted a policy of only "friending" people with whom I was comfortable either offering an airport ride to, or asking an airport ride from. It helped, but didn't stop the stoopid requests from total strangers.
 
...I adopted a policy of only "friending" people with whom I was comfortable either offering an airport ride to, or asking an airport ride from. It helped, but didn't stop the stoopid requests from total strangers...

Hah, hah. I love that. For several months now my sig on a motorcycle forum I spend almost as much time on as I do here has been: "The next time you need a ride to the airport, ask one of your 3000 Facebook friends!"

John
 
Hah, hah. I love that. For several months now my sig on a motorcycle forum I spend almost as much time on as I do here has been: "The next time you need a ride to the airport, ask one of your 3000 Facebook friends!"

John

Great minds! :)
 
True story - a few years ago my youngest daughter was living with us and she got my wife set up on FB. Shortly after I was in my home office working one evening when my wife dashed in to gush, "Becki is fixing Glenn tacos for dinner!" I did the slow turn, the long stare, and told her that I like our friends but if I was the least interested in what they were having for dinner then I would be on Facebook and that, unless we'd been invited to dinner, I really didn't much care what Glenn was going to be eating...
Then you must share my disdain for all those people who feel like they have to actually post pics of what they're eating... live from the restaurant, even. I hear that's big on Instagram, but I wouldn't really know since I've never gone there. :p

Back in the day before the advent of "social media" you actually had to have a modicum of computer savvy to create and upload your own geocities page. :eek:

Call me a Luddite, but I have to shake my head when people are so wrapped up in all this social media crap, and they're constantly on their smartphones checking FB or tweeting or upping pics to Instagram. There's nothing so urgent you have to watch your phone instead of the traffic when you're crossing the street.

I don't do texting, either. You can email me, or if you need something right away, you can (gasp!) call me. If I'm not taking calls or forgot to turn my phone on, you can leave a message. If it's an emergency, there's 911.

I saw a "funny pic" recently that juxtaposed two photos of concertgoers side-by-side. One was from the 80's and showed everyone in the crowd holding up Bic lighters. The current one showed everyone holding up smartphones. So true.
 
....Facebook's reason for being is, pure and simple, marketing - which is what you're describing in these two paragraphs. If you want to use it for marketing, then you have to expect that YOU will, in turn, be used for marketing. Fair is fair :)....
Yeah but I am cheap and easily irritated. Har Har!!!!
 
True story - a few years ago my youngest daughter was living with us and she got my wife set up on FB. Shortly after I was in my home office working one evening when my wife dashed in to gush, "Becki is fixing Glenn tacos for dinner!" I did the slow turn, the long stare, and told her that I like our friends but if I was the least interested in what they were having for dinner then I would be on Facebook and that, unless we'd been invited to dinner, I really didn't much care what Glenn was going to be eating...

John

I've seen people post about particularly satisfying bowel movements; if I have to choose, I'd rather hear about what they had for dinner. But, if choosing was not mandatory, I would prefer to know about neither.

I get friend requests from people who do not understand or speak my language; why me I think, but rarely ask. Just hit the decline button.

But, I did get a note asking if I was the same Bob who roomed with a guy named John at UC, Davis 45 years ago. I was and we met for lunch a few weeks ago. It was a very worthwhile meeting; he still speaks English.
 
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