Subscribe to this blog 
Facebook: Friend and Fan policies
October 16th, 2009 by Mike Knutson
On Wednesday, Lindsey and I talked to SDSU Extension Educators about the use of social media in their work. There were a lot of good questions about Facebook, most of which revolved around “managing the process” of its use. Questions like:
- How do I rid of those stupid games & quizzes?
- How do we manage the amount of time we spend on-line?
- How do I prevent unwanted individuals from seeing what’s posted on Facebook.
Invariably my responses connected to the idea that individuals should develop a “friend policy” that connects to their purpose for being on Facebook — and that it’s ok not to “friend” everyone. (I explained that I had created my Facebook page to connect with family, personal friends, and lost friends (i.e. - high school classmates), and that I wasn’t really interested in having other’s be a part of my friend group.)
Throughout the morning we also talked about using Facebook Fan Pages, which were developed for businesses and organizations. But after reading this blog post, however, I realized that I was not making a distinction between a “personal friend policy” and a “professional friend policy.”
Here’s a short overview of how this expert manages his friend policy. (Keep in mind he uses his Facebook “Profile” for personal use and a Facebook “Fan Page” for professional use.)
- First, he created a Facebook Profile for personal use, and a Fan Page for professional contacts.
- When he receives a friend request (on his personal account), he determines which group they fit into.
- If the person meets his “friend definition,” he friends them.
- If not, he sends a message, recommending that they become a fan of his Facebook Page. (This means he no longer clicks the “ignore” button for those friend requests he doesn’t want.)
I love it, and would highly encourage anyone wanting to use Facebook for professional purposes to follow this practice. But there is one down-side: it does require that you be willing to create another presence (i.e. - a Fan page) on Facebook and manage it. And that leads to another issue: How do people manage their time effectively?
Other resources
- “Teachers face dilemma with Facebook,” The Houston Chronicle.
- “Friend and Let Friend,” The Internet Geek Girl.
- “The Facebook Debate: Pages vs. Profiles,” Click News.
Photo Credit: HikingArtist.com - Flickr
Tags: extension educators, Facebook, social media
Posted in Rural | Comments (
3 )
October 19th, 2009 at 10:09 am
[...] better inbound link is this one. It’s a blog post about my Facebook friends policy. The link to this site is in the body [...]
October 19th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Hi! Thanks for the link. I’m glad you like my strategy. Others that are using it think it’s better than just hitting ignore too.
Nigel
October 25th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
[...] question I hear and Mike Knutson specifically asked is, “How do you manage the time spent on social media?” For me, [...]