Grafitti on the Wall
Social networking. I never really got what it meant, and I never imagined I would one day be doing it. But I must, I am told, if I want my business to survive and succeed. So here I am, trying my best to network but failing miserably.
Last year I opened a Facebook account for 1st Gear Music. I had read an article on how businesses use Facebook to connect with their customers. I enjoy interacting with people, chatting away about guitars and basses and the like, so I decided to give it a whirl. What I have observed so far is that the main reason so many people love Facebook is that they are addicted to it because they are addicted to themselves. Each Facebook entry I read seems like a daily newspaper headline screaming Me, Me, Me!
For all the talk about businesses using Facebook, it is interesting that a business itself is not allowed to have a Facebook account. Only personal accounts can be established, but then you can devote a portion of your personal account to your business.
My problem is that I do not like to get personal. I am a people person, but I do not want to share with others what I had for breakfast, that I’m having a bad day, or other ho-hum tidbits about my life. And to me, that’s what Facebook is all about. People taking off their clothes and standing naked before a community of friends, not to mention total strangers, and laying bare their lives.
I don’t want to share that I had the double fudge brownie for desert at Olive Garden and it was “yummy.” Or that a friend really frustrates me … Grrrr! Or that I really, really like my new haircut … Yay! All I want to do is talk about the cool gear that has come into my guitar and bass specialty shop. But compared to much of the bizarre soap-opera stuff I see on Facebook, my little offering about the arrival of a new effects pedal is pretty mundane.
And then there is the whole Friend thing. I always thought friends are people that you already know and like. So who are all these people that I either don’t know, or don’t particularly like, who want to be Friends? Seems kind of phony. And what about the myriad strangers who are their Friends, but are presented to me as possibly being Friend-worthy?
It scares me that I have to give a thumbs up or down to each request. Do rejected persons get some notice that they didn’t make the cut? Does the same thing happen if I de-Friend someone?
I have heard rumors that Facebook does offer some useful tools. I have heard that I can send personal messages. Maybe there is some group message feature that I, as a business, can use. But right now, all I know for certain about Facebook is that I am totally ignorant and need to learn all its ins and outs. I need to buy “Facebook for Dummies.”
Growing up, I was called a dummy almost every day of my young life. This was before parents my age began telling their children how special they were, even when they peed in the hallway. To deal with dummyhood, my choice later on was to either undergo shock therapy or to embrace that moniker. I’m okay with being called a dummy because I don’t take myself all that seriously (which is probably why Facebook does not make sense). If you are a fellow business owner and have any tips for this dummy, please pass them along. Give me a link, some required light reading … anything that can help me get my hands around social networking.
In the meantime, I will be working hard at maintaining a regular presence on Facebook. I have done a very poor job of this to date. I am that intimidated. So look for something like this: “I just got in a new 5-string bass and, wow, how low can you go? Yay!” Or: “I just finished reading ‘Facebook for Dummies’ and still don’t know my ass from my elbow! Grrrr.”
… From the guy who used to think LOL meant “Lots of Love” and secretly wondered if all his email buddies were hitting on him.
