I’ve been hearing a lot lately about how people really need to start their own personal fan pages on Facebook to be really effective. I’ve been pretty good about holding my tongue, but darn it all, I just can’t hold it in any longer.
I think fan pages for people are really, really stupid.
Now understand, I am not saying that fan pages on Facebook are stupid. I am not saying that a fan page for a book, an entity, a school, or sleep is stupid. Well, ok, maybe a fan page for sleep is *kind of* stupid. But there will never be a Margie Clayman fan page on Facebook. I don’t care how famous you are or how many followers you have on Twitter. The concept of a fan page for a person kind of makes me get a headache.
Why?
Well, here are some thoughts. You tell me if you agree or not.
Isn’t your profile on Facebook kind of a fan page already?
Let’s talk about a personal page on Facebook as it exists right now (it’s likely to change in the next five minutes or so, of course). OK so, you have your bio information. You have pictures of you, your family, your pets, foods you’ve eaten, clothes you’ve bought, and maybe some random anteaters you’ve seen. You have links to your blog site, probably mentions of where people can find you elsewhere in the online world, and you have friends. Oh so many friends.
What else could you want in a “fan” page? I’m all for changing Facebook’s name to Fanbook, in fact. Think about it for an instant. Aren’t we sort of assuming people we friend on Facebook are fans? Who but fans would put up with some much information about, well, us?
“I need to be myself. I’m creating a fan page.”
I’ve seen this a lot over my tenure in Facebook world, and I have to say I don’t really understand this line of thinking. The rationale is that your personal page is for people you’re really close to and then your fan page is for the drivel. I meant, the fans. Your acquaintances.
I have a few problems with this. First of all, if you create a fan page and close off your personal page, that’s just going to raise questions. What are they saying on their personal very public no privacy Facebook page that they aren’t willing to say out in the open? Second of all, why is that person part of their personal profile but I’m just limited to fandom?
More disconcerting is this thought that if you “lock down” your Facebook profile, you actually have privacy. I worry for people who post extremely personal things on their Facebook pages. That status update about how much you hate your job can be shared. It can be copied and pasted. It can show up in someone’s “ticker.” If your concern is privacy, the best path is to avoid saying anything that could be embarrassing. A fan page will not help you in this endeavor, nor will a million lock-downs on your Facebook account.
Fan pages are by nature 1-way communication channels
If you are a “fan” of someone or something on Facebook, the page is really all about them. You are merely a fan, a bystander, an innocent marauder in a world that is not really yours. What fun is that? How is that web 2.0? Especially if you’re a fan of a *person* who is doing status updates about how important being human is? Doesn’t that make ya scratch your head a little bit? It confuses the heck out of me.
I highly prefer the way things work on my personal page. I post things with the understanding that everything is up for conversation or even debate, so long as it remains somewhat civil. And decent. I want to invite people to converse with me in more than 140 characters. I don’t want to feel like Moses coming down the mountain, ready to deliver my next status update to my adoring masses. Yeck.
Fans versus Friends
Even though the word “friend” is used rather loosely these days, isn’t it more comforting to think that you have 500 friends versus 500 fans? Maybe that’s just me, but having “fans” makes people seem so distant to me. Oh, I’m just a fan. I’m here to adore you. If we’re friends, I feel more open to conversing with you, and assume you feel the same way about me and the rest of the poor plebeians you’re deigning to friend. The doors are open. And even if we aren’t, I can feel like we’re on even ground.
Am I way off base here? Obviously each to his or her own, but I just don’t understand this concept of “fan pages” for individuals.
What am I missing?
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcow/280962961/ via Creative Commons
A-ha! So does this mean I will never you to like my CouponBlessingsNow page on Facebook? 🙂
@andreajesus10 Company pages are one thing. People fan pages are another 🙂
@margieclayman@andreajesus10 WHEW!! 🙂
I think thats why they changed it to LIKE pages and I think it depends on the person. I get about 50-100 friend requests on facebook a day. I didn’t use Facebook as effectively as i wish I had going as far back to 2005 or 2006 when I started. I kinda treated it like Myspace…what did we know right?
I was in radio and meeting listeners and other industry professionals all over the country and I didn’t want to be that “bratty” chick who didn’t accept friend requests so I said yes.
I have made all kinds of changes over the years but….with all that said….for all the people who think they need a fan page, for whatever reason, you can now just subscribe to peoples personal pages without them having to friend you.
As you know, I am sure facebook only lets you have 5000 friends (that includes the pages you like) strangely.
thats my 2 pennies.
@JessicaNorthey Oh, honey! TELL me about not managing your personal page well. I have people on mine I’ve never met or spoken to. Don’t even remember accepting them. One by one, as they come up, I’m unfriending. But with the new changes—they SEE that I did so. Hate that!
It’s worth it to me to tune my personal page back to something I want to read. I miss stuff from true friends and family because it’s so cluttered. I remember a time when fan and friends actually communicated there.
Did you *really* say “ONLY let’s you have 5000 friends?” Kidding! Kidding. 😀
DANG, Margie. Apparently you hit a topic here that I feel strongly about! Sorry to have taken over the airwaves. :/
@JessicaNorthey Hi Jessica,
The subscriber thing seems to be a bridge to build this gap. I’m not really sure why there is a limit of 5,000, but I’m also not really sure how much interaction could happen when you have that much noise, as you mention. At that point you’re basically working on the same concept as a page because you can’t really take the time to scan 10,000 status updates. The pressure to accept friend requests is also very strong. I am trying to approach it the same way i do on Twitter. I try to check the wall, see if there are mutual friends, stuff like that. Maybe I’ve ticked some people off along the way, but well…I’d have done that anyway at some point, I’m sure 🙂
I’ll tell you what I think you’re missing, Margie since I have both a personal profile and what I call my Brand Page (A Dad’s Point-of-View). When they were called “Fan Pages” there was a connotation that those that joined were “fans.” Thankfully, they changed that and they are no longer called Fan Pages, though that lingo has endured as evidenced by this post (and so many others). They are simply called “Pages.” They changed becoming a “fan” to simply “like” the Page. I think that’s better but I prefer the designation “member” of the Page.
The reason an individual, like me, has a Page is simply to promote my Brand and therefore avoid some of the personal things I do on my personal profile. I will share family things and other personal stuff on my Bruce Sallan profile but I’ve developed a very specific Page strategy that has “Theme Days” and an extremely regular posting schedule. It is sort of like a tv schedule so that my “members” know that on Monday it will be #MusicMonday, Wednesday is #WednesdayWords, etc. Four of the seven days are thus designated while the other three or more free form.
It’s opened up the world to me/A Dad’s Point-of-View. Heck, isn’t that why 12Most has a Page now?
@BruceSallan Makes perfect sense to me, Bruce. It’s the same way I feel. 🙂
@BruceSallan That is still different from what I am talking about though, Bruce. Having a “Bruce Sallan – A Dad’s Point Of View” page is related to the brand you’re trying to build. It’s essentially a page for a business. What I am talking about are pages that are based on a person being the same as a business. So, for example, a page that was just “Bruce Sallan” the person. As you note, when you are doing a business page it’s good to shovel out content related to that brand or that business. When you are creating a page based on you as a person, you are just shoveling out content about YOU, and in an environment where people may not feel comfortable interacting with you.
See the difference?
@margieclayman@BruceSallan Glad I read this explanation as I didn’t get that from the post at all. Since I am my brand, I do have a biz page for facebook. I don’t know anyone who has a “personal” fan page who isn’t using it for business and instead uses it as another way to extend themselves. I would have to wonder first: why–just as you expressed; and second: who has the time?!
@MimiMeredith@BruceSallan You are not really a brand, though. A person can’t really be a brand. Your consulting services, your company, can be the brand. If you are dedicating a Facebook page to just you, to me, that demeans who you are as a full human being. You are putting yourself on the same level as say, Coke products, that have their pages.
@margieclayman@BruceSallan Hmmm…I can see how that would be true if I owned a firm or was a member of an agency, but I am the company… it’s my expertise, my experience and even my personality that help create the solutions which are the product clients buy.
Facebook fan page give people who’ve been in my workshop a way to stay engaged with me (and not exposure to the photos of my family at the lake last summer that are for my inner circle.) I’m on the same page as @BrandonPDuncan .
Margie, I think you have some very valid points about maxing out the number of similar channels we “need” to tell our personal story. At the same time, I think you might be be excluding some examples where branding an individual for non-celebrity status business purposes, and supporting the brand with a facebook page does work fairly well. That being said…I rarely use any of the tools at my disposal–website, blog, newsletter or fb biz page…to their full potential so I’m certainly not the poster child for how it all works. Seems to be running along well for Seth Godin, though.
I just don’t really agree, kid. I have a page for my biz. But some people won’t be looking me up by my teaching business but by my name. They don’t need to know what my nieces and nephews are doing, and my liberal lefty pinko socialist views! 😉 But it might be helpful to them to read the things I post about education, reading, struggling readers, and so on.
Having said that, I’ve *reserved* a page, but—nah, I haven’t done it yet! I’m already overwhelmed just by the Facebook demands I already face. I’m getting tons of requests through my contact form on my blog, which is great news for me…and Facebook for my biz purposes is beginning to seem irrelevant.
But I’m not quitting yet. I’ll give it a bit more time. There, now! Wasn’t THIS a pointless post? But it did help me clarify my thoughts in my OWN mind. So—as always—Thanks, Margie! 😀
@Almost60Really I think we’ve talked about this before, but if you are worried about your clients finding out what your political leanings are, you should not (in my opinion) post them anywhere online. Period. Posts can be shared, someone commenting on your post can share it…you never know when just the wrong person will see something you wrote because they know a friend of your friend of a friend.
Also, you mentioned creating a biz page – again, that’s different from creating a page just for you as an individual. I agree that pages for businesses can be useful. But a page with just your name on it I don’t see as particularly useful.
One other thought. You’re in a family business, so you’re probably safe as long as the agency is. Too many of us have found that the safety we thought we had was ephemeral. Having a non-personal but relevant page could be viewed as similar to LinkedIn—biz oriented. And let’s face it. LinkedIn is nowhere as pervasive as Facebook is.
Wish I hadn’t said “Let’s FACE it.” See how far the influence extends?? ;D
@Almost60Really Hi Paula,
There’s a whole post I could write about misconceptions regarding people working in family businesses, but I’ll save that for another day 🙂
I am not sure that job safety has anything to do with it. Even if I was a consultant on my own, I would not create a page for myself as a person. I might create “Margie Clayman Consulting,” but that is different from a page just dedicated to me. See the difference?
It doesn’t happen very often, Margie, but I have to disagree with you on this one.
I don’t think anyone here has covered it yet, @JessicaNorthey and @BruceSallan are close, but consider authors. They are, in and of themselves, their own “business and brand”. Putting myself in that role, even though I am not “published” yet, I would most certainly do a Facebook page as me, an author, and keep it separate from my personal profile.
Not that I am afraid of stalkers or anything crazy, but what I choose to talk about with my friends from high school or family members is not necessarily the stuff I would share outright with my readers. At least not all the time, anyway. Sure, nothing is private online, but there has to be an attempted separation at some point.
@BrandonPDuncan I would counter with the fact that you can accomplish both goals by simply creating filtered lists of who you want to share what with. Sure, it might take some time and maintenance, but almost especially as an author, I would think you’d want people who connect with you to feel like they could talk to you as a person, not just as “Brandon Duncan, Writer Guy.” Pages just seem so impersonal to me. I want people to feel like they can connect to me, and if that means I put them on a list where I don’t tell them about my latest colonscopy results, so be it.
@margieclayman I counter your counter (and raise you a buck) by saying, just like anything else online (Twitter, for instance) any account where you have to “like” or “follow” is a little bit impersonal. Not to mention, (and you know this) that it’s not what the account “looks” like, it’s what you do with it that matters. I can easily talk one on one to anybody following either of my Facebook blog pages.
Now, if they liked and talked to me and I ignored them? Then yes, it’s impersonal, uni-direction, and it makes me a prick.
I will submit, however, as I have not played with all of the new features in Facebook. A lot has changed that I have been unable to keep up with. The filters, timeline, and subscribe stuff may indeed negate any need for a fan page. I would have to really dig into those options. Somehow I don’t think they can do what I would want them to do, but I could be wrong.
@BrandonPDuncan Keep in mind, you could strongly benefit, as I think you are, from your daddy FB page. That is an entity and is not *really* you, even though the content comes from you. People are interacting with the concept and not you as an individual. Similarly, as an author, if you create a FB page that would be Brandon Duncan: Most Awesome Book Ever page, I think people would expect to see a lot about what you are doing as an author and your book.
If the page is simply you, I think that’s where the problems can arise.
@margieclayman That’s where the line is then. Makes sense. I would never just do a “vanity” page. But doing a page for a specific book or series would be acceptable, I think. Fair enough. 🙂
@margieclayman@BrandonPDuncan By doing that, you limit yourself to 5,000 people you can promote to. Lists are great for filtering content to the right people, but a Page is much easier to manage. For an author or other public figure, a profile is far too limiting.
There will never be a “Kelly Kim” fan page either, unless and until I reached 5000 friends. I only have about 4000 more to go. :)))
@Twylah Well, you have tons of fans, I happen to know 🙂 But I think your engaging personality is a great argument for not going the page route. For what it’s worth 🙂
I’d “like” your page, Margie! Signed, a big ‘fan’ :))
@susanborst Hah, well thanks, dear lady 🙂 Likewise!
I think the “subscriber” function has eliminated the NEED for a separate “Page for People” concept. Look at Pete Cashmore (CEO at Mashable.com) He has 4,650 “friends” – most were probably collected before the “subscriber” function rolled out, but he also has 229,000+ subscribers. When he posts something on Facebook, I’m sure he has to choose which list sees the post… i.e. Public (which would be visible to all friends & subscribers) or a specific group/list that he had to create. (similar to Circles on Google+)
I currently have 7 subscribers on Facebook (and often wonder why) but no offense to them, it is unlikely that they will be added to a friend list since I don’t know them, have never met them, etc.
@james_holloway Do subscribers have the ability to comment on posts even if they are not friends with you, James? If not, that kind of is more a different sort of page. If they can comment, I think it’s a great compromise.
@margieclayman I *think* you have to option to turn on/off comments from subscribers
@margieclayman follow up >>> yes you can set comments to only friends (who are automatically subscribers), friends of friends, or everyone
I totally agree with you on this one! I created one half heartedly and have since deleted it. My profile is open to all … I DO have a fan page for my other online profile (it’s a parenting site) just so I don’t alienate the men on my primary facebook profile … I struggle keeping the few channels I have updated and interesting to then have to curate YET another page/channel!
@Ameenafalchetto Hi Ameena. Thank you 🙂
Creating a page for a site or a business is different. People don’t expect a “business” to necessarily engage in conversation. But you as a person..I think if you’re on Facebook, even if it’s as an author or consultant or whatever else…I think that’s saying that you’re there to be “social.” If you are placing people on a level where they are sort of looking up to you from the start of your relationship, how can you create a true two-way relationship? Seems like it would be more difficult.
This is why I killed my FB page last week. Since I’m moving to johnfalchetto.com it makes no sense to have another page, unless of course I suffer some severe split personality and want to maintain different content and a different voice on each 🙂
@John Falchetto That’s another problem, or obstacle, perhaps, in having a personal page that is not your personal profile. I think the tendency is just to broadcast what you are doing…what content you’re putting out in all of your other channels. If people follow you in those other places, that can get realllllly boring. By the way, I went to subscribe to your blog finally and saw you are moving. Will you let me know when your new site is up, please?
Phew, that is a lot to take in. I’ve been thinking I need to start a page for my blog, “Dalai Lina” to promote it and post things specific to my message. I also think I may be missing people since my personal Facebook page is my name, Lina Dickinson. But, Dalai Lina is ME (not a business), so, according to your argument I SHOULDN’T have a Dalai Lina page, right? Curious to hear you opinion…
@DalaiLina That’s a tricky one. Is DalaiLina a business or service you are building? As a page mainly for your blog, I think people would have fair expectations going in. They’re going to see promotion of your content and what you can offer them. If you did a page by your name and stuffed that same content in there, that would be a bummer.
Does that make sense?
@margieclayman@DalaiLina Yes, I agree. I don’t want to shove business down the throats of friends that just want to know about my kids, so I thought having a separate page would be appropriate. Thanks!
Awesome post, Margie. I couldn’t agree more! I personally think LinkedIn is better for polishing your professional image. I value glowing recommendations from people’s supervisors (assuming they’ve had good jobs) who know their work style and quality over “Likes” from online “friends” you wouldn’t recognize if you passed on the street. Unless you are a household name, I doubt having a lot of fans on a vanity Facebook page would help you land jobs or consulting gigs where I live near Washington, D.C. Having five recommendations (maybe even three) from influential people on LinkedIn, however, would.
@CyberlandGal That’s a great point. The actual value of Facebook “likes” has yet to be determined, but a lot of the studies I’m seeing regarding brands indicate that most people don’t expect to ever buy directly through the Facebook page. If that’s true for a brand they actually do like, what could an individual garner from the same kind of ambivalence?
@margieclayman Yes, I agree with you totally, Margie. Maybe somebody somewhere might find a vanity page useful for keeping and finding new business, but for federal government work, I suspect it could even be a negative.
I’d rather be Yoda’s friend than fan, too. Was going to counter by pointing out than fan pages are a good way to keep up with people that won’t be friends with you… But then I realized people with personal fan pages probablyv accept any friend requests sent
@SociallyGenius They probably accept a lot. It’s the same situation we have on Twitter, where people accepted everyone who followed them and then realized they were following 100,000 people. Then you are in a position to cut cut cut, which ticks everyone off.
If you think there’s a chance you want to divide your Facebook presence between a personal page and a professional page, plan for it on the front end so that you’re not doing the dramatic, “Well, some of you are going to stay here but others I’m going to move to my fan page.” I think that makes people queasy, ya know?
Thanks Margie. You’ve inspired me. I think I’ll create a FB fan page because, after all, I am SO IMPORTANT! 🙂
Cheers,Marc
@MZazeela Amen, bro. Let me know when it’s up 🙂
I have a page for my business (I’m an independent professional) but the more personal my business becomes (currently, I’m “friends” withh all of my clients), the more meaningless my page seems. Is an FB page pretentious?
@dougricesmbiz I don’t think pages themselves are pretentious, especially if they are used for business. In your case, I think it would be important to keep your clients separate from your personal page because being friends with clients can get tricky if the relationship goes sour. Because your page is for your business and not for you the person, it makes sense to have your clients there.
Make sense?
I definitely disagree. I think people who are high profile just didn’t have a choice for a long time. It was either friend (up to 5,000 – because there is a limit to the number of friends you can have) or set up a page. Now we have the subscribe option, but if your friends and family have to see a barrage of public updates that are geared toward business and other interests they aren’t interested in, then isn’t a page a better place to share that info?
FB pages are a tool for promotion, not a tool for narcissism. There are valid and good reasons for separating your *personal* profile from a *professional* page. If an individual needs to promote themselves as a brand in the work they do, I see absolutely no reason for them not to. I have been friends with high profile people before and it’s a little weird. I had access to everything they posted, just as they had with me (this was long before we had lists for filtering). I don’t see myself creating a page for myself, but I certainly don’t think it’s at all questionable for others to do so.
@Karen_C_Wilson I think at the end we agree, Karen.
Pages are promotion. You said it, hitting the nail squarely on the head. So if you see a Margie Clayman fan page, you’re going to know that I’m going to be promoting myself. Yuck. If you see a page for a book I write, you are going to know that I’m going to be promoting the book there. If you liked the book, that may be just fine with you.
I don’t have a problem with the concept of an author or a big name or what have you creating a page for their business or for their book or for some other entity with which they’re involved. But creating a page with just your name on it speaks only to self-promotion, and that kind of grosses me out.
Of course, that could just be personal preference 🙂