A LIKE is free. It shows the content creators on Facebook that you appreciate their post, or sympathize with their troubles, depending on the post.
A SHARE is love. You are adding value to their efforts by sharing their words, ideas, images with friends.
SILENCE is called lurking. It’s creepy.
A HIDE is showing the content creators that you don’t like what they shared. It shows up on their analytics. And if you really don’t like them Facebook allows you to unlike a brand’s content forever.
UNFRIENDING is cutting the superficial ties that appear to indicate friendship but don’t. (High School friends you hated in High School. Old bandmates or workmates that you also really didn’t like. If you’re not happy to see pictures of their kids or pets or dinner, you might just consider unfriending them. You’re going to see a lot of their kids, pets, and current events.
BLOCKING. You are dead to me. You cannot see anything I’m posting about. And if I’m married and you’re still "friends" with my wife, it will appear to you as if she’s not married. It means I hate you and hate everything about you. (Usually triggered by political rants or some personal slight that the offended individual cannot get their shit together about.)
POSTING. Means you have ideas, you have dreams, you have thoughts you’d like to share with the world, or your friends. 10% of Facebook users create 90% of Facebook’s non-branded content. The rest is advertising.
FACEBOOK MARKETING. The dumb way to spend marketing dollars in social media. Rather than building an audience and producing meaningful content that people want to read and share, you post "HERE’S OUR LATEST WIDGET AT 50% OFF, TODAY ONLY" and you pay extra to have it shown around. Usually to FANS of your page and their "friends." The idea being, if you are a McDonald’s fan, chances are you hang out, or a "friends" with others who like McDonald’s.
#HASHTAGS on Facebook. Um, no. #hashtagssuckonfacebook. They were created on Twitter, and can provide a handy marketing tool for event promoters or TV-show watch promotions. The SuperBowl, for example, has become the high point of social media marketing, on TWITTER. Not on Facebook.
[An aside on Hashtags on Twitter: On Twitter you can follow the #superbowlads hashtag and see, better than Neilson, real-time ratings of the ads that brands with too much money to spend are launching at a million dollars a minute. As the ads show the hashtag will light up with people’s reactions. This is the SUPERBOWL of SOCIAL MEDIA and ADVERTISING in general. ]
On Facebook, #hashtags do nothing. If you use #hashtags on #facebook it’s #justforfun. Or simply to #pokefunathashtagsingeneral.
What kind of Facebook User are you?
- READER/LURKER
- LIKER
- LIKE & SHARE Occasionally
- LIKE & SHARE Frequently
- LIKE & SHARE Obsessively
- LIKE & SHARE & COMMENT
- CREATOR
From those of us creators, we appreciate the LIKE, we love the SHARE and COMMENT folks. And we’d really like everyone to become a creator now and then. We’re really here to hear what you have to say. Brands? Not so much.
How are you using Facebook? How would you like Facebook to change? Can you make changes in your behaviors and habits on Facebook that would enhance and improve the experience of others?
Let’s try for that, shall we?
John McElhenney
@jmacofearth (also seen on Google+: jmacofearth)
permalink: https://uber.la/2015/01/teens-on-social-media/
A few related posts:
- Digital Marketing Priorities – 2015 – Get It Straight
- 2014 Year-End Marketing Blog Statistics: How’d We Do?
- POV: Facebook’s Gonna Make Your Business Pay, Because They Can
- LinkedIn Publishing Platform: By the Numbers
- Two Strategies to Make Twitter More Engaging
- The Unhappy Reality of Twitter Advertising
