This is the episode where I called Facebook UNsocial.

To catch you up, here are the posts from Ed & Paul on the topic:

• Ed Dale: Facebook Lowering The BOOM on “5000 friends”
• Paul Colligan: About The Facebook Changes

Of specific interest is #2 in the new TOS as highlighed by Ed Dale in this image:

Ed said, “This is the real tragedy of these so called Facebook experts – by getting people to build their profile – they have built a sand castle that will be swept out with the tide of the new TOS…”

Hmm. Personally, I think that 2nd point in the TOS needs a little clarification. In case the image is not clear on your end, it reads:

You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).

I assume this comes on the heels of proposed FTC regulations of social media, as well as services like: pay-per-post, pay-per-tweet and maybe even pay-per-spam-your-friends-on-facebook.

The recommendation is to set up a Facebook PAGE for any commercial purposes, and keep Facebook Profiles as they were intended – to exchange updates with friends and family. If I understand Paul & Ed correctly, they intend to keep their personal profiles restricted to their “real life” friends and family. In fact, Paul is in the process of following Ed’s footsteps in removing all business connections and business peers from his profile, and encouraging them to “fan” his page instead.

I say to each his own. Facebook is a social networking site, and one where I have made a lot of new friends. It’s a place on the web where I have an opportunity to be a bit more personal and friendly with my business peers and my high school friends alike. My profile is as it should be – it’s all about me. My profile is a mash-up of all of the things I am: mother, friend, business owner, goofball, traveler, etc.

You may recall that I set up a Facebook Page back in March, following one of their better updates. Up to that point I hadn’t been real interested in Facebook, but since those updates I’ve actually logged in several times a week – and even enjoy it! Though I still don’t really care for public restrooms but that’s another post on another blog…

My Facebook Page allows to you “become a fan” of ClickNewz, by the way – not of me personally. I’m not really into the idea of running a “Lynn Terry Fan Club”.

The page is a nice option for people who would prefer to get business-only updates, and skip any random chitter chatter from me about how my day is going or the latest cute picture of my kids.

I’m not a huge Facebook user, by the way. At the time of this post I have 1,070 friends on Facebook, and 163 fans to the ClickNewz page.

First of all, I’m NOT going to go through the trouble of un-friending every single NRL (not-real-life) friend on Facebook. That would leave me with about… 3 friends. Not to mention it’s a lot of work, and seems pretty unnecessary to me.

Then there’s the issue of new friend requests. Let’s say you set up a personal profile, and then set up a Facebook Page for your business or brand. Every time someone finds you on Facebook and sends you a friend request, you either have to ignore it or deny it – and then ask them to “fan you” instead. That just seems… UNsocial. Rude even.

My question is: just how does Facebook define “commercial gain”?

Does commercial gain include indirect gain, as well as direct gain. A link to your latest blog post, for example – indirect. An affiliate link to a product you’re promoting – direct. And are they going to police every single profile, or allow the community to police profiles with a “report user” feature?

And what if my friend Nicole Dean posts a message on my wall, asking for the sign-up link to the next NAMS Workshop. Do I ignore her? How about if post on my friend Kathleen Gage’s wall, to discuss her upcoming teleseminar. Like I said, point #2 needs more clarification.

I don’t do a lot of “marketing” on Facebook. I post a link now and then, mainly just relevant updates and interesting points for discussion. As I said above, I’m not going to jump through hoops over this. And I’m not going to force my “friends” to “fan” me. Those who want to will, and that’s great.

And even if I’m forced into UNsocial UNnetworking at Facebook… to be honest, it’s not going to make or break my business.

And hey – I still have my friends! *cheers*

Facebook has always been a place where I simply network and hang out. My real work is done at my blog, my website, through my newsletter, etc. “Lynn Terry the Internet Marketer” only represents a percentage of what I do online anyway.

And I can’t say that Facebook has contributed much to my bottom line this year. But yeah – you get out what you put in, and I haven’t really invested in “Facebook Marketing”.

As far as that goes, this news is just one more point towards the reasons you should be investing in your own properties & domains…

Facebook Pages vs Profiles

The last 4 months have given me an opportunity to play around with the options and features, and get a feel for the differences between a Profile and a Page.

There are a couple of major CONS to Pages:

You don’t get update notifications when someone comments on or posts on your wall. Nothing. You actually have to remember to log in to your page and check it yourself – and hope someone didn’t post something that’s buried on another page. Personally, I think that’s ridiculous. Send me a notification already!

Also, your Page doesn’t append to your Profile in any way. There is no obvious link or note for your friends to see that you have a cool Facebook Page they might want to “fan”. If I’m wrong about this, call me stupid and please point me to how to set it up.

I can’t even get to my OWN Facebook Page without digging through layers!

Of course, there are PROS to Facebook Pages too, features that the Profiles don’t offer. The primary upside being that you can email all of your “fans”. To be honest, I have never emailed my Facebook Fans. I would prefer true Fans actually subscribe here at ClickNewz as I doubt I’ll ever send out an email via Facebook.

Probably because I hate getting them myself – it really clutters up my Facebook Inbox when I’m trying to respond to messages from my friends.

The other cool feature of Facebook Pages is that they offer you stats:

(I told you I don’t have many Fans! – lol)

The stats are cool, but they aren’t a huge revelation to me. It’s actually a very small sampling of what my overall reach is online across the board. About half and half male/female, ages 25-55.

So there you have it. If Facebook bans me for talking business, or networking with my business friends, you can always find me here at ClickNewz

Best,