Thursday 10 March 2011

FaceBook, too late to be useful...

I have always been too proud to beg. I guess it's just the way I was bought up. I never really expected anyone to bail me out, I thought you had to stand on your own two feet and make your own way in the world. So it's a scale 9 on the Cringometer to see the Boys begging to be liked on FailBook, I almost feel sorry for them...ermm...no, I don't.

About 3 years ago (maybe... bad memory) I saw FaceBook being advertised in some corners of SL. Small groups had started to use it and connect that way, and, if they had been receptive, the Boys could have jumped in with both feet and established a real following then.... I think they are too late now.

As it is, we live in a risk averse society, that is to say most of the medium and smaller businesses that make up the bulk of the economy are risk averse. Major players, and minor players can afford to take more of a gamble with things like joining FB. By the time that Everyone, including Marmite, the Conservative Party and Linden Lab have a FB page, you know it has become mainstream and is on it's way out. The end is nigh. I don't mean by that that it is gonna quit or stop working, I just mean that the initial buzz has gone and people, some people, will start using a newer, fresher way of communicating, like Twitter, for example.

FB reminds me of the time when suddenly everyone (company) thought they had to have a website... they got a website.... nothing happened.... they tried to get traffic.... nothing much happened... The penny hadn't dropped that this is a new medium and needs new skills.

Companies have to get board approval, write a report, ask a focus group etc before they can act. You or I don't, we do what we like. Few companies have their ear to the ground, most have them plugged with last years ideas....so...you're on FaceBook...so what?? Everyone above the age of 8, and most pets are.....so what??


@rodvik Doesn't Follow Me on Twitter (Maybe He Should) from Botgirl Questi on Vimeo.




Now, it may be a couple of years before the Boys realise that FaceBook is last years idea. What we want now is Personalities.

....so... Rodviks recent Twittering is a great step forward, I think. He does follow some of the people I follow (like Wizzy), and over a thousand people follow him, its an open democratic communication possibility.... it's Fast, Easy, Fun....oh...sorry, that was last year....

Now, the need for FailBook to inform people of whats cool in SL is due in no small way to the fact that they haven't got their own platform to work, so they need to use someone else's.... but it's soo 2D...it'll never last... it reminds me of Friends Reunited.. (which died too).

Search and Chat would be great ... forums and your gold stars I have never personally seen the point of, I mean, if Chat only worked....

The SL Blog has always been the least amusing blog I ever read, and blogging is one of those media that is never going to die., It's here, forever.... how, or if you use it well, tho, is a different matter...

.....so, with all these things not working, and their terrible attempt at a sort of newsletter failing to even get read (by me at least)... well, maybe FB is the best they can do at the moment. It just seems to me that with all their money and influence they could employ people to do some PR... write a blog? something entertaining? Their blog reads like a company report...yawn factor 9..... don't they read blogging advice, ever?

There are talented and amusing writers out there.... even if you have to steal them from TV or the NYT.... as the rodent says..."simple!"

....and as all this leaves me wanting to be amused.... here's a little thing that might make you smile....





Come on Boys, how difficult can it be?


Simple!


:)))

10 comments:

  1. I rather like using my facebook. I find stuff there from artists posting that I wouldnt have time to go hunt down otherwise. I think anything being used to share information is good. For someone like me who doesnt see a reason to split RL and SL that facebook is a brilliant way to spread video and blogs to people that might not read it otherwise. I appreciate what you do but I disagree on this.

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  2. also btw.. I found this post via YOUR facebook.. (shrugs) just sayin

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  3. Absolutely.
    When I see a thirtys something father of three with his "so cool" ball cap twisted sidewise...
    I know it's no longer "cool".
    When Rap hit mainstream?...same thing.
    Are these popular? Sure.
    In crowd? Not so much.

    The question is not one of popularity.
    soror you and I both came to Secondlife in that mass migration of early 2007.
    I spent a part of this morning rereading
    Mark Stephen Meadows book, "I Avatar". In his book we came at a time when pretty much anybody corporate wise that was anybody came to Secondlife.
    Secondlife was cutting edge.
    Did those companies understand HOW to use Secondlife? No. But their timing was right.
    I totally agree that 'IF' The Benevolent Monarchy had done the Facebook thing at that point in time, things today could/would be a lot different.
    OK... 500 million people have joined Facebook.
    Is it popular, certainly.
    Cutting edge? Not so much.

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  4. Yep, it is not so much the individual use of FaceBook I have anything against....thats private and personal,... it's when LL can't get their own platform to work and start begging us to use FB that I take umbrage.

    Jumping on the and wagon too late seems to be a trait of LL.

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  5. .... they bought Avatars United... potentially their own FB, and messed that up too.

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  6. Great post. Yes, my company too sucks bad at social media. The try and try (and I cry and cry when i see it ;) but dont have a clue how it works :)

    True LL should know by now they are here to entertain us. So why not do that? A us said, why not a cool blog? Dont be a bore Rod! Shape up!

    FB?? Who needs it when we have Twitter and google reader =)

    xoxoxo Soror =)

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  7. "They try and try..." even *me dyslectic today*

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  8. that soda lemondrop. he's such a card.

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  9. FB is as secure as knickers on a cheap barmaid. Data available to any 3rd parties willing to pay a price. Organistaion run by Zuckerberg and his team of stalkers. http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Mark_Zuckerberg

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  10. @Bradd Laval...
    "FB is as secure as knickers on a cheap barmaid"
    Too Funny!
    Too True as well

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