I’ve got a friend. A facebook friend that is. For the uninitiated or less familiar, the term “friend” on facebook is someone you have permitted to view your profile, write on your wall, view your photos, and most pertinently for the purposes of this blog, invite you to events.
How the facebook friend came to be
This facebook friend was an old friend in high school. He knew me reasonably well at one point, and would still know me well enough to know roughly what I am and am not into. When I accepted his friend request I didn’t think too much of it, I mean, he’s an old high school friend, now he’s a DJ. Cool. He doesn’t spam me with application requests or dodgy chain letters, but he does do one thing which is both clever and annoying at the same time. He invites me and his other 700+ friends to all his gigs via facebook. He also lets us know about every single gig and mix he’s got going.
Inviting every man and his dog to your facebook events
Clever: Sure, he’s a real person who I know and he’s asking me to an event he’s playing at. No worries. If I were into his stuff it’d be a great way to stay in touch with where he’s at.
Not clever: He knows me. He *knows* I am really not into the club scene. Never have been, never will be. I’ve nothing against it, it’s just not for me. So WHY am I getting what I consider to be spammed with event invitations? Inviting me to all his facebook events seems to be the modern equivalent of sending me an impersonal chain letter. I think there should be some way for him to discriminate with who he is and isn’t inviting along.
Transforming your facebook page into a commercial shell
Not clever: His profile, once a typical facebook profile, now consists of his DJ name only. All status updates are about where he’s playing, and how to download his latest mix. Pretty much all photos are gigging photos only. There’s not much personal about his facebook page. The biggest crime about this to me? I asked him why he did it and he told me his agent told him to. His agent essentially told him to lose his actual personality and use facebook as a commercial promoting machine.
Clever: It one sense it’s good PR because when his extensive group of facebook friends tag him at his gigs, there are cool pictures for everyone to see. To his credit, he has avoided having any pictures of him doing stupid things posted and most look great. He’s also got a good way of finding out if his latest mix is downloading properly from the host site by asking us through status updates. There’s also no incriminating and possibly daggy wall posts or status updates. Hearing about his heartbreak, family reunion, and other mundane normal stuff that makes us real is out of the question.
Some lessons from his profile
He’s using his profile as a marketing tool which given his target market is a very wise idea, but it’s too much of a commercial shell. I don’t think it would be a good idea to separate his profiles into personal and DJ as facebook is all about connecting people with people, not people with brands, so it’s a fine line he’s running. His profile just needs to have a little more personality, not heaps, nothing that’ll damage his image, but something a little more conducive to connection.
Talk to us
Instead of just asking us if the mix is downloading properly in your status update, ask us what we think. If we’re devoted fans, or even just mates, we’ll probably give you some good and real PR through our positive feedback.
Be real
Keep the DJ name if that’s working for you. Don’t tell us every daggy part of your life, but give us a little more of the real person. I think the agent has given directions which are too strong about creating a brand on the page, and the life is being sucked out of it a little. The occassional normal photo, or non push-type status update would help make this profile alot more real so people can feel some sort of empathy or connection to it.
Know your audience
Many of your facebook friends may like to hear about your latest gig via event invitation and that’s great. I think it’s a really good use of the event tool, but please remember that maybe not all your friends want to know about every single gig you have. Try to weed out those who won’t want to know.
personality + brand = success
Fundamentally, the profile needs to still have personality. Turning a profile into a brand with a squeaky clean image that diminishes its realness is actually damaging. Society has been saturated with these types of faceless commercial messages for so long that we switch off. It’s a fine line, but it is possible.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: corporate facebook, facebook, facebook branding, facebook events, facebook for business, facebook friends, facebook publicity, PR, public relations, social media marketing
Just wandering through Nablopomo sites, and came across this. These are all good tips on how to use facebook as a networking site. Did you tell him what you think?
I constantly get invited to FB events I’m not going to attend, for one thing, half of them are in NY and I live in MI. It’s annoying, but it doesn’t happen that often, so I just ignore it.
I did tell him what I think, and he didn’t seem offended which is good. I don’t mind getting invites to events from things like museums as I have signed into their groups knowing what’s in store, but the situation above was abviously a little different.
Are the events you’re getting invited to some sort of thoughtless “I’ll invite everyone on my list” activity?
Good luck with nablopomo