I know I’m late to the party, but I’ve arrived. In one of my webinar modules I quoted David Pogue talking about his conversion to twitter three years ago. After hearing all the fuss, he still didn’t ‘get’ what was so great. Until he was on a selection committee for the MacArthur grant and one of the proposed projects had a vaguely familiar ring to it. Committee members looked at each other blankly. Had this been done before? Then one committed tweeter in their group posted the question to his followers and had a response and a link within 30 seconds. The proposed project had been done, and Pogue saw the brilliance of the medium in real time.
That happened for me via Facebook this weekend. I was flattened by the stomach bug. All I could do was lie in bed and suck ice chips. With all that down time, it occurred to me to reach out via Facebook as a possible source of sympathy and help. I entered my status and asked for advice on how others got through the virus and what I might do to entertain myself in the interim.
Very quickly I had all the help I needed. Good help too. I got food recommendations as well as a link to an inspiring documentary (tomorrow’s post) on Charles and Ray Eames.
Facebook didn’t make my sickness go away, but I believe that following my friends’ advice and feeling so heartened by their love and concern made me better.
and it’s a very spontaneous reaction, so the odds are the more you’re there the more you attract. i just happened to be on when you posted your sad notice 🙁 which by the way i came down with yesterday as well)….here’s another one for proof of the power: my target audience is for the most part not on twitter…at all…i thought. until today when someone who’d been following me on Twitter (really?), 20 years younger than me, contacted me for help with their website and SEO. i couldn’t believe it. a twitter follower who actually….follows?
Loved the title of this – it took me a while as well to jump on the Facebook bandwagon. Now I love it for so many personal & professional reasons:
I’ve reconnected with distant family & friends
I’ve gotten business directly from postings
I’ve boosted my website traffic and blog readership
And if for nothing else, I feel like a rock star when 100 people post Happy Birthday wishes on my wall in January.
@Lisa
Thanks for giving such concrete examples of FB’s value for you. Who wouldn’t want that?
another great example of facebook, is when you take the time to like a site, everyone gets to meet you and what you do.
@Susan
Thanks for this recommendation.