Rethinking Facebook

Should I be on Facebook? Yes. Can Facebook be effective for B2B companies? Yes. Could I be effective on Facebook if I wanted to? Probably but, I don’t really want to.

Chris Voss thinks that “Facebook has jumped the shark” and he is ready to give up. Me, I never even wanted to be on Facebook. I joined it because I felt that I needed to and, I’ve hated just about every Facebook minute that I’ve invested over the last 6 years.

We’ve all heard about the constant issues that folks have with Facebook: privacy (controls and lack thereof), evolving landscape, force-fed features, and changing algorithms and rules that drive marketers nuts (this does not affect me since I’m not smart enough, nor do I have any inclination to, figure any of that out anyway). I can’t really blame any of this on Facebook. It is what it is and, for some people, that’s great! The problem is … it’s just not for me …

I’m not particularly social – I’m just not willing to hang my laundry out in public regardless of how well I might know you. This isn’t limited to dirty laundry. If I want to share any announcement with you, I would prefer to do it one-on-one. Casual relationships are not one of my particular strengths.

I enjoy intelligent conversation only – If I had not learned early on how to mute people (and all annoying notifications), I would have left 5 years ago.

Yes, I’m intensely private – The ways that you are continuing to track and tag people, Facebook, is not only creepy, I also think that it is inappropriately invasive. This is why I am also not on FourSquare.

I’ve attempted to force Facebook as a business platform but, I find myself unable (it’s not in my social makeup) to augment that with the necessary personal shares which would make it effective for business purposes.

Everything that Facebook is … I am not. Therefore, I am distancing myself and have been doing so in phases over the past 6 months …

I deleted my Facebook page. I was never very good at begging for likes anyway.

I have unfriended those that I either don’t really care for, care about, or have never had any real personal engagement. If you don’t see me anymore, sorry. The fact is, nobody that I have unfriended has even brought it up so I guess that they don’t miss me anyway. Perfect!

I will no longer be sharing business updates. Very few people read those anyway. They were always more interested when I shared that I had gas.

I removed Facebook links from my website and signature line. Receiving friend requests from people who I have absolutely no knowledge of has always made me queasy.

Presently I am in a state of semi-limbo while I decide how to proceed next. If I decide to dive back in on Facebook on some level it will be to connect with friends and family and we’ll call it good at that. As a business tool, it’s dead to me.

Will this hurt me in the long run? Maybe but, now ask me if I care. Hint … I don’t. In fact, I feel better already.

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!