Facebook is for Sharing
For those of us using and enjoying the social media platform Facebook, it's certainly seen a lot of change over the years! I've personally been using it for ten years now and it's become a strong extension of my life, and the life of websites I work with. It's sparked horror in many people choosing not to use it, after hearing shocking stories of online bullying, exploitation, and the horror of all horrors, having someone tag you in a photo before you've seen it yourself!
Luckily Facebook has been listening and learning and growing along with all of us that use it, much to the chagrin of some of us when they launch a major change without our knowing, and well we just have to deal with it. Their platform is dealing with a huge portion of the planet, and I totally understand that they are in control. After-all, we get to use it, and benefit from it for free.
I have friends and family members that still have not jumped on the social media scene, and that's okay, even though I know they are really missing a lot of information, and a lot of family/friend moments that you can only get by spending time together. On facebook we get to relive our old memories, be it in words or images. Share our latest cooking fiasco, positive or negative, and watch each other age, reach milestones, or take vacations all from the comfort of our internet device. That is something I cherish.
The most powerful tool facebook has is the 'Share' and 'Like' features. These two assets of Facebook create the web that has made the Internet so powerful. How do I explain this to someone who is new to Facebook or has peaked but not yet jumped on this forum?
Facebook gives you two main features. Your personal page, and your main feed. Notice I said, "your"... When people join Facebook, they sometimes get urked at how much information some of their friends are putting on 'their" main feed. The point is, they need only concern themself with what is on their wall/feed. You cannot control what your friends post, but you can control if you want to see what they post by either 'undfriending' them (a big hit to the ego if this person is family or close to you), or by turning off their notifications. All this you can go to Google to learn more about.
So you have your own personal page, and then their is the main feed. The main feed gets busier and busier dependent on how many persons you have as friends, and how many pages you LIKE. Many new to Facebook start with 'friend' pages then slowly begin liking pages that may interest them to get updates.
I've had friends say, "Didn't you see my photos I posted of my trip?"... well that all depends if I happened to be at the computer looking at the feed at the time they posted them. You see, the more friends and Like pages you have, the more traffic on your main feed. Facebook main feeds are similar to a highway. Cars are flying by night and day (less at night) and you could easily miss everything that's being posted, unless you have a very low number of friends or like pages. The good thing is, (back to my friend that wanted me to see her travel pics) you can go to any friends page and check out what they've been posting. My kids call this 'stalking' their page, lol, but all's fair on Facebook. It is what it is, and over the years they've developed it so that you can even limit what 'some people' see of your page.
Another thing to know is that you can post photo albums, and limit viewing of those albums to specific people only, or you can make them public (open to all) or open to just your friends, or to your friends and their friends. They've really thought of everything.
But back to my title. Sharing! When you share someone else's post, you are actually helping the online community, and your friend, in particular if that friend has a business or "like' page. The same as if you simply 'like' their post or page or photo. Sharing their post is obvious... you Share and it goes onto your page, AND the main feed, visible to those friends of yours that happen to be online to see it. When you "Like" someone else's post, it shows up on the main feed of your contacts, and thus is the web that I speak of. This is what I value most. A friend Likes something and I see it. I check if it's their own status or photo, or who it belongs to. If it is something I want to know more about, or perhaps friend that person, due to the type of comment or photo they shared, then I will go to that page and Like it or friend request that person.
However, there are those that exploit facebook usage. In particular they do NOT share, and do NOT like. They simply "look and take." As someone who works in news and actually creates online content, this has been a bee in my bonnet for a very long time.
Here's an example. My business, "TheBahamasWeekly.com" creates an article on a topic in The Bahamas, along with a series of photos. Out there are persons using Facebook, Twitter or other social media platforms ( and yes a couple of these do have an active website) who have created so-called 'news entities' who for the most part, who scout and scour what's online by following all the formal news sites/feeds, then post the content, along with photos as if they have done the work themselves.
What is most bothersome is that they could easily "Share" or Like these reputable news sources content. We all don't mind when our work is shared as we've already put great care and attention into what we've posted, ie. proper authorship of contributors and photographer's credits. Instead these (and some are fly-by-night, or Facebook-only so-called 'news' people) rip-off writers, journalists, photographers and news entities by excluding them and posting the information 'as their own.' The sad bit is, those people following them eat-it-up as they indeed seem to be on the pulse!
There is the old adage, "once it's on facebook it's public", but that's not entirely true and as a human being with basic ethics of treat others as you would like to be treated AKA 'with respect' it behooves each of us using this platform to do the simple "share" or "like" or link back to the source page you took it from to provide credit.
Final words about Facebook, that may make you reconsider joining:
If you don't' want to miss your friend's engagement or relationship announcement; or see a photo of your cousin's last birthday from another part of the hemisphere or world; or see your niece's grade school play photos until you see her... when? you may just want to join up with the rest of us, and see what you are missing, because it's a LOT!
TheBahamasWeekly.com has gained a 30% increase on hits to our website in case you are considering a business page. It works!
Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbin.whachell