My friends and family are mixed on their adoption of Facebook, some took to it straight away whilst others are anxious about it's dangers or the amount of time it will waste.
Firstly a word about the risks: you can walk down the pavement, cross the road at pedestrian crossings or you can shut your eyes and j-walk across the road... Basically learn safe practice and you'll be safe.
Just as we set-up anti-spam/virus software for our emails and we don't open unexpected attachments (and who would ever think of clicking on a link in an email with dodgy grammar from a bank we don't use?) so you set-up privacy settings on your Facebook account that will minimise risk and take sensible precautions when "adding friends".
Friends
It isn't essential to have hundreds of "friends", just add those who you would normally communicate with: family and close friends.
I have about 10 friends, of which I'm related one way or another to 6 of them. Does that make me sad? No! I'm afraid I have "ignored" requests from friends who I only see occasionally. (Before you write me off as friendless I should add that a lot of my friends are still avoiding Facebook - maybe this will convince them to give it a try!).
As a result of limiting my friends I don't spend hours on Facebook following hundreds of posts, most days there are no updates at all. Weekends are the busiest as reports on activities appear providing what social analysts are now calling social ambience - a couple of weeks ago I read that my brother had been on a long cycle ride, one of my friends had been to the local theatre and two of my cousins were going on a sponsored run (as a result I sponsored both of them and now because of their updates on Facebook the Run for Life event last weekend increased their sponsorship tally).
You can add your news or just watch the others: but how nice to put up a picture of a garden you have visited and add a line to say "Wonderful roses at..." or maybe a comment about a local restaurant and so share it with your friends and family, rather like a postcard without the costs of card and stamp.
It isn't all social ambience
Businesses, clubs and organisations are now setting up a Facebook page for themselves. "Like" them and you will receive updates from them. Depending on their communications policy you will receive short updates from them daily, weekly or whenever they have something to announce.
I have two hobbies: gardening and cooking. So sometime ago I "liked" the RHS, Thomson & Morgan, Cakebaker and BBC GoodFood, which is to say I have signed up to receive posts from them.
Thompson & Morgan put a post up in late spring warning of an unexpected frost - accordingly I covered some vulnerable plants that night, Cakebaker and BBC GoodFood put up seasonal recipes and I'm planning a trip to Wisley sometime soon to see a planting scheme the RHS talked about.
It takes a minute-or-so a day on average to read the posts on my Facebook and so far this week I've planned a trip to a RHS Wisley, been busy in the kitchen, donated to a charity and pleased my cousins because I supported them. So, yes I'm fatter and poorer because of Facebook, but most of all I'm happy because I've had some light hearted communications and stayed in touch with friends and family and I'm looking forward to an afternoon out.
But how would Facebook help my club?
The Race for Life event that my cousins took part in was a classic example of viral marketing.
Each put up a post about taking part in the event along with a link to their on-line donation website. I saw what they were doing and along with a number of their other friends and family I clicked "like", added a "comment" to wish them well and then followed the link to the donation page. When I clicked on "like" my other friends learnt about the Race for Life event. Now whether they were inspired to find out more and get involved or just sponsor the event I don't know, but it raised awareness and hopefully they "liked" my cousins' posts too and so their friends learnt about the event too which created more awareness for the charity and hopefully more sponsorship.
Another friend associated with a local charity sent an "invitation" via Facebook (so no postage or printed material) for a local fundraising event. I "liked" it so my other friends would learn it was on, and then responded to the "invitation" so anyone viewing the charity's website would know I was going and any of my friends who might be swayed by seeing I would be there would hopefully be encouraged to attend too.
Fleet Lions use this very effectively with their August BeerFest thus saving on direct mail and catching those people who don't see the posters promoting the event. Potential attendees are directed back to the website for full details on themes, times and venue as well as the all important ticket buying facility on the Fleet Lions website.
Few clubs can afford to maintain a mailing list of potential event attendees (ignoring the whole data protection issue) let alone the astronomic cost of post and printing these days so viral marketing is ideal. Don't be put off with the title "viral marketing", we all do it without realising - how many times has someone asked you whether you know a plumber? "Recommendation" would be a better name, but that's not so snappy for marketing types.
Facebook isn't all bad
Choose your friends carefully, don't be afraid to ignore requests from people you wouldn't happily call a friend. Ignore posts that don't interest you. Follow groups, clubs or organisations that interest you or share your interests (I gather Audi have a good reputation for quality posts if you are interested in cars).
If you don't want to share pictures of Aunty's party with all your friends, create a group that consists of just family who would be interested and post only to that group.
Take a little time to set your privacy settings to be tight - it takes time but you only need to do it once generally.
Enjoy the social ambience Facebook offers, with our busy lives it's easy to lose day to day touch with some of our friends and family.
Glossary and useful terms
Friends = people you are comfortable chatting to (you can remove them from your friend list at anytime - they won't know)
Groups = sometimes you want to share with just close family or just friends who share a common interest (you can drop someone from a group at anytime)
Like = two meanings: Liking a post will share it among your other friends; Liking a Facebook user (eg the RHS) tells them you would like them to keep you in touch with updates, offers or new items - you can "unlike" at anytime (they won't know)
Invitation = is exactly that, you can reply using Facebook links or use the telephone!
Security and Privacy
We've touched on sensible precautions - only being friends with someone you know and are comfortable sharing light hearted moments with, invitations and your hobbies.
If you have a friend who plays the games on Facebook (such as Farmville) you can hide all posts from them that mention the game without removing them as a friend.
Here are the privacy restrictions that work for me. Occasionally I refine them, usually to relax one a bit as I started with such stringent privacy even I didn't qualify to read my own posts!
Facebook does ask for an email address, if you are worried why not use an email address that you rarely use, we all have an old email address that we check occasionally.
It is not a requirement to add your postal address so unless you give out that detail in a post your address is anonymous, your friends will already know it.
A few clubs have already taken the plunge
Why not watch how a few clubs use the system:
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