Why facebook? This article might convince you why you should join the world of social media, where new ground is being broken on a daily basis. Linda will take you on a weekly journey into tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more as she shows you how to apply these tools to your career as a programmer, designer and all-around Web guru. Learn how to increase your following, add to your reach and refine your techniques as you begin to learn these tools for marketing and socializing.

Fifteen Reasons Why You Need Facebook

If you're a Web designer, programmer or developer, you probably wonder why you need to engage with social media. In many cases, Web geeks chose their jobs so they wouldn't need to participate in public gatherings. But, you may learn over the next few weeks that social media doesn't require face-to-face interactions and your participation in a variety of "social" settings may increase your profile. You can begin slowly, with Facebook...

Why Facebook?

If you understand that your marketing efforts depend upon appealing to certain demographics, then take a look at what Facebook can offer:

These demographics from Quantcast show that Facebook is a top 10 site (number six) that reaches over 79 million U.S. viewers monthly. The site attracts a more affluent, teen and young adult, very slightly female-biased following. The typical visitor uses Slide, reads Cosmo Girl!, and subscribes to Glamour.

If your ears didn't twitch over the income levels shown in that image above, perhaps you might look again – the income levels are heavy in the $60k USD and up range. Many Facebook users have kids and the ethnic leaning is toward African-American and Asian.

I wanted to steer you toward those statistics, because you might keep an eye on how they change over the next few months. The reason behind upcoming changes in demographics is that Facebook made changes on their site recently that are more business friendly. They've added "Pages" that are geared toward non-profit groups, charities or "causes," businesses and media outlets. These Pages may help turn the demographic corner for Facebook to a more business-centric model.

Still not convinced that you should join Facebook? You might listen to other businesses and organizations such as the International Internet Marketing Association (IIMA). They held an event on "Facebook for Business" last May, and they plan to hold another one this October. They also have published a guide on how to use Facebook for business and they have tied in other social media tools to their learning modules.

If you aren't convinced by now that you need to use Facebook, I've supplied fifteen reasons that might sway you...