Be the first to write a review
Your Facebook "Brand"
In this article, you'll learn more about how to guide and develop your Facebook "brand."
The problem with Facebook, as many see it, is that its new design and options blur the line between "business" and "personal life." While some individuals embrace this transparency, others have gone out of their way to avoid mixing business life with personal activities. Linda covered how to draw your lines in the sand at Facebook in the previous article with information about privacy settings and filters. In this article, you'll learn more about how to guide and develop your Facebook "brand."
One Designer's Experience
In the previous article, I introduced you to Facebook's basic options, including privacy settings and filters. However, Facebook users still are taking changes at Facebook a bit hard. One designer, Nicholas Patten, who developed a Facebook account when Facebook was new on the scene had this to say about how Facebook has evolved:
When I first got onto Facebook, it was already well known to select schools. At first it was just close college friends, then your whole high school, and then long lost friends from middle school and elementary school. This is where it started to gain some ground on the social network world. It was already a fast-growing company, but when your parents get on it then you know it's gone mainstream. This is not a bad thing, it helps keep family and old friends in touch. But, I started to delete my college pictures of my friends and I drinking upside down on top of the keg stands, because now companies are searching for possible excuses not to hire you or a reason to fire you. It's all about how you come across to someone when they view your info, your photos...you are a brand.
Patten "really hasn't used Facebook" since he began to use Twitter in 2008 (you can find him at @nicholaspatten). Patten brings up several valid points about Facebook, perspectives shared by many other individuals:
1. He feels that Facebook is copying Twitter with its stream (the middle section of your Facebook main page).
2. He liked Facebook when it provided a private and personal 'playground' for close friends.
3. He rarely confirms "friends" unless he's met them in person.
4. He discovered that Twitter provides more of a conducive atmosphere to build his "brand."
On the other hand, Facebook does provide ways to build your brand, provided you know how you want to use Facebook to help you with this goal.
Linda Goin
Linda Goin carries an A.A. in graphic design, a B.F.A. in visual communications with a minor in business and marketing and an M.A. in American History with a minor in the Reformation. While the latter degree doesn't seem to fit with the first two educational experiences, Linda used her 25-year design expertise on archaeological digs and in the study of material culture. Now she uses her education and experiences in social media experiments.
Accolades for her work include fifteen first-place Colorado Press Association awards, numerous fine art and graphic design awards, and interviews about content development with The Wall St. Journal, Chicago Tribune, Psychology Today, and L.A. Times.