Posted on: January 3, 2011 - 10:19pm
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Facebook
Okay, I know nothing about Facebook but, several customers today said they read about my store opening on it. They also said it is a good advertising tool.
What I've read about facebook is that they have serious privacy and security issues.
So, tell me what you think about facebook and how it works.
I've just signed up on it but, haven't filled in any of the page details yet...and not sure I want to.
What do you think?
'Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.' A. Einstein
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Most everyone that I know uses it. I know that if a person is looking to only network with a few friends and old acquaintances, privacy settings can be put onto a very strict set up that blocks unwanted searches, communications and such. You can literally set it up where only certain people can look you up and block certain people that you DO NOT wish to have look you up.
However, when advertising a business, privacy is probably not the goal that you are going to be looking for. When it comes to public profiles and such, I am not exactly sure how the privacy settings work. I know that there are plenty of businesses that do advertise and even sell on there, but you might want to look into the methods of running a public profile where anyone and everyone can view it.
My nieces are all in grade school and they seem to know ten times more about it than I do. Makes me feel old. They seem pretty happy with it and use it more often than Myspace. (Although I do not understand the need for constant statuses about boyfriends that last two days, trips to the mall, teachers who suck and cell phone pictures of pizza parlor antics. What is wrong with all these kids of today ? Back in the 1980's we didn't have any computers and we still managed to get into loads of trouble, hehe).
Most of the people that I know do not seem to have any real complaints with it. But then again, they are using it for private purposes, which is going to be an important issue to consider. However, if you only intend to advertise to the local people, set it to a private setting and only friend people that you recognize, although that will greatly limit your exposure.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
If you want to advertise on Facebook, do that and skip the personal stuff. Or have two accounts, one for business and one for personal.
My reasoning - you want your business information to be available to as many people as possible. And you want very little privacy about your business. So fill out that profile with your business details. Birth date will have to be a valid adult date, but nothing says you have to use your own.
At the top right of the page is Account. Choose Privacy Settings. For your store, you may want all of these setting to be "friend of friends". Setting it to Everyone will attract people you may not want to know. But "friends of friends" puts some limits on and most of these people will most likely be local to you.
Then fill out the profile with information only about your store. Nothing personal. And don't put anything up there you wouldn't be proud to see on the front page of your local newspaper or the New York Times. I would also set up one of the free email addresses just for the store and use that address on this profile. You will get spammed - send it to an email account that doesn't mess up your personal stuff.
If you want a personal page, set those privacy settings to "Friends Only". Put the photos of your hot new leather pants and such on this profile. So there is more work on your part, but there is more control. You now can have friends for the store and friends who are close to you. Which group you have particular relatives in is up to you. Remember, to be your friend, people have to send you a request and then you get to say yes or ignore it. So for your store, you may say yes to a lot of people you don't personally know. But for your personal account, you can be very selective. And the trouble makers you can unfriend at any time.
My facebook account is boring. On purpose. It is one way to not attract attention - be so boring no one sees you. That may not be what you want for your store.
One last necessity. Make your password(s) complex. Make them at least 7 characters long. A password is complex if it has three of four:
Upper case letters
Lower case letters
Numbers
Special characters
Examples:
!Super1 -- Special character (!), upper case (S), lower case (uper) and number (1) and it is 7 characters long!
2Lilies
1942Ford
Season$
Just don't use any of these, since now half the world knows them. Make it something you can remember, but not personal - no dates, proper names of pets, friends, or relatives. Most IT security is just common sense and you seem to have a lot of that.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
I have two FB pages, one personal and one for my "business," which is a non-profit university art museum. The latter type is a great way to grow a network of people interested in your products and to keep your best customers informed and engaged. And it's free -- you'd be crazy not to. cj's advice to have two accounts, one personal and one business is good -- I'd say go for it!
roseweed
_______________________________________________
Everything that happens, happens somehow.
Signature ? How ?
I have a facebook account but I don't use it really. All it has is my name and a photo of me. Its there so people who don't have my phone number can contact me if they need to. Several old friends have found me this way. I log in once a month on average and check my messages and log out. For the most part its a waste of time.
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
'Anything you say CAN and WILL be used against you'...
As for advertising, I want walk-in customers, not Internet orders so, I think, for now anyway, I'm going to stay clear of Facebook.
'Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.' A. Einstein
Facebook can be a very valuable and free tool for your business. I would avoid using it for anything personal or at least avoid tying any personal page to the business page. The nice thing about it is that it allows you to update loyal customers in a very non-aggressive way while potentially bringing in new customers. Rather than mailing them "junk" you can simply post an update on facebook and they are coming to you. It isn't that much effort and it is free, so even if you only get one new paying customer every couple of months it is worthwhile. Customer contact is always worth the time.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
'Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.' A. Einstein
What is your store cutie?
Click here to find out why Christianity is the biggest fairy tale ever created!! www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm www.JesusNEVERexisted.com
This is my Online store but, my 'real' store is a retail sewing & craft supply outlet... fabric, thread, yarn, notions crafts, etc...
'Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.' A. Einstein
Since passwords were mentioned earlier, I want to give some quick advice on password security that CJ has not already covered.
Use different passwords for everything. To give you an idea of why that's important, imagine creating a website account somewhere which authenticated your later logins by keeping your password in its database. (There are better ways for websites to authenticate logins, but some just don't take security seriously.) Anyone with access to the users table in the database, either someone working on the website or the hacker who infiltrated it, would be able to see your password and use it to login to your email, Facebook, Twitter, and anything else you used the same password for, and then they could delete everything, send out spam, ask your mother to let them "borrow" money, and anything else they wanted to do. By using different passwords for everything, there is a unique barrier to entry for everything, which prevents damage from spreading from one website to another. Just remember www.pwdhash.com and your one secure password and you will have dozens and even hundreds of unique and secure passwords at your disposal.
Stultior stulto fuisti, qui tabellis crederes!