You’ve heard the saying, “Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt.” Well, the picture to the left proves that they really will make a t-shirt about anything.
Last month, Oxford University Press announced “unfriend” as their 2009 Word of the Year (I found it humorous that as I was typing that sentence my spell check flagged unfriend so I had to add it).
Last week, I unfriended 90% of my Facebook friends on my public profile. There were some that simply needed it because they were sending me 10 or more emails a week about their network marketing event. Others kept inviting me to join there fan pages, groups, or causes – not just occasionally, but 10 a week. That’s 520 causes a year – i don’t think I can care that much!
For the most part though, they were people I simply did not know and with whom I had no interaction. That got me thinking. Why do I have a fan page or a public profile at all?
Facebook is My Favorite Social Media Platform
I love Facebook. I talk to childhood friends that I hadn’t thought about, let alone talked to, in over two decades. We are all busy, and it is hard to keep up with all of our relationships the way we would like.
In fact, if you don’t post a Facebook update then I probably won’t know what is happening in your life. It sounds weird, but Facebook actually makes me a more caring person.
It reminds me of birthdays so I never forget to call and wish a friend Happy Birthday on their wall. I see pictures of former co-worker’s kids and pets that I never saw when I worked with them.
For all the claims of narcissism leveled against Facebook users, I think it does bring people closer together. This was my intent when I signed up for a public profile, and created a fan page when I found out that you were limited to 5,000 friends.
My Facebook Public Profile
The weird thing was that I wasn’t using my public profile page to better communicate with my readers. I was adding anyone who sent me a friend request thinking that I needed as many friends as possible to make my blog posts go viral on Facebook.
The problem was that I didn’t know any of these people, so I wasn’t sharing any information about myself. My wall became just another stop I made submitting my blog posts for the link and hopefully a little traffic.
I had become a spammer! It changed the whole way I looked at Facebook. I hadn’t even logged into my personal profile in over 3 weeks and was feeling completely out of the loop. This is when I decided to unfriend over 90% of my Facebook friends and start over.
Yes, I want to share all of my blog posts on Facebook. I also want to be able to get to know my blog community better and for them to learn more about me.
Now that I know all of my friends again, I have started sharing more information and sharing the events in their lives. My rule now is that I would love to have many more friends, but I require some form of interaction prior to accepting a friend request.
Why Do I Have a Fan Page?
The fan page for The Christian Entrepreneur was in very much the same boat. Other than getting your Facebook profile pictured on my sidebar widget, there really was no reason to become a fan.
You might have noticed that my featured video box is gone from the sidebar. What I have decided to do is to share most of my videos through the fan page.
I will also be using my fan page to make announcements, introduce you to new bloggers or resources, and trying to add more value to being a fan.
If you like the content that we provide on this page then I think you will like my plans for the fan page.
I will also be relying on it more for micro blogging; especially, when I need input from my blog community.
So There You Have It
If you were one of the people that were unfriended, please know that it was nothing personal. If I accidentally unfriended you please let me know. I only know some of you by user names so I could have made a mistake.
If you want to learn more about me and develop an online friendship, please send me a friend request to Become My Facebook Friend. If you like the content provided on this site, won’t you please Become a Fan of The Christian Entrepreneur?
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Come on Brad, 'fess up. You're really just anti-social! ;D
I have two FB "friends" who apparently don't speak English. And since I speak nothing else…
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That's it I'm unfriending you too!
I had some Russian friends who only spoke Russian, but I unfriended them because my only interaction with them were mafia wars groups or fan page invites.
Come on Brad! You play mafia wars! LOL
I recently created a fan page for Superior Fence Products, but I haven't had it long enough to see how well it works yet. I certainly don't want to be a "spammer" either, but I do want to promote my products, so finding the happy medium will be a task for sure.
I also recently went through and "unfriended" a bunch of people I had never had ANY interaction with, so unless you have something I am really interested in hearing about or I interacted with you, you got deleted. Sorry, but the whole competition to see how many friends/followers (twitter too!) isn't what I think social networking is really meant for….
My recent post New Fence Products
Okay, I will confess that when I was active on MySpace I played Mafia Wars.
I'm not sure if I uninstalled it so I may be up to billions in cash. FarmVille was my addiction on FaceBook, but I had to put a stop to it. I block all gaming requests now.
I agree with you on social media numbers. While size can bring the impression of authority, it quite often just dilutes your message eliminating the power behind the social media network.
Okay, I will confess that when I was active on MySpace I played Mafia Wars.
I'm not sure if I uninstalled it so I may be up to billions in cash. FarmVille was my addiction on FaceBook, but I had to put a stop to it. I block all gaming requests now.
I agree with you on social media numbers. While size can bring the impression of authority, it quite often just dilutes your message eliminating the power behind the social media network.
Awesome, I haven't looked yet but I hope I wasn’t one of the once you unfriended ( a word really!?!). At any rate this was a super post explaining your position on FB and it makes perfect sense.
Ummm … I don't see you in my friends list. I am a fan of your website, but I think that was all the Facebook info I had for you so I couldn't send you a friends request. If I did unfriend you it was by mistake, and I will gladly accept your friend request.
I know this is an older post but I just came across it today when it scrolled past on your home page. Oh wow, it moved me and when I say that I don't mean in an inspiring way – I mean I laughed, sat up, leaned in, and even nodded. I could feel you and that's pretty good….because number 1, it's too late for me to still be up online and secondly, when something grabs my attention and pulls me in – that's a great task to achieve!
I'm so glad I stopped by and more glad my Facebook page is still private.
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I'm glad you liked it. It seems like with so many social media choices available that it is too easy to fall into the numbers game and not really get much from them.
I did some digging and found the shirt. Because, you know, everyone is gonna want one. Right?
Guess what, a friend just told me today that she is going to “unfriend” me because I talk about the Lord too much on my page.
Hilarious!
Kissie´s last blog ..Will Blogging Fade with Rap Music
Hopefully this is not a real life friend. I like that you can simply hide people in your feed without having to unfriend them. I have some real life friends that play way too many games or take every quiz and it fills my feed. They rarely post any real status updates so they were great candidates to be hidden.
I have to individually block the apps with my mom though. Too much bad karma unfriending your mother, or her finding out you hid her from your stream.
A real life friend, she is. A believer, she is not. However, who do you think I want to please?
Kissie´s last blog ..Will Blogging Fade with Rap Music