A move to Facebook?
Published by Dr. Beyster November 29th, 2010 in FED.While working on the manuscript for the book on Network Solutions, I have been reading many articles on social networking. In particular, I am very interested in how the Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace Web applications have come to prominence over the past couple of years. It seems to me that more people are spending time in these social networking sites than they are reading blogs. With that thought in mind, I am considering establishing a presence on Facebook — either starting up my own page, or by posting on the already existing Foundation for Enterprise Development Facebook page. Before I make a decision, however, about which approach to take, I am hoping that some of you who are familiar with Facebook can give me some advice on which path I should take. My goal is to reach a broader audience than I am currently reaching. Do you think the best approach is by way of Facebook, or should I consider something else altogether?
The custom in our family is to have Thanksgiving dinner at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club, which is what we did again this year. As usual, I ate too much, as I suppose some of you did too.
On Friday, Ron Arnold, Mark Waldschmidt, and his father-in-law joined me on Solutions for a trip to the Jolly Roger restaurant in Oceanside Harbor. It takes us about two hours to reach Oceanside, but the food is delicious, and I look forward to making the visit each week weather permitting.
– Bob
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Dr. Beyster,
I enjoy reading your blog. I was an employee of yours in the mid 90’s when I was hired to help build the government information assurance practice. We had occasion to spend time together when I accompanied you to several meetings such as the NSTAC annual meeting, etc. I used the lessons learned at SAIC to help build my own company, the Terrorism Research Center which I operated until 2008. I’m now in the process of building another company.
With regards to Facebook, I definitely think you should create your own page and use that to extend your content to more readers. Once you have the page set up, fans of your posts (like me) can share them via our respective social networks and increase your readership. There are several tools like NetworkedBlogs that automate the process of linking your most recent blog posts to your Facebook page. Once set up properly, you can post here and the content will automatically propagate into facebook and then out into the world of social media.
A presence on facebook and/or twitter is a great idea. I concur with Matt that using an application to stream your blog posts to your facebook page is an efficient way to increase your outreach, with the added benefit of allowing your blog subscribers to continue to use the application they are already in the habit of frequenting.
Fair winds!
I now “like” the FED page and will patiently wait to either “friend” or “like” you as the case may be.
Matt: Thank you for your note. I am pleased to hear that you were able to use your SAIC experience to help you build your own company, Terrorism Research Center. I hope the experience serves you well as you build your next business. Out of curiosity, did you give employee ownership a try at your companies? Thank you also for your advice on Facebook. Based on your advice, and the advice of other posters to this blog, I believe it makes sense for me to create a Facebook page that will automatically receive posts from my blog. I will look into this further. — Bob
Mike: Thank you for your message. I am leaning towards creating my own Facebook page. I will make an announcement here once I decide for sure. — Bob
Megan: I am increasingly in agreement with you and the other posters that I should create a Facebook page that will automatically pick up my blog posts and display them. I would also occasionally post on the FED Facebook page. — Bob
Dr. Beyster,
We did have some basic employee ownership in place, but not to the extent I would have liked, and certainly not to the extent I experienced at SAIC. Certainly something that is on the agenda as the new company gets structured. Will have to dive deeper into the resources at the Institute as that resource was not available the first time around.
Look forward to seeing you on Facebook.
Matt
Bob,
I’m OK with your having a prescence on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblet, etc. Yet, Please don’t dilute the content. I like my ‘Drink’ strong..no ice/no chaser. Drinks is a metaphor for reference to your great content posted here on Beyster-Blog. ~Muchas Gracias, Andre, M.
Matt: I hope you will consider taking advantage of the entrepreneurship and employee ownership resources and expertise we have at the Foundation for Enterprise Development and the Beyster Institute. They are doing some very innovative things in both organizations. — Bob