I've said it before, I'll say it again. Facebook is not an effective substitute for a website. In fact, it's a downright lousy substitute for a website. It's so sad that breeders spend more time on Facebook at the expense of their websites. I might want to see what's for sale, but the site appears to be dead because it's been so long since it was updated. Sale lists are posted to FB instead, but if I'm not a "friend", I won't see it.
FB is not static. Anything that was posted 2 days ago is off my feed page...forgotten. On a busy FB day, I might not see it because it went off the page so fast.
Websites are static...they stay put. They get added to my bookmarks and I can easily visit the site at any time to see what's new. The first thing I do is go to a FB info page to find their website. Guess what? When I go there, it's usually dead. This might affect my decision on whether or not to accept a friend request. I won't have current info available anytime I want it, so what's the point?
Most FB photo albums are so disorganized. Thanks to mobile uploads from phones, things go up willynilly, and the FBer doesn't bother going back to organize it. You can do that, you know! It also annoys me when FBers don't caption photos so I know what the hell I'm looking at.
Points in your favor: I especially enjoy captions that tell the story of what is happening in that string of related photos. Points against: 5 photos of 1 rabbit in the same pose. What does this shot show that that one doesn't? Just pick one good shot for each view. That's all we need. If it's not telling a story, it's just wasting time.
Websites organize photos and info for easy and quick navigation. Or at least they do if the site owner has any sense.
What a FBer can do is coordinate website updates with Facebook. Just post that the site was updated and the link to it, and you'll get a lot of visitors, even some new ones who didn't know your site existed.
Warning. Here comes a new FB rant.
What is the deal with all the "repost this if you agree" things? Didn't have anything else to post that day so you thought you'd fill up friends' feed pages with pointless stuff that you picked up from someone else? And since the FB sheep will follow, my feed is cluttered over and over again with the same useless thing. If you don't have anything real to say, why say anything? What, you say? This raises awareness. You know what, most of us are already aware of these things. The thing that really irks me about this kind of posting is that the only entity that benefits from the constant reposting is Facebook itself.
What kind of status posting do I enjoy? Interesting. Amusing. Informative. Useful. Social. And website updates! You will have my attention and respect. Post junk and you lose it.
Oh yeah, and let's talk about "friends" for a minute. I'm selective about who I accept as friends. I will visit your profile to find out a few things about you first. You have to be a rabbit breeder, and it helps if I know your name in the rabbit world. Your state or country is a good thing to include. I will look at your wall to see what you do on FB. If I see mostly junk, you probably won't be accepted. I will look for your website to see how that rates. Lastly, I note how many friends you have and who we have in common. 2,983 friends (mostly having nothing to do with rabbits) is a very good reason to be wary of accepting the request. To me, that means you don't have enough sense to discriminate. Someone in this large collection of friends may damage my account or computer. This is how hackers and virus-runners do their thing. They also do it when you repost links and stuff, and your sheep friends repost, and so on and so on. Eventually it finds its way to a vulnerable computer.
Facebook has its uses, but it has to be used effectively and wisely. Otherwise, it's just junk. An up-to-date website is still the best way to get your name out there. Everyone, friend or not, will have access to it.
tnt
