I have many reasons why I Love Facebook, and Why I Hate Facebook. Facebook, as we all know, is a free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. It is also a platform for business and one that we at Contented Traveller use daily.

What is Facebook?

Facebook was originally designed for college students. It was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg when he was enrolled at Harvard University.

Facebook is a dominant social media platform. According to eBizMBA Rank, 2016 Facebook is the number 1, with some 1,100,000,000 Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors.

It ranks above Twitter at #2, Linkedin at #3, Pinterest at #4 and Instagram at #7, so, without a doubt, Facebook is the means of choice that people use to communicate and do many other things.

The Reasons that I Love Facebook

As a business, I Love Facebook because it helps connect me with other travel writers and to learn from others. It helps me to bring more and more relevance to you our readers. I discover fresh content that I think may be of interest to you, and I also share what we have written, because I know this is of interest to you (smiley face).
I love Facebook because it gives me the opportunity to interact with businesses, and to establish new relationships so that we can work with these companies to bring fresh content and ideas to our readers. Facebook is a vital tool in meeting people in a diverse range of fields, and it is a means of creating very opportunities.

I love Facebook because I have virtual friends, and business associates all over the world andI can ask questions and receive supportive answers.It really is a global world, and this is a terrific asset.

I Love Facebook, because it enables me to be a part of groups that are targeted to my job as a travel writer, and where there are open forums to discuss new and trending ideas. This all contributes to making us better destination and experience influencers.

And let’s not muck around here, Contented Traveller is a business and as a business, we need to have an online visibility and one that is recognized by Google and helps us to move up the Google rankings. It also gives us a presence, and that means that we get work and industry recognition.

Of course, there is also Linkedin, where we are also active in. Linkedin is a social networking site designed specifically for the business community. I read this analogy, that said,”LinkedIn is the CBI, the IoD or The Rotary Club whereas Facebook is more like the local tennis club, the pub or even your hairdresser”. Now if you have been to the hairdressers, you will know this is the hotbed of gossip and where reputations can be made, and broken.

 

The Reasons I Hate Facebook

There is a lot of sponsored content, but I do get it. Facebook is a free platform. It is one of the biggest and most successful businesses in the world, yet to use this service you really don’t need to spend a cent.

Facebook, particularly on business pages, picks and selects what you see based on your interactions. If I haven’t interacted with someone for a while on my business page, then they are relegated to the back burner, meaning I may miss something that is helpful to our growth.

I still do not understand about paying for boosting a post or sponsoring a post on Facebook, which is a choice not a mandatory obligation. In saying that, it could well be me, as Facebook is an excellent way to connect with potential businesses.
I do need to get my head around this more, and there are some excellent resources to help me.

A Beginner’s Guide: How to advertise on Facebook

5 Tips for Optimising Facebook Ads Campaigns

The thing with all social media platforms that we are active in, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook is that they take time and consistency to brand management.This is obvious, but we would love you to follow us on:
Twitter Pinterest Instagram  and me on Linkedin

I hate Facebook, from a business point of view, because some people are not nice to play with. They are selfish and harsh on some others in different groups. I am happy to say that these are the minority, but they are still there. You know the ones; the playground bullies, the self-centred take all for me and never give back type to others people. This was one of the things that shocked me when we started this business. This is cyberbullying…at an adult level.

So let’s talk about cyber bullying. This is rife. Adults are acting like children. I felt so strongly about this that I wrote an article on SheKnows, an online women’s magazine with 447,137 followers on Facebook alone; Parents have to stop cyberbullying before kids will, which in essence says that unless adults can stand up to bullies in an online social media platform then how could they ever be role models to their children.

Before you howl me down and say that you can always quit Facebook, then you would be wrong from a business perspective. Facebook is a valuable means of communication with other writers and industry professionals, as I previously stated. [clickToTweet tweet=”Facebook is also a defacto professional development forum.#facebook #travel” quote=”Facebook is also a defacto professional development forum.” theme=”style3″] You want your doctor and your lawyer to be up to date in what is going on in the industry, and you want your destination and experience influencers, to know what is going on too. Ergo, from a business perspective the option to leave would be a silly one.

What I do find however is that you can change playgrounds on Facebook and find groups that are not only supportive but also help you to grow as a writer.

Facebook is a social media platform, and much like any work environment, you will get some very selfish people and some very mean people. You will also get a lot more of the good people so yes, my relationship with Facebook from a business perspective means that I both love Facebook, and I hate Facebook.

The Personal Facebook that I Love and I Hate.

I love Facebook personal page. A cousin’s wife located me through Facebook. She asked if I was his cousin, and I was, and hadn’t seen him for a long time but always liked him. This not only rekindled a friendship with him, but with his wife also.This started a long friendship, so that is good. Our first meet-up date was at the Sydney Mardi Gras, some years ago, and we are now all firm friends.

I have been contacted by school friends. This is where I both love and hate Facebook. I joined my school group and was able to reconnect with some people who I liked then, and like now, actually spending some time in New York City recently with two. I reconnected with a man that I didn’t know that well at school, but who has become a very real supporter of me and our site, and I value this…and yes, that is you Tim. Some others, well you know …

[clickToTweet tweet=”I hate Facebook for showing me people’s true colors. Or do I like that it has? #facebook #travel” quote=”I hate Facebook for showing me people’s true colors. Or do I like that it has?” theme=”style3″] I have/had another friend, but I did not know how very racist he was until we started interacting on Facebook. His postings were, to me, utterly disgraceful so I did hit the unfriend button. I do not want to be associated with this.

Cyberbullying on the Personal Facebook pages.

Just post this into Google and wait until you see the amount of articles that come up. I read a poignant one from daughter, whose mother had been bullied for posting pregnancy updates on Facebook, and another on A Meteorologist Was Bullied For Her Baby Bump

We recently had an incident where we had friends over for dinner, and I posted some photos on Facebook. Some other friends of our guests saw the pictures, and then put these friends through the silent treatment for a week because they were playing with us and not them. The next time we went out with these people, they asked me not to put their photograph up on Facebook as they didn’t want to get in trouble again. That is where I hate Facebook in that people are mean to one another, and are using it is as a social manipulation tool. You can play with a person, but not that person. Grow up.

What perhaps I like about Facebook is that people need to take responsibility and deal with other people dictating their lives, and judging their lives. Stand up for yourselves. However, not all people have the skills to take on other’s, and to say no. That is never easy; it never was and never will be. But at some stage, you need to control your own life, and maybe, just maybe, people who want to manipulate you are not true friends.

Not let’s talk about Facebook Stalkers.

The Silent Stalker

There are two types. The person who sets up an account, but never posts to it but they read everyone else’s Facebook postings. They know everything you do, but do not comment or post themselves. These people shit me. We went for lunch with a friend who knew too much about what we were up to. As it turned out, she had been watching me on Facebook but had never hit the like button or made a comment. I don’t care if she likes or comments, but the fact that she had an account and watched other people and me, and then brings this up in a conversation is crap. What did I do? I called her on it. I said, “you are a Facebook stalker’.

The Overt Stalker

Because I regularly like to be a hypocrite, [clickToTweet tweet=”I had better own up to the fact that I am on Overt Facebook Stalker #facebook #travel” quote=”I had better own up to the fact that I am on Overt Facebook Stalker ” theme=”style3″]. I tell people that I stalk them. I check people out. I check companies out, I check people that we are working with to see if there brand and ours aligns. I even checked out the person who gave our friends grief at the dinner party. No posts. Only follows two people – our mutual friends. No photo, just an egghead but happens to know things that he shouldn’t; like when we all go out for dinner.

Facebook Business Stalking.

You apply for a job, and you can bet your bottom dollar that you future employer, or a company you want to work with are going to stalk your Facebook account, even if it is set to private apparently. Read this. I know schools actively try and get it through their students heads, that putting ridiculous party antics up there will come back to bite you in the arse.

If I am checking out a potential work client, I will look at their Facebook pages, and look at some of the things they post, some of the comments that they get, and decide if they, and we are a good fit.

Parent Stalking

This is hard. Parents know that getting any glimpse into what their teenage is thinking is akin to the double-edged sword. Yes, you do want to know what they are up to because you are protective. But, do you really want to know what they are up. Remember if you are a baby boomer, you probably had a very interesting time during the 1970’s, if you even remember it.

A friends 20-year-old son made his mother sign an agreement that she would not tag him on Facebook happy family shots, or look at his account. He put privacy barriers in place, but then his friends didn’t, and she may have broken the contract and checked on him via his friends. Suffice to say, there is tension there, and he is googling How to Divorce my Mother. This is a good read, Help, my mother is cyber-stalking me on Facebook! Young people are supposed to be leaving Facebook because parents are tech savvy and stalkers. PS, you will find them on other social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, a Snapchat, a peer-to-peer service, and Twitter. For some reasons parents, particularly baby boomer parents just haven’t got into Twitter or Tumblr as much as their kids.

You might like to read this article on PCWorld. Are Baby Boomers Killing Facebook and Twitter?

 

Facebook is addictive.

I don’t game, I am not a gamer, but apparently many other people are, and Facebook is addictive to them. As a side note, please stop inviting me to play Candy Crush. I just don’t, but because of Facebook I see all about your high scores. I spend a lot of time building our brand on Facebook, and interacting with people. Am I addicted? Possibly yes I am.

[clickToTweet tweet=”I Love Facebook, but I Hate Facebook #Facebook #travel” quote=”I Love Facebook, but I Hate Facebook” theme=”style3″], and it is addictive, You get caught up in talking to people, reading very interesting articles, and there are some amazing things on the internet, commenting and sharing. But, I hate Facebook because you can get distracted by talking to people, reading absorbing articles, and there are some amazing things on the internet, commenting and sharing.

What happens to your Facebook Account if you die?

According to Facebook, “Verified immediate family members may either ask for the account to be removed or memorialized. To find out more about these options, please visit this FAQ in our Help Center”

In essence, you have to have given your password to someone so that they can do this. Deletion or memorialisation both require proof of death and can be requested only by someone who can prove that they have authority to act on behalf of the deceased. You might like to leave detailed information with someone, or in your will, though if you keep changing passwords, this can be problematic.
Read: What Happens to Your Online Presence if you Die?
So, I Love Facebook, and I Hate Facebook though hate may be too strong a word. I do hate that people are judgmental on what other people do, but I do love Facebook for our own professional development.

Of course, I want you to follow us. Here is our Facebook page.Contented Traveller After I hit publish, I am going to post this onto Facebook and Twitter and Linkedin and Pinterest at least.

And about the Facebook’s new Reaction buttons

An interesting read from Business Insider. Facebook’s new ‘like’ buttons have a hidden agenda

So, let’s have it. Do you Love or Hate Facebook?