I got a note from a reader today telling me she was removing PT’s Facebook feed from her Facebook Page. Seems there are just too many posts and they clutter up her wall. I have discussed the issue with my staff and at this time, concur with them that we are doing what we sat out to do with Facebook.
It seems to me that Facebook is different things to different people. For most, it is a personal log of their lives and activities. Its ability to interconnect people can spur conversations and provide information about family life and activities of interest. Kids use it to keep in ‘touch’ and spread information and rumors about their friends and not so friends. Families post pictures about events and activities so others can share. Its really a wonderful tool.
For business, however, I see Facebook differently. In our case we see it as an aggregator. Its a way that many different articles and blogs about the parking industry can be seen in one place so those who are interested in our business can find stories that talk about parking in one place. In our case we scour the literally thousands of stories written weekly world wide about parking and select a few that could have interest to parking pros. We also include articles from Parking Today and posts from this blog. That means that about a dozen posts are put up daily on our Facebook page. I’m told that unless you are a 12 year old girl, that is quite a lot. Fair enough.
I don’t know too much about the inner workings of Facebook, but I understand that you can ‘follow’ the page of another on your page. If you do, the posts of that ‘other’ will appear mixed in with posts on your page. I can see where it might be quite a clutter, parking information mixed in with a recipe from Aunt Mazie and pictures of the kids at the beach. Yikes!
Some people I know have two Facebook pages, One for their personal life and one for their professional one. This keeps Aunt Mazie happy, and also enables them to receive news and information on Facebook about topics which assist them with their work a day lives.
We have search engines that cull Yahoo and Google for news stories about parking. We get over 100 from each every day after we filter out all those about crime in garages. (They may be interesting, but frankly I’m not sure what they bring to our party.) From the remaining we then pick eight or ten that might bring information that would help parking managers and owners as they go about their daily activities. These along with the blog and articles from PT are aggregated on PT’s Facebook Page.
From time to time we comment on the articles, or folks who read the page regularly let their feelings be known. I don’t see us changing our format any time soon.
I might suggest that if you find all this parking information a tad overwhelming, you might consider visiting our page at around the same time each day. You will then see the new items posted and can quickly scan them for articles that may interest you. It takes only a few minutes but will keep you informed.
Of course, we would love to be a part of your Facebook news feed. Let your friends know what is going on in the industry that affects every one of them most every day. Who knows, they may look at you in a different light. Knowledge is power. Our Facebook page is a good place to get it.
JVH
