I'm Not Dropping Facebook

A few days ago I wrote, “Facebook is Dying, Social is Not,” and it appears that I hit a nerve. The article has so far been read by more than 25,000+ readers, in less than 3 days. It is safe to say that the complexity and privacy issues are something people really cares about.

Ethan Beard, director of Facebook's developer network, stated yesterday that "I think the response from users that we've seen from the products we launched at has been quite positive. People are actively opting-in to engage with the social Web. The response from users speaks very, very loudly that they love what we're doing. I think there's a lot of other talk that's not coming from users necessarily. There's been a lot of interest from the media, from organizations and officials. But to be honest, the user response has been overwhelmingly positive."

Uhmmm... right. Ethan, I don’t think you are really listening.

One thing that worries me though, is that many people commented that they are quitting Facebook. If you are only using Facebook to keep up with your personal friends, then fine, that’s your choice.

But, if you use social media as a way to connect, you need to use every channel available, including Facebook.

You need to be where people are, instead of asking people to come to you. You don’t get to decide what media to use.

I’m not quitting Facebook, nor am I recommending that you quit. I think Facebook is doing many things for the wrong reason, I think the complexity and privacy issues are killing them. I think that once an alternative present itself, Facebook might very well end up like MySpace.

But right now. A big part of my audience is using Facebook, and it is my responsibility to make sure that they can connect and share to what I do - on whatever platform they choose to be on.

That’s why you see a Facebook sharing button next to this article. That’s why I got a Facebook Social Plugin in my sidebar (with a like button). That’s why this site include Open Graph meta info, and admin code. That why I got a Facebook profile and page.

You need to be where your audience is, and support whatever community they use. But, it is also a good idea to be embrace many social channels, and mix them together. That way, your social presence isn’t siloed, and if one loses popularity, you don’t lose your audience.