Let’s be friends (I’ve found someone else)

Our love affair is ailing
My passion’s fading fast
Did we just grow apart
Or am I living in the past?

I know change can be good
We all must learn and grow
But you seem so very different
From the one I used to know

I’m trying to get acquainted
With your new identity
And I’m glad you’re making progress
But you’re really losing me

Ah, once we were so close
My whole life was yours to share
But the new you seems so cold
As if you just no longer care

Now there’s too much information
Familiarity breeds contempt
You’ve forgotten I’m a person
And not a sales event
 
I still don’t want to lose you
And I will still keep in touch
But from now on I’m with Twitter
So you won’t see me that much

I’m just a simple girl
I only need one glance, one look
I can do that in 140
I don’t need the whole Facebook

😉

Z

Updating Facebook Pages

This weekend I am determined to get at least one thing off my ‘to do’ list for my online profile.

I thought, “meh, it’s Saturday morning, ease into it with something simple. I know, Facebook Page”

Since then I have been wondering if I’d have been better off doing something less taxing, like fixing the LHC or something.

Trying to put certain information into certain – I feel, more intuitive – places is proving to be difficult. Leaving aside the issues with Twitter streams only posting to your personal profile and not your page, there are several other annoyances that make me wonder if the ‘new & improved’ style is going to lead me to drop the page altogether sooner or later.

As with the previous personal profiles update last autumn, Facebook Pages now splits all your information into different tabs with the option of allowing new or existing page fans to land on one of two – equally bereft of useful information – tabs.

Clickity click click click, scroll, scroll, click….

There’s no one tab where all your contact and communication info and tools can sit, set into a workable layout. A tab containing your basic info, status update (or Twitter stream), Messenger button and latest post headlines, organised in such a way so that all are easily seen/found on landing would seem to be the most sensible option. Instead, you can have your Messenger button either halfway down the left hand column, under your list of fans and other information (you can move it up and down but there are restrictions to what you can have at the top of that column); or you can put it within your Boxes tab, off your main Wall page.

The Information section is still severely limited for content. I would like to have had more specific choices and more areas for customisable wording.

Having installed and then instantly removed the Twitter stream due to it’s inability to differentiate, I find I am also unable to manually update the status on the page too. Click in the box to update and it does nothing.

There are other frustrations too, but I need some breakfast so will leave these for another rant post.

Throw me a frickin’ bone, here

All in all, what used to be a pretty limited but still effective ‘brochure style’ tool has now become a hybrid. Unfortunately, this evolution seems to have missed the point somewhat. It’s now more difficult to find information fast – surely the whole concept of Pages is to disseminate information and allow for better communication between page owners and fans? Making it more time consuming can only be a negative, in my opinion.

Perhaps these are just teething problems. Facebook has surprised a lot of people recently by listening to their users (such surprise giving an indication of just how cynical we have all become in recent years) – perhaps they’ll listen again this time and give us a few tweaks.

When the going gets tough, the tough get…irritated, frankly.

Times are hard enough right now for small businesses and independents: buggering up what should be a really useful, easy to use, tool for interest generation is not going to make life any easier.

Grump over, I’m off for a bacon butty and a shot of spring sunshine.

😀

080309 – edited for typos and also to go “uhuh, hmmm” to this post not porting over to my Facebook page…

Z