You know me. I like to mix it up with different projects every now and again, to try new ways of doing things, and to see how they perform. My latest experiment is to temporarily shut down this blog and start focusing my writing on Facebook.
I know, some of you are having a cardiac arrest at this point, since you don’t like using Facebook and don’t want to use Facebook! Well, I invite you to use Facebook.
You don’t even have to use your own name. Create an alias if you want – Facebook says it’s ok (Facebook changes real name policy, allows aliases).
So come on over to join me on Facebook for a while. Once you’ve signed up and logged in to Facebook, you can find me here: Alan Howard on Facebook. There’s two ways you can keep up to date with what I write and share there:
1. Add me as a friend. I don’t mind. If you post objectionable material, I’ll probably unfollow you so I can’t see what you share, but you can still see what I share. And you can still comment on my updates.
2. Follow me. Near the top of my profile is this button:
Clicking on it will allow you to keep up with my updates and even comment on them if you feel like it, without needing to be my friend. It’s ok – I know I smell. I understand.
The experiment starts today. I’ll be doing my writing on Facebook using their Notes function, and sharing it to all those who are friends or who follow me.
“Why have you gone to the dark side? WHY???”
I know this is traumatic for some of you (I’m looking at you, Cranky Jim!), but I was having a conversation today with a friend, and we were talking about blogging and social engagement. I mentioned that the peak of social engagement for me was probably around 2005-2007, but then it started going downhill after that – less people commenting on my writing, and decreasing over time.
Then I realised that 2007 was also when Facebook started to become popular, and it’s grown since then. The popularity of Facebook has increased, while the commenting on my blog has decreased.
This led me to realising that a large number of my updates on Facebook – sharing of articles, opinions or activities – often get a lot of my friends or followers discussing what I share. Sometimes the discussions are quite fiery! I love that.
And so this experiment is to see what happens if I focus my writing and discussions in Facebook instead of here on my blog.
I hope you can join me there!
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