Personally, I started using social media sites only after I became an Internet marketer. Up until then I was completely oblivious to them. You see, I was an information surfer (still am)- I could go over 24 hours straight looking for information- not communication.

The basic Facebook overview
As one of my marketing moves, I opened a Facebook account and started looking into all the building blocks that make a Facebook page:

• Groups - Facebook is essentially built on groups. Anybody can create a group and everybody can join (unless stated otherwise). In these groups you may add functions that keep the group active as a community.

• Events - When holding an event, on line or off, you can notify all your friends with the events widget. They, in return, can RSVP or ignore you.

• Marketplace - This is Facebook’s listings. You may post for free, or for a small price, get an upgrade.

• Pictures - You may post pictures.

• Video - You may post videos.

• Posted Items - You may post links to interesting stories and sites.

So how is Facebook different from other social networking sites?
An overview like this makes Facebook sound like your ordinary, run-of-the-mill social network. But Facebook has a very specific agenda. Facebook wants you to input your real name, when registering. It wants your real information. In turn you will find all your friends from grade-school and up, because they inputed their real information, as well. And by now, with tens of millions subscribers, around the world, chances are, they are already there, looking for you.

The other special feature that separates Facebook from the rest is its simultaneous mini-feed. A little widget that updates everything you do and everything your friends do, on Facebook, as it happens. I didn’t really like this aspect of Facebook, as it leaves me with absolutely no privacy and it clutters up my page with incisive BS, like “Ronnie’s vampire just attacked David’s Zombie.”

Worst business move ever!
Facebook is for the infantile at heart. People who have time to deal with ridiculous widgets, which is really all the connecting people do there. It’s a time-slaughter mechanism. Time that would be better spent building a community on Tribes.net or Ning.com.

If you are still adamant about using Facebook as a professional promoter
If you must, you must. The best tool for promoting yourself professionally on Facebook, is the Facebook Pages feature. It’s a page dedicated to you (or your product or company). The mess is kept to a minimum, as the only feedback you can get from other people is a review, or if they choose to be your “fan”. You may post pictures, videos and professional details. For me the Pages feature is a blessed break from the hubbub of a regular Facebook profile.

I heard someone in the back row peep, about the tens of millions of people that are registered to Facebook that serve as viable traffic. Well, personally, I found, the people on Facebook usually communicate through widgets, because the chat possibilities are very limited. Also the tendency of the average Facebook user is to relax. This means a lot of people regressing to middle-school and sending each other “cool widgets”. Not exactly your focused target market.

Why bosses all around the world dread Facebook
As a private person, I don’t see the need to rehash my old connections from kindergarten. Especially not for the purpose of biting their vampire. As a marketer, I understand completely why bosses, all around the world, dread this social monster. Facebook is a procrastination device. If you sit around sending virtual “gifts that grow” to people, you’re not working. As my own boss, I can’t fire myself, but I can revoke my Facebook privileges. As a peer in the world-wide network of Internet marketers, I suggest,
my friend, that you do the same.

About the Author
Tali Shapiro is a freelance artist and writer, who learned the need for internet marketing, through a lot of bad personal experience. Now, after a few years of self-online-education and self-offline-discipline, she can pass on her wily experiences and worldly teachings through the wonderful medium of blog. Catch up with Tali’s marketing exploits on The Marketer Review