I've Given Up On Facebook
- Thread starter DRE
- Start date
DRE
Well-known member
I honestly believe that having Facebook on your site is a subtle reminder of Facebook, which in itself is just enough to distract attention away from a site.
craigiri
Well-known member
That is a truism - in general.
Of course, the same could be said for ads, but at least you get paid.
The real story is probably somewhere in-between. The Facebook "types" may spend more time online and therefore have time to visit your site and facebook. Who knows? I suppose the current answer is "it depends".
Of course, the same could be said for ads, but at least you get paid.
The real story is probably somewhere in-between. The Facebook "types" may spend more time online and therefore have time to visit your site and facebook. Who knows? I suppose the current answer is "it depends".
a legacy reborn
Well-known member
What's Facebook?
Anthony Parsons
Well-known member
I never really started with Facebook... Doh! 
BGL
Well-known member
One of the repeated comments by just about every forum operator at ForumCon.com was that Facebook was unavoidable and that by having a Facebook page for your forum with links to your forum you can drive traffic to the forum. People see comment on the Facebook page with link to forum to follow conversation. Have Facebook login enabled to make that transition easier. Twitter a little more problematic but when forum I participate in was having issues, members could talk on the forum's Twitter page and forum manager could keep members updated.
Anthony Parsons
Well-known member
A good majority of research data actually tends to lean towards FB providing little to no real visitor throughput. Twitter on the other hand tends to show a lot more traffic delivery to a website than FB.
Last reading on this, which mimicked my own data, was based on the fact that FB users tend to stay in FB itself, not wander outside on links all over the web. You embed a video, you chat, share photos, play games against one another, etc, etc. Twitter however is vastly different. It is more aimed at directing people externally and keeping followers up to date on something, typically with a link to further information. Twitter culture is to divert away from Twitter to view content, FB is to keep within the community.
Last reading on this, which mimicked my own data, was based on the fact that FB users tend to stay in FB itself, not wander outside on links all over the web. You embed a video, you chat, share photos, play games against one another, etc, etc. Twitter however is vastly different. It is more aimed at directing people externally and keeping followers up to date on something, typically with a link to further information. Twitter culture is to divert away from Twitter to view content, FB is to keep within the community.
BGL
Well-known member
All the links in my friends Facebook postings lead out of Facebook, Instagram and MSNBC were the two I just looked at with links. Since there is only a thumbnail in the Facebook post and a link, if a person is curious about what you posted, they would click the link and go out of Facebook, or more correctly, a new browser tab opens to the link...your forum and conversation.
RastaLulz
Well-known member
You must have really poor quality content if you think that anything related to Facebook is going to make them leave to check it.
As for things like Facebook connect, I think that's a very important thing, as I am certainly more likely to register to a site if I can do it one (or two) clicks, as oppose to going through the entire registration process. I also see Facebook pages as a good way to keep in touch with your members, as they may not visit your site everyday, but they certainly will visit Facebook everyday.
BGL
Well-known member
Agree...especially about the every day aspect. Facebook and Twitter are reminders to visit the forum and both have links to do it.
PS Now PLEASE CHANGE THE AVATAR. IT'S GROSS.
Brandon Sheley
Well-known member
great post ^
I would remove my facebook account but I have family and some real good friends on their and that's the easiest way for us to contact each other.
I don't really spend much time trying to market my site to facebook these days, I do have the option to login with your google account but that's the only thing on one of my sites.
DRE
Well-known member
Okay it's 8 days later and activity on my site has picked up a little. It did not pick up after I uninstalled Facebook, Twitter and Google. That had no effect on site activity. It picked up because I made the site private and people aren't able to lurk anymore. What I've realized that is because Facebook is popular mostly because it can be treated as a private site for people who have their pages 'Friend's Only', they can easily hide their social activity from unwanted lurkers and their stalkers unlike on public forums. So what I learned is that by taking the same approach as facebook (making the site private and only some parts public), members have no choice but to log on to see what's going on, just like Facebook.
I still don't regret my decision to disassociate Facebook because of how important Facebook is to people. They use it to stay in contact with their friends and family. Blood is thicker than water. When a site like Facebook holds more importance than your site, your forum, then little things like forgetting their password and not being able to login into your site becomes a bother to them and you, the webmaster. Even if they use Facebook connect, just by connecting to it does not grant them a password. So I believe by disassociating my site from Facebook and the other integrations, the site is looked upon as it's own beast. Something different and not just an extension of their Facebook activity. They would have no choice but to remember.
I still don't regret my decision to disassociate Facebook because of how important Facebook is to people. They use it to stay in contact with their friends and family. Blood is thicker than water. When a site like Facebook holds more importance than your site, your forum, then little things like forgetting their password and not being able to login into your site becomes a bother to them and you, the webmaster. Even if they use Facebook connect, just by connecting to it does not grant them a password. So I believe by disassociating my site from Facebook and the other integrations, the site is looked upon as it's own beast. Something different and not just an extension of their Facebook activity. They would have no choice but to remember.
Anthony Parsons
Well-known member
You're in serious denial if you believe that's why Facebook is popular. Facebooks entire build, its uniqueness to the market to capture a social space that others weren't entering at that time, ie. MySpace, its ability to allow any developer to plugin to it and make money, is what made Facebook popular. It's target audience is youth, and it went insane over years of heavy growth. Privacy is an insignificant factor of Facebook... as the majority of its target audience want everyone and anyone checking out their profile, becoming friends and meeting new people globally. Facebook does this very well with youth, and with global efficiency regardless of language barriers. Privacy is for people like me, who only use it to communicate with family over distance.
People don't find Facebook via advertising, people know it exists by brand, just like they know Google exists by Brand. They're two of the globes top 10 recognised brands.
I just looked at your website, and I wouldn't know what it even was, nor would I join it to find out because I need to track you down on the web to request an invite. I think you just killed your website to be perfectly honest by removing the ability to join. I've tested all this invite stuff in the past, and it works if invites are presented via the users to bring their friends in... not lock the site up and make it invite only. People move on. This is the web... for everyone doing something, there is always another trying to do it better.
You're not Facebook, which means people don't come flocking to your website. Your forum is small and insignificant in the scheme of forums, just like my own forum is... and if it wasn't for the very sites content being public and searchable, I would have near no traffic. If people couldn't freely register and participate at their peril, there would be little to no content for Google to search, other than me posting complete nonsense, trying to make the site look busier than it actually is.
Unless your site has a billion plus visits monthly, one should not compared their site or strategy to something like Facebook IMHO.
I don't understand how you believe you did your community any justice by locking it up from Google and potential members ability to just register versus having to track you down and request a personal invite, as though they should feel privileged to be a part of your community. Facebook got away with this in the beginning due to being the only player in the market, finding a niche within the social networking niche, which introduced addictive alert techniques that psychologically played adolescence, let alone the human psyche in general.
If you believe this is the solution to boost your site, then post your traffic and posting stats now, then again in a month, and another month after that. Lets see the evidence....
TheBigK
Well-known member
I'm 30 and though I was 'pressured' by friends to join Facebook - I refused because it's a huge waste of time. I mean, it's so stupid that people spend hours and hours watching each other's Birthday photos and 'liking' them. I'd mind my business than checking whether my school-friend (who I may never meet) has visited Niagara Falls.
But that's me.
The single advantage of integrating FB on your community is that it makes the registration process incredibly easy.
But that's me.
The single advantage of integrating FB on your community is that it makes the registration process incredibly easy.
DRE
Well-known member
You just typed an essay...
As it stands right now, Facebook is annoying and I'm glad I disabled my main account. Facebook is so annoying that I'm gonna remove my site's Facebook like box. Facebook is an extremely resourceful stalker tool. The amount of Facebook emails both me and my members have recieved by some annoying stalker makes your essay damn near unreadable. This dude is so annoying I'd wish he get by a truck. Had me searching up sites like http://quitstalkingme.com I will gladly and proudly take whatever negative traffic hit lame azz google throws at me if I can keep my site generally safe from annoying stalkers such as that cretin.
DRE
Well-known member
I mean... this is a subject for the stalker thread i made. I shouldnt have posted that here. He's really that annoying.
Reporting and blocking people on facebook is useless cause they can just easily make a new account. So as a webmaster that kind of kills my social networking right there when people are so annoying it makes you not want to log on.
Reporting and blocking people on facebook is useless cause they can just easily make a new account. So as a webmaster that kind of kills my social networking right there when people are so annoying it makes you not want to log on.
Digital Doctor
Well-known member
What xenforo needs.
Naatan
Well-known member
This is so true. Too many people seem to think that "because it worked for this huge company with millions of users, it should work for me".
I worked for a gaming company not too long ago that was releasing their first game, their strategy was to "gmail it", meaning they invite a few people and then allow each new user to invite up to x other users. I said it was rediculous as we had no where near the exposure google had when it released gmail. People aren't going to invite anyone because our product is "insignificant", hell we should be lucky if the ones we invite even stick around for longer than 5 minutes.
Needless to say the game failed (well it succeeded by my definition, but the company of course set it's expectations waaay too high, like "next Farmville" high..) and the company died.
So please, don't try to copy the success stories of big companies or products that are the exception rather than the rule, you are just setting yourself up for failure.
Similar threads
