Do I need to have a network on Facebook?
Posted by Shari Sultana on Tue, Jan 06, 2009
My favorite thing to track in my web analytics are keywords. I am fascinated by the keywords people use that land them on my site. Today I found this keyword phrase in my HubSpot analytics: "what if you don't have a network on facebook".
I thought it might be fun to write one blog post a week centered around a keyword phrase found in my website analytics. I'm not sure what to call this weekly event but for now it's called "the keyword blog post of the week". I'm open to suggestions so if anyone has a better name please let me know.
Okay then, onward and upward. Here is the first keyword blog post of the week for January 2009!
I wonder if the person who typed those keywords that lead to my website ever found the answer to their question? Of course I don't know what they totally meant when they typed those words into Google so I have to make my own conclusions. I conclude they wanted to know the obvious and the answer is: No, you don't need to have a network on Facebook. This is the official statement found in the help section of Facebook:
"It is possible to register for Facebook without affiliating yourself
with a network, but why? Networks are so cool. Unaffiliated users will
only be able to see the profiles of confirmed friends, whereas
affiliated users will be able to browse profiles within their networks.
If you're worried about who can see your profile, you can always
control this from the Privacy page"
So there you have it folks. Straight from the horse's mouth. (so to speak ;))
Of course, I think it really depends on your motive for participating on Facebook. If it's simply to keep in touch with friends then perhaps you don't need a network. But as a business person who uses Facebook for business networking, my take on the whole thing is that you DO need a network on Facebook. It opens up your business' exposure to a greater range of people. True, it's a little haphazard and untargeted, but what the heck. There's no harm in allowing people in other networks to view your profile and there's no harm in you viewing the profile of others. If you're there for business it can't hurt to join a Facebook network and it can't hurt to make your profile public. Can it?
Let's save that for another post.