I’m not entirely sure what to make of this post over at The Daily Beast. On the one hand I can understand why Howard Bragman was upset to have his Facebook account suspended, on the other hand he sounds like a bit of a muppet. After the jump I’ll elaborate…
Y’see Howard tried to add – quite literally – the world and his wife as a friend on Facebook to promote his upcoming book and this was seen by Facebook as an attempt at spam. Unsurprising really, in fact you’d kind of expect Facebook to think that hundreds of friends requests in a short space of time could be nothing other than spam. As such Howard’s surprise surprises me and led to me name calling (yes, I called him a muppet).
The internal debate I’ve quietly been having is this: is it ok to use Facebook (and social networking sites in general) as what amounts to a PR outlet? Howard argues that adding all these people (whether, he freely admits, he knew them or not) was a social act as he was collecting friends. The point of Facebook, afterall, is to make friends. Ok, yes, sure that is the point but Howard has still missed it, surely?
For a social network to be truly ‘social’ and flourish relies on a certain level of connectedness between those people within the network. Facebook works as a tool becuase it allows me (and 175 miilion+ others) to manage their social network; thats is to say the sphere of people with whom they are – if not friends in the truest sense – certainly acquiantances.
To add ‘randoms’ willy-nilly devalues the network. When I’m told that myself and a friend have a friend in common I’d like to beleive we do actually have a friend in common. If I were friends with Howard, however, could I rely on us actually having a friend in common? No. He’s devalued not only his own network but all those people connected to him by not filtering his network as a true representation of his social connections.
Don’t get me wrong, I get that some people have wider social networks than others, that stands to reason, but to simply add ‘randoms’ to help flog a book? I’m sorry, that sounds like spam to me and Howard deserved his Facebook account to be suspended… in my humble opinion, good sirs and madames. He used Facebook as a PR tool, not a social networking tool and he got burned for doing so.
Anyhoo, the story has a happy ending as Howard got his Facebook account back.
But what was the name of his book?!
You see, that’s what comes from calling this stuff “social media.” People like Howard forget that the important word is “social” and focus on the “media.”
Although that is — of course — pure speculation. For all we know, Howard spends his real-life social time on a soapbox telling all his friends to buy his book.
Note to self: Do not invite Howard to dinner party.
or buy his book