Please stop creating a Facebook group or fanpage for EVERY SINGLE THING in the world. Thank you.
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I took a 48 hour break from online communication (and that includes my cell phone) during the holiday season. It was a great detox. When I opened up my Facebook account this afternoon I had invitations to more than 100 groups and pages. Of these 100+ invitations, I joined TWO.
People can promote whatever they so choose, however they want. I’m making an observation that the fan page and group invitation “noise” is getting so loud, I’m missing content of interest, relevance or importance to ME.
As I wade through the “I don’t actually smile when I text a smiley face” and “Brown is a stupid color” pages (yes they exist) there are a few nuggets I find worthwhile. The pages I join compliment my Facebook experience and the way in which I choose to use it. (Get that I’m talking about an individual experience?)
Sometimes too many “groups I would never join” requests ruin it for others I might join. I get on a roll clicking “ignore” and miss a few or get overwhelmed. UPDATE #1: I often wonder if people create pages and then invite their entire network as opposed to thinking about those who may find it of interest. The spray and pray approach may be one of the culprits.
I posted this thought on Facebook (of course) and received a lot of feedback. What do others have to say?
“I feel that some just go group crazy – sort of like how I used to go comma crazy in middle and high school, but times change, and online communities will sift and sort everything out naturally in similar fashion to how we did during the Web 1.0 days – from the boom to bust days! When you create a page do you thoughtfully invite people you think may be interested or do you mass invite everyone in your network?” -Dwayne M Kilbourne
“Corollary request you might include, Sarah: Please stop creating 1,000’s Facebook pages for THE SAME THING. Thank you.” -Bill Attinger
“My two pennies…people should create whatever the hell they want, and you can ignore any invitations you feel don’t fit you. Seems what really irks you is that you’re getting invited to things that don’t interest you.” -Tim Patterson
“I don’t so much mind them being created what irks me is after I ignore them they keep showing up and then people have the nerve to send a message asking if I joined their group or fan page! NO! The rudeness!” -Kellie McRae
What are your observations, thoughts, feelings?
In the meantime, I’m creating a fan page for this. (That’s a joke.)
39 Comments on this post
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Josh said:
If only we could point people to this post without creating a “Stop making a page for every stupid little thing” page and inviting all our friends to it…
I’m positive it’s a spray and pray approach. I ignore most page invites I get as well, but I try to be conscientious when suggesting friends become fans — it doesn’t make sense that my SUV-driving friend in San Francisco would join my sustainable Syracuse page, so why would I invite that person?
December 27th, 2009 at 2:53 pm -
PRsarahevans said:
Right on, Josh!
December 27th, 2009 at 2:54 pm -
Dwayne Kilbourne said:
I feel that Facebook will (hopefully) find a way to progress its groups and fan pages opt-outs features. Believe it or not, I still have a MySpace page or two, and they do well to allow you to block the apps from future invites. Facebook does that in some ways too, but they could do more to allow the FB community to manage these invites. For example, I have a fan page for my publication brand; I can suggest it to my friends on Facebook, but if they decline my offer, I can easily invite them again and again… and again! Maybe, Facebook will offer some new, minor tweaks to help us manage those great invites!
December 27th, 2009 at 3:14 pm -
Mike Schaffer said:
Facebook Fan Pages should be about uniting your audience, not bugging your friends.
We tend to think that all of our friends and family members think, act, eat, drink, etc., just like we do, but that’s not the case. Sure, your hundreds of friends may gain you a dozen or so members to your new group, but at what cost?
I live in Washington, and while I love my friends in New York, there is no need to invite me to watch Top Chef with them through Facebook. None.
As I’ve created several pages for clients in recent months, I’ve made it a point to NOT invite my friends. If this is a cause or project they want to be a part of, then they will hear about the group anyway.
We can tend to over-invite as PR people, thinking we are taking our network inside the “velvet ropes” but if you keep going to the same well time and time again, it will definitely dry up.
December 28th, 2009 at 10:25 am -
Caroline said:
Ummmm, with all due respect, Sarah, your Facebook experience is really not typical of the normal person. You have more than 4,500 friends so it’s no wonder you are inundated! And it’s also no wonder you are getting so many irrelevant requests since these people can’t possibly know you or your preferences.
December 28th, 2009 at 10:46 am -
Caroline said:
P.S. That wasn’t supposed to be a snarky comment but supporting the point about different people having different experiences. Yours is a much broader experience than most!
December 28th, 2009 at 10:51 am -
Antalya evden eve nakliyat said:
Yes Im right with u! I hate FB groups and fun page. I have lot of friends. and everyday I have so many invites from simple groups.
December 28th, 2009 at 11:19 am -
Keli said:
I agree with Caroline above. The average facebooker doesn’t have 4500 “friends.” Perhaps you shouldn’t friend everyone and put out “let’s connect on facebook” messages and you wouldn’t have that problem. Many of us use facebook for more personal communication with people we actually know and twitter for the slightly less personal communication with colleges, acquaintances, etc.
Not trying to be snarky either, just tired of hearing people complain about how popular they are.
December 28th, 2009 at 12:57 pm -
Sarah Evans said:
Thank you for the feedback Keli and Caroline. It’s true that my unique experience may be a bit different.
I’ve talked with many friends and family who were frustrated at the number of invites they receive and the multiple requests after they click “ignore.” For some four to five requests a week may seem like a lot, others may get 10+ a day. This is more about being mindful with requests, especially for business purposes. Too much can result in loss of interest.December 28th, 2009 at 1:07 pm -
PRsarahevans said:
I also want to mention that 12 of the invites were from the same person for 12 different things. Yikes!
December 28th, 2009 at 2:41 pm -
Keli said:
Sarah, that would definitely be a reason to unfriend or unfan that person!!!
December 28th, 2009 at 4:22 pm -
facebook video said:
thanx for post
January 1st, 2010 at 7:15 am -
avril lavigne said:
Thanks to everyone for sharing.
January 1st, 2010 at 7:44 am -
malatya haber said:
thanx for post
January 1st, 2010 at 8:18 am -
Cartoon Bears said:
i created a fanpage on something [not really a fanpage more like a group] and i got 258 fans in about 4-5 days, but others they get like 100,000 fans in one week :O
how though??
January 1st, 2010 at 8:50 am -
çizgi film izle said:
Thanks to everyone for sharing
January 2nd, 2010 at 9:11 am -
used tires said:
I’ve been using facebook for 4 years now, I started back when it was only for us college students but anyways I would say its been at least 2 years that I haven’t really looked at the group invites and application invites that I get, I simply have just chosen to ignore them, its gotten that annoying for me.
Till then,
Jean
January 3rd, 2010 at 3:53 am -
Net Age Web Design said:
I find that as my facebook friend tally is going up, so the amount of clutter does too. Personally I also join very few of the fan pages and the like, but I do like the event reminders that pop in from my musician friends, that is something handy imo.
January 4th, 2010 at 2:22 am -
Aluminum Laptop Cases said:
This is one or the reasons that I don’t even bother with facebook. Why would I want to waste all my time on stuff like this? Facebook is all about killing time with pointless updates. No thank you.
January 4th, 2010 at 3:19 pm -
Hair Salons said:
Some facebook users creates many groups and many pages and sent a request for fan. I don’t like this things create many fanpages.
January 5th, 2010 at 4:24 am -
Cartoon Bears said:
Click on ‘Groups’ on the left under ‘Applications,’ then click on ‘Create a New Group.’ Follow the steps to create your own new group.
January 5th, 2010 at 10:24 am -
Aluminum Laptop Cases said:
At first some of the random groups created were quite funny, but as more and more popped up, they got old fast. Sure it may be interesting to connect to other people who like your favorite band or tv show, but probably not so useful to connect to other people who don’t like the color brown.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:25 pm -
used tires said:
@Aluminum, the great thing about facebook for me at least, and the reason why I use it is to connect with friends and old friends. It’s great how I was able to take my high school year book, and type everyone’s name and find 70%+ of people there.
Till then,
Jean
January 6th, 2010 at 4:50 pm -
facebook video said:
Thanks to everyone for sharing.
January 7th, 2010 at 1:26 pm -
calivita said:
there is so many facebook your so i dont like it
January 10th, 2010 at 1:28 pm -
textbook rental said:
80% of all facebook fan pages have less than 100 fans is if there was a way to filter them.
January 14th, 2010 at 8:57 pm -
Bidet said:
You should make a fanpage that says stop making fanpages for every thing. Im sure it will do well. There are so many out there but they do so well. Its a great platform for advertising.
January 24th, 2010 at 1:48 pm -
calivita.com said:
yes but not every couple things
February 1st, 2010 at 5:15 pm -
seo said:
We tend to think that all of our friends and family members think, act, eat, drink, etc., just like we do, but that’s not the case. Sure, your hundreds of friends may gain you a dozen or so members to your new group, but at what cost?
February 2nd, 2010 at 4:46 am -
Cartoon Bears said:
I think it depends on what your administrators and supervisors are like. I’m friends with a number of my bosses on Facebook, but I never worry that they’re going to try to find anything on my profile that they could use to fire me.
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:04 am -
seo said:
ideas will come into your mind and the writting will be very easier.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:42 am -
Megan Fox said:
I agree that it is over saturation in making all these unnecessary facebook groups. I hope also this will change.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:57 am -
youtube gir said:
great idea, thanks for sharing.
February 16th, 2010 at 8:45 am -
Digital SLR Camera said:
i hope facebook moderating all inactive fan pages
February 20th, 2010 at 9:39 am -
ricky in puerto rico said:
I get daily invites from the same person to become a fan of the same page which I ignore – daily. Is there any way to stop the invites from this person without de-friending the individual or confronting him directly?
February 24th, 2010 at 9:44 am -
Wholesale Handbags said:
Unimportant fan pages and groups are being created by Mostly IT professionals rather than Non IT people.
March 16th, 2010 at 2:27 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sarah Evans and rolemommy, WordHamptonPR. WordHamptonPR said: RT @PRsarahevans: Please stop creating a Facebook group or fanpage for EVERY SINGLE THING in the world. Thank you. http://bit.ly/4Xz7Fj [...]
[...] Visit link: Please stop creating a Facebook group or fanpage for EVERY SINGLE … [...]
[...] Please stop creating a Facebook group or fanpage for EVERY SINGLE THING in the world. Thank you. – I love this rant from Sarah Evans. After helping my family change their Facebook profiles over Christmas to be more secure and private with FB’s new policies, I was shocked to see how many group invitations that that they had. It was even more obnoxious when I stopped and checked mine after a few days off the grid. Groups up the Wazoo – so I plead with her on this to cut the crap. [...]