# What's next, after Facebook?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 10, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400 "2012-04-10T19:32:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/21 "2012-04-11T23:57:02Z")
OK, you want to hear something weird? _Someone already created a Facebook page for me!_
[http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eve-Golden/106155636081917](http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eve-Golden/106155636081917)
It was not me! I have no idea who did this or how to access it, and it is a little freaky!
---
### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/22 "2012-04-11T23:59:23Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> OK, you want to hear something weird? _Someone already created a Facebook page for me!_
>
> [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eve-Golden/106155636081917](http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eve-Golden/106155636081917)
>
> It was not me! I have no idea who did this or how to access it, and it is a little freaky!
What’s freaky is the silhouette they used. It’s like Alfalfa, all grown up.
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/23 "2012-04-12T00:19:13Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> Oh, lawsy, Liz’ Scarlett, what is the _difference?_ When I am creating it, I mean?
A profile account is what you create if you register via the homepage screen. A fanpage is what you’ll create if you start [here](https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php)
> [@Eve](#):
>
> It was not me! I have no idea who did this or how to access it, and it is a little freaky!
Someone loves you. Since you didn’t make it, you don’t have editorial access or control of it. Just make your own page. Especially if you use a nice looking officialish photo, people will gravitate towards your page.
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> What’s freaky is the silhouette they used. It’s like Alfalfa, all grown up.
It’s the default no photo selected FB silhouette.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2012, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/24 "2012-04-12T12:40:38Z")
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> What’s freaky is the silhouette they used. It’s like Alfalfa, all grown up.
Actually, my hair kinda \*does \*do that if I don’t attack it with a blow-dryer and hairspray every morning.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/25 "2012-04-12T12:47:00Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> A profile account is what you create if you register via the homepage screen. A fanpage is what you’ll create if you start [here](https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php)
>
> Someone loves you. Since you didn’t make it, you don’t have editorial access or control of it. Just make your own page. Especially if you use a nice looking officialish photo, people will gravitate towards your page.
Thank you! A project for this weekend, when I am supposed to be doing some freelance editing. Have to see if I can import all my book covers onto my page. I wonder what “wonderful person out there in the dark” created a Facebook page for me?
---
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/26 "2012-04-13T12:37:49Z")
OK, I set up a Facebook page, as an author–thanks for all the tips–and now have to figure out how to “friend” people and link to other sites, and make it \*not \*look like a pathetic piece of crap that a middle-aged auntie set up.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2012, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/27 "2012-04-13T14:28:08Z")
> [@The\_Lovely\_Margo\_Lane](#):
>
> Well, given your content, I suggest you get a Tumblr. It’s a blogging platform and social network all mashed together, ideal for featuring your trove of source images, anecdotes and so forth. It has the ease and speed of Twitter but handles images and slightly longer text posts better.
>
> You can set up an account in a few minutes which allows you to post stuff and follow the postings of others. Here are a few examples:
>
> [http://maudit.tumblr.com/](http://maudit.tumblr.com/)
> -mostly small clips of classic films
>
> [http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/](http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/)
> -a collection of charts, diagrams and infographics from all over the damn place
>
> [http://lostsplendor.tumblr.com/](http://lostsplendor.tumblr.com/)
> -a mishmash of vintage and historical photographs. Not much of a theme beyond ‘look at the pretty’ but fun nonetheless.
>
> [http://feministryangosling.tumblr.com/](http://feministryangosling.tumblr.com/)
> -just plain fun
>
> There are also about two million idiot high school kids from across the globe, it’s a versatile platform. I found the whole ‘reblogging’ thing completely incomprehensible until I got an account, at which point it became intuitive. Basically there are three sides to each Tumblr - the public face that you see when you click one of those links above, the way posts appear to followers (which you can see if you get an account and follow somebody else) and the back end that you control yourself. This can be good for promo purposes, as you can get viral attention from other Tumblr users but also promote the ‘front end’ for outsiders just as well. This is a weakness of Facebook in my opinion, that you can’t really get into a page unless you are signed in. Same with Twitter - they are great for getting in touch with people in those networks but there’s not much there for others.
>
> Be aware that I’m saying all this for entirely selfish reasons - I think you’d run a truly kick-ass Tumblr and I want to follow it!
This is a very good explanation of tumblr. I’d seen other tumblrs and didn’t understand the “reblogging” and found it confusing and made me feel old. But I was telling a friend how the promotion I’d been trying for [my paintings website](http://www.ringmanpaintings.com/) hadn’t been working very well. He recommended tumblr because he thought my paintings could fit in well and be liked.
Once I signed up and could view things through the dashboard rather than from the outside it did make more sense. I just started [my tumblr](http://ringmanpaintings.tumblr.com) two days ago, but I’m putting a mix of my paintings along with other cool art stuff I find since I’ve seen some other artists do the same. Though if anyone has advice on how to improve my tumblr or how to best use it I’d gratefully listen.
Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook all don’t necessarily require a large time commitment. If you join any of them, you want to updated them regularly, but it doesn’t have to be a lot each time. I think tumblr will work for me, since it doesn’t take much time for me to post a link to one of my paintings, and doesn’t take much more time to find other cool art stuff by other people to reblog or post. Twitter didn’t work for me because it was difficult for me to think of what to say, but since you are very witty I think it could work for you. And also you’d have every SDMB member who’s on Twitter following you immediately.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2012, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/28 "2012-04-13T14:32:06Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#):
>
> Twitter didn’t work for me because it was difficult for me to think of what to say, but since you are very witty I think it could work for you. And also you’d have every SDMB member who’s on Twitter following you immediately.
_Awwww!_ I am going to work this weekend on trying to figure out Facebook, and think I will put the others on the back burner. I do want to link my page to sites–such as this one–and will ask my publisher for tips on how to promote my books, while still being entertaining and not too obnoxiously hard-sell.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/29 "2012-04-13T19:14:07Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> _Awwww!_ I am going to work this weekend on trying to figure out Facebook, and think I will put the others on the back burner. I do want to link my page to sites–such as this one–and will ask my publisher for tips on how to promote my books, while still being entertaining and not too obnoxiously hard-sell.
That’s probably good going to your publisher for tips. They should know more of what works and doesn’t for promotion, especially for writers. There is also a lot of advice on the internet for using Facebook and Twitter for promotion, but there’s so much advice you’d end up spending hours a day if you followed it all.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/30 "2012-04-13T19:22:13Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#):
>
> That’s probably good going to your publisher for tips. They should know more of what works and doesn’t for promotion, especially for writers. There is also a lot of advice on the internet for using Facebook and Twitter for promotion, but there’s so much advice you’d end up spending hours a day if you followed it all.
Already my friends are telling me, “Well, you did this wrong and you need to do that, and it’s the wrong kind of page and . . .” I miss the 1980s. Hell, I miss the _18_80s.
---
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2012, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/31 "2012-04-13T23:11:26Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> A profile account is what you create if you register via the homepage screen. A fanpage is what you’ll create if you start [here](https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php)
OK, I suspect that may have been the wrong thing to do. I started my page and e’d all my friends (I mean friends, not “Friends”) and they flocked to my page–and now I am unable to “friend” them. One of them told me the fanpage was the wrong move, I need a \*personal \*page, so I can communicate back with people, and that now I have to go back and re-register and start a new page from scratch and piss off all the people who came to my old page.
I hate Facebook.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/32 "2012-04-14T01:00:57Z")
I have a hard time believing Tumblr will take over Facebook. They are completely different entities. Tumblr is just a blogging service. Despite the descriptions above, it doesn’t really have any social networking features, other than the basic Web 2.0 stuff that every blogging service has. I’ve rarely seen a Tumblr that has any actual personal information. IN fact, most people I’ve seen try to hide their real life identities. The community there does not attempt to integrate with real life in any way.
If Tumblr ever does replace Facebook, it will be because social networking as a concept is failing, or because Tumblr adds actual social networking to their system. And I predict that social networking is more like instant messaging: a concept that didn’t exist at first, but, now that it does, it will never die.
Not that this means that Tumblr isn’t useful for advertising purposes, of course.
Oh, and Eve, you should be able to like and respond to people as your company, but you might also need a personal page so you can set yourself up as an administrator. That page can itself remain essentially blank.
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2012, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/33 "2012-04-14T04:03:53Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> I am being talked into getting a Facebook page to promote my books, and to start linking it to my Twat
That may be TMI even for your most dedicated readers.
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2012, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/34 "2012-04-14T04:58:00Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> OK, I suspect that may have been the wrong thing to do. I started my page and e’d all my friends (I mean friends, not “Friends”) and they flocked to my page–and now I am unable to “friend” them. One of them told me the fanpage was the wrong move, I need a \*personal \*page, so I can communicate back with people, and that now I have to go back and re-register and start a new page from scratch and piss off all the people who came to my old page.
>
> I hate Facebook.
Wait, are you setting up a page to promote your books and your writing? Then you need a fanpage. Are you setting up an account to find high school friends and plan get-togethers? Then you need a personal page. You can certainly have both but most people find it helps to keep their personal and public lives separate if they have a fanpage for anyone who likes their work and a smaller private personal page for real life friends. I know at one time, FB capped friends at 5000, which I realize you probably wouldn’t bump against but I think it’s a bad idea to make a personal page for a professional purpose. I am unsure what you mean communicate back with people. If you go into Manage at the top of your fanpage there should be options to turn messaging and wall posts on or off. Basically, you can set a fanpage to have all the functionality of a personal page while still allowing you to maintain that separation of life and work.
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### Author:  [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2012, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/35 "2012-04-14T05:33:27Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> OK, you want to hear something weird? _Someone already created a Facebook page for me!_
>
> [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eve-Golden/106155636081917](http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eve-Golden/106155636081917)
>
> It was not me! I have no idea who did this or how to access it, and it is a little freaky!
Reading that short bio made me wonder if you are familiar with the work of the printmaker Ann Chernow?
---
### Author:  [@The\_Lovely\_Margo\_Lane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Lovely_Margo_Lane)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/36 "2012-04-14T16:16:53Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> I have a hard time believing Tumblr will take over Facebook. They are completely different entities. Tumblr is just a blogging service. Despite the descriptions above, it doesn’t really have any social networking features, other than the basic Web 2.0 stuff that every blogging service has. I’ve rarely seen a Tumblr that has any actual personal information. IN fact, most people I’ve seen try to hide their real life identities. The community there does not attempt to integrate with real life in any way.
>
> If Tumblr ever does replace Facebook, it will be because social networking as a concept is failing, or because Tumblr adds actual social networking to their system. And I predict that social networking is more like instant messaging: a concept that didn’t exist at first, but, now that it does, it will never die.
Not sure who you’re responding to with this, but I wanted to clarify that I at least never meant to insinuate anything like this. Tumblr is very different from Facebook and I wouldn’t say it is a replacement at all.
My impression from the OP was that **Eve** isn’t actually looking for social networking of the sort that Facebook is best for, she’s looking to promote her work. Facebook has tools for that but in my opinion they aren’t really that great and they only work if the people administering them are already in the flow of the platform - witness the difficulties she’s having.
As for “Tumblr as a social network” I don’t really have an axe to grind, especially because I’ve only been using it for a few months. As I see it though, it does facilitate multi-level personal and semi-anonymous interactions on a different level than say Blogger or Wordpress. Many/most of the users are anonymous or pseudonymous but the interactions are there.
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### Author:  [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/37 "2012-04-14T17:43:15Z")
Well, if there’s anyone the Dope will take care of in terms of social web 2.0 presence, it’s our Eve. Fear not, its what I’m saying.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/38 "2012-04-14T17:52:23Z")
Why not find that young techie at work and give him two shiny nickels to set up your Facebook page for you?
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2012, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/39 "2012-04-14T18:39:15Z")
> [@The\_Lovely\_Margo\_Lane](#):
>
> My impression from the OP was that **Eve** isn’t actually looking for social networking of the sort that Facebook is best for, she’s looking to promote her work. Facebook has tools for that but in my opinion they aren’t really that great and they only work if the people administering them are already in the flow of the platform - witness the difficulties she’s having.
Yeah, turns out I am not \*nearly \*famous enough for a fan page to be of any use for me, so I took it offline and cancelled it. Now I have to decide if it is worth the trouble and energy to start a personal page and _re_-invite everyone I had invited to my insurmountable fan page a few days ago.
---
### Author:  [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-after-facebook/618400/40 "2012-04-15T14:37:26Z")
**Eve** , I think having a fan page to promote your books would be the right thing.
One of our local food bloggers has this configuration (and he’s only written one book, so far):
Blog (you could substitute tumblr here): [https://breakfastwithnick.wordpress.com/](https://breakfastwithnick.wordpress.com/)
Facebook fan page: [Breakfast With Nick](https://www.facebook.com/BreakfastWithNick)
Twitter account: [https://twitter.com/intent/user?original\_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fbreakfastwithnick.wordpress.com%2F®ion=following&screen\_name=BreakfastwNick&source=followbutton&variant=2.0](https://twitter.com/intent/user?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fbreakfastwithnick.wordpress.com%2F®ion=following&screen_name=BreakfastwNick&source=followbutton&variant=2.0)
I think you could easily get a whole lot of “Likes” on a fan page just from your friends right here. It also helps to keep your private and public personas separate, in case you decide use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family about non-professional topics (you can keep your personal profile and posts set to a different privacy level).
I’m sure someone here would be willing to help you get things set up to the point where you just have to post. (I’d be willing, if you give me a couple of weeks to get through my all-consuming work project.)
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