I love my friend requests & add them all. This is my system:

• friend request with no note – just add them
• friend request with reason – add & respond
• friend request with comment about my blog – add & thank them
• friend suggestion – only add if I know them personally

Periodically I have to delete all the other requests. It was SO time consuming because I only do it when they get up around 200. This morning I spent 30 min’s & then complained on Twitter about the waste of my time. @degeeked told me that there is an "Ignore All" button!!! WAY TO GO Facebok! but in true Facebook fashion it’s not easy to find.

Click on Home | other requests

Scroll to right & there is the magic button -  ‘ignore all’!

That will give you the option to happily mass delete!

And @degeeked suggested that in the future I should use the saved 45 minutes for a nap! My recommendation is that you follow @degeeked for their smashing ideas! And check out degeeked.com for oodles & oodles of ideas!

What is your favorite Facebook tip or trick?

It was a panel so we didn’t have a formal presentation. Instead we started by asking the audience what their questions were to mix it up a bit because we were a day & half into the conference. I did put up some main points on the screen:

Sociology: It’s about relationships

For Facebook Groups to be effective there needs to be efforts towards building community.

Strategy: Have a plan & outline your goals for visitors & those joining

• Add Value
• Contribute to the conversation
• Be Creative
• Be Dynamic
• Be Relevant (in my case I have to remember succint too! )

We also talked about rejuvenating a group that’s dismally quiet. Ask yourself what you can do to regain interest? In a smaller group an email can be sent to the membership.

One question that was interesting was from a representative of T-Mobile asking if they should have a group? and what it should be. They were offered some suggestions. First check to see if fans have created groups around the brand already? If there are then join those conversations. If not, then create a strategy of what the objective is? They have a popular character in their ads so it was suggested that maybe a group could be formed around that character?

One main point that was made early on was that Facebook Groups were originally created to band people together to express ‘I Hate. xyz brand” or I love xyz brand! But another segment is using Facebook & we’re using Groups in quite a different way. We’re exchanging information, sharing & learning things & networking. Imagine how this appears to college students?

One of my main points in regard to Facebook groups is that Facebook Groups only provide value if you interact & get involved. I have heard many criticize them & question their worth, but they have been invaluable to my networking. And if you ask questions & listen to others you’ll find out that there is a world at your fingertips!

Some groups that I’d recommend checking out:

• Community Manager
• Web Strategy

Tris Hussey was live blogging & provided great commentary on the following sessions:

Jeremiah’s Keynote was excellent. He put his slides up on his blog.

Mari Smith also provided comprehensive coverage on his keynote

There was a session on Recruiting on Facebook

Lee Lorenzen says Facebook is worth $100 billion

Facebook for Professionals

Facebook App’s – it was noted that we had the most talented FB app developers congregated in one place

My photos are in Facebook.

*Update* Jeremiah also posted 7 key learnings from the Web Community Forum

Tris Hussey of BlogNation did some great live blogging. He covered our session on Facebook Groups. Jake McKee & Monica Guzman joined me on our panel & were awesome!

Monica is totally passionate about her blogging & online ventures. She said – everything she does is an experiment! (My sister & I know how that is – and we love the adventure). She’s a journalist & it was fun listening to her vent about other sources posting news before her newspaper did. She was like – ‘how in the %&*# does Twitter get it immediately’? It made me smile to listen to her wanting to be the best! Rock on Monica!

Jake McKee is known as the Community Guy for a reason – he’s been building community before it was in vogue. I love his firm’s name, An Ant’s Eye View because it’s SO perfect! Aren’t we all just looking up as little beings at the world at large? I certainly feel that way being situated here in Minnesota. But thanks to web 2.0 those skyscrapers aren’t quite so tall!

It was great to meet these two & present with them!

We are all consumers first. I have been quoted for saying:

Facebook has tremendous potential for networking & marketing as long as you’re sensitive to the idea that it’s a social space.

So Facebook has a new plan to allow advertisers (including People) to create Pages, buy Social Ads & Facebook Ads. Here is Facebook’s description of a Page:

Your fans love you, and their friends will know it.

When your fans interact with your Facebook Page, the actions they take are automatically generated into social stories. These stories are published to News Feed, which friends may see the next time they log into Facebook. The stories link back to your Facebook Page, inviting more people to interact with it, which generates more social stories and drives even more traffic to your Page. Think of it as word-of-mouth marketing, only completely free and happening online.

But my Friends ARE my fans! Why do I need to create a page in addition to my profile?

And the phrase ‘think of it as word-of-mouth marketing, only completely free’ – isn’t the basic premise of word of mouth marketing that it IS free? Since when has that cost anything?

Jeremiah created a page for himself. I appreciate his providing an example. Rather than befriending that Page, you can become a Fan. When I click on that option, I get this:

I must say that the sentence ‘You can change this setting later, if you want.’ In my opinion, Facebook’s settings aren’t apparent & it should read, ‘You can change this later, but it may be very difficult to figure out how’. In the meantime it’s feeding into my Newsfeed that I’m a Fan of Jeremiah. Well, why state the obvious? We all know this! Anyone that reads my blog is aware of that. And if you aren’t, now you know!

Last night in reading the commentary, some questions came to mind:

• Is this something that my company can use? & our digiscrappers?
• How is this different than the ACDSee Group that I created?
• Ultimately what value does it provide?

So today I did some more reading & looking around Facebook.

Nicholas Carr provides an example of how Coca Cola will use it. They have a Page up now.

Sprite will create a new Facebook Page for Sprite Sips and will run a series of Social Ads that leverage Facebook’s natural viral communications to spread the application across its user base.

Ummm, I’m ignoring werewolf & zombie invitations (even from my daughter), why would I be inclined to add a Sprite Sip? My profile won’t load the way it is, why would I add more applications to it? (I commented yesterday about my waiting to hear from Facebook – do they have Customer Service?) In the meantime I’m minimizing the number of app’s I have because they don’t load, much less adding a number of Advertising app’s.

The next question is how is the Page different from a Group? Jeremiah has a Web Strategy Group & now a Page. I see the main diference is that the Discussion Board is placed high on the Group & at the bottom of the Page. Is this an indicator of the value of Discussion on the Page?

Another thing that I’m trying to figure out is how is the Newsfeed information different from a Page & a Group? For example if Julia writes on the wall of the ACDSee group, that’s posted throughout her network. Isn’t that just as effective & offers the same benefit? What am I missing?

Something that bothers me is that you can’t search for the pages. You could for sponsored groups. Do a search for Page & this comes up, but if you click on the Pages tab you can’t view them. Maybe it’s too early?

So I’m glad that Jeremiah created a sample Page to demonstrate it. I will be his fan in real life, but I can’t really hit that button on Facebook. It brings me to my last question, what value does it provide? Ultimately, it seems to be advertising & to be honest, I ignore the banners, flyers, etc. I’m at Facebook to talk with my friends, my daughter (I’ve helped her with her homework there), and network. It’s difficult to knowingly subject my friend’s newsfeeds to that.

I value my newsfeed & do read what my friends are doing (ignoring the periodic boxed ad – in fact it annoys me when I find that I’ve read it). That’s how I learn of new groups. AND in the last month or so, the Home tab is the only one that will load on my wireless access, so it’s how I use Facebook (not by choice mind you). Just as I respect my friends in regard to not spamming them with pointless app’s, likewise I won’t spam them with ad’s.

One last thought about all of this. I value my time & everyone else’s. There has been a discussion about groups & how people just join & don’t participate. Bryan Person had commentary on that on his blog. There are a number of Groups that provide me with value. The Web Strategy group, the Community Manager group (which I’m moderating with Jeremiah) & there are a few others that I participate in. So now toss in Pages.

In less than a month I’m presenting on Groups at a Facebook Conference, so I welcome your comments. And feel free to answer any of my questions, I’d love to hear your ideas.

For staff to become comfortable with utilizing social media I believe there are four tenets of effecting change:

1. Recognize that change happens slowly
2. Build on the strengths & assets of the organization
3. Be committed to face the challenges that will arise
4. Ultimately the change needs to be a result of intrinsic motivation

Over the past year I have watched my sister evolve from a silent lurker to an active blogger. Today she pointed out that she has surpassed me in the number of posts on our forums. I did encourage her early on & she joined at her own comfort rate. Now I’m watching her mentoring others!

Last week when I was at the offices talking about my ACDSee group on Facebook (I tend to do that…), my President asked, ‘there are staff on Facebook?’ So I showed him who my friends were & he disappeared for awhile. When he came back he said he’d made an exec account. He befriended the staff I was friends with & joined the ACDSee group! AND posted on a question on the ACDSee group’s discussion board. Isn’t that a great way of setting an example of interacting with the customers? Tonight I checked & there are 8 ACDSee staff that are members of the group. They joined of their own accord & I really appreciate their participation. My question for them will be if they want to be identified as staff or if they just want to quietly belong. I will respect their choice although I’ve already asked a few of them to blog…

I’m so impressed with this level of voluntary engagement! It makes me realize that the PEOPLE of ACDSee are committed to utilizing social media & we can move ahead far more quickly than I had envisioned! Somehow I have a feeling that this journey is going to be a great adventure because ACDSee staff have the same vision that I do & in a total team effort. Thanks guys!

It challenges me to look further into the future!

Here question is:

What do I have in my applications bar & why?

It’s a good question! And in looking at my app’s I realized that it’s maybe time to do some housekeeping again. I am fairly selective about what I add & generally add only app’s I see when I’m at someone else’s profile. The app invites are generally declined.

Communication & informational

• Notes – LOVE feeding in my 3 blogs into here!
• GoogleReader Shared Items – I like this
• Posted Items  – hmmm I should do this more often like my friend Clay does!
• Blog Friends I like this

Interaction, relational & seeing relationships

• My questions – I need to change my question!
• Top Friends – makes people feel good!
• TouchGraph – this is really cool! I like the visualization!
• Books read – I have some there
• Socialistics – this is a really cool tag cloud of my friends
• Visual bookshelf – another book related app
• Superwall – need this to see some messages

Not necessary – but they’ll stay

• Free gifts – I like this – simple & unobtrusiveLivestrong – a new friend made this (my aunt has cancer)
• Naughty Gifts – a friend sent something
• Happy hour! – a friend had a birthday, so my sister & I sent drinks
• Wiki Whiteboard – I was playing with this – it’s wetpaint on facebook

Going, going, gone soon!

• My card – someone recommended this but I’ve never used it really (it’s going)
• Stumbleupon (it’s going)
• Sticky notes (it’s going – was fun but…)
• Kaboodle – added it to see how it works (probably can go)
• Twitter – am not feeding my tweets in (it’s going)
• Instant messaging – I don’t use it – so it’s going

That was a good exercise! Ok now I tag: my sister Heidi (she can do this at DigiScrapInfo), Jeanine Baechtold, Clay Newton, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Connie Reece & David Yeo

Let’s see what you got guys! Do share

Here’s a link to my interview in podcast format & I thank her for allowing me to share it with you! The addition of voice definitely adds another dimension.

Today Robert Scoble blogged in disagreement to Dave Winer saying that social graphs & social networks are one & the same. Scoble says that a social graph is the study of people’s networks. I have a math degree & so this is an interesting debate. The Touchgraph app showing how my friends are interconnected does point to the answer, I believe. Let’s see if you agree?

Do you see immediately what happened? I have two factions: networking friends & digiscrapping friends. Isn’t that fascinating?!! I have 175 friends by the way (not all are here do to privacy settings). It may tell me that I need to increase the diversity of my friends.

Robert Scoble has 5000 friends so it’s not surprising to see his connections. But I didn’t know that my techie friend Hummie was his friend, but I do now! We are the only 2 digiscrappers following him. By mousing over my digifriends I can see who’s connected to each other.

This app also does a lot more. The panes on the left provide a lot of info. By viewing by list the person’s profile is displayed along with their rank. The app defines their rank as:

TouchGraph gives the highest rank to friends who are connectors between different cliques. Finding connectors involves a metric called Betweeness Centrality which is an established measure for a person’s importance within a social network.

So Hummie (at #2) & I are the most closely connected by virtue of our social networks. And I agree with Robert Scoble that this a social graph when you can see other people’s network info. What do you think?

Finally I want to post the video Robert Scoble had of the sister of the owner of Facebook. They use the terms social graphs in here. It was quite interesting.

So what do you think? are these social graphs or social networks?

Update: Dave Winer commented that his commentary has been #1 on Techmeme for 24 hours… and I agree it’s worthy of discussion.

Recently I posted tips on Befriending in Facebook & elsewhere, but today I had a conversation that prompted me to think about the psychology behind being shy of social networking. So I want to come at it from a different direction & ponder why people feel uncomfortable with social networking. These ideas are my own & not based on any statistics.

• Our Culture – Does it tend to make us less willing to be transparent & open with strangers? Do people in European countries & other cultures have an easier time?
• Trust – Are we brought up to not talk to strangers? Does that affect how we feel about interacting?
• Fear – This can be of many things. Some that I can think of are rejection, embarrassing oneself, not being knowledgeable enough, not being accepted, etc My fear is different, but I push it back & carry on hoping that no one will decide to take advantage of my being so open & trusting.
• No time or desire – Then why have you read this far? *grin* Seriously though, if you think that networking is important for whatever reason, then it will take time. Initially, it takes a conscious effort but as you get used to it & get addicted, then it pays off & the relationships can grow.

My suggestion is that as hard as it is, put yourself out there as I suggested in my tips. As you have success, you’ll gain self-confidence & realize the value in meeting strangers. After awhile it will become easier & not cause you stress. (It’s supposed to be fun! And maybe that’s why I appreciate Facebook – it offers a glimpse of the person & who they are.) Each weekend 5-10 people connect with me & I initiate connections with others.

What do you feel are roadblocks for you in this area? and take some time to ask yourself why they bother you?