To be effective, Facebook takes a lot of care and feeding. As someone
who innocently volunteered to set up the Washington Area Butterfly
Club Facebook page (about a year ago, with the expectation that
someone else would run it), I can say it consumes/consumed a lot of my
time and energy for really very little additional value not already
provided by the WABC listserv and the web site LepLog. I recently
informed WABC that I just couldn't afford the time monitoring and
adding content to keep it vibrant, and unless someone steps forward I
plan to close down the FB part of the operation Sept. 1.
For WABC, it did not attract younger folks interested in leps, and it
did not stimulate deeper or richer discussions. It did very quickly
grow to rival our listserv in numbers of participants, but the serious
and dedicated lep folks for the most part did not join in or join up.
The Facebook site became a sort of free for all for people posting
pictures and giving detailed online diaries of their lives.
Which is fine if that's what you go into Facebook wanting to occur.
But social networks like this -- and I manage several social networks
at my job -- are geared toward the least sophisticated members of your
target group, and rapidly ensure that the discussions are primarily at
the very amateur or intellectually naive (in a nonjudgmental way)
members of the community.
Again, not a bad thing if that's what you're setting out to do. What
we've found in our market niche is that while Facebook facilitates
interaction with youngsters, they tend to interact with themselves
rather than with others in a mentoring or educational mode. There's a
reason they're called "social" media rather than "educational" media.
Truly interested kids would -- IMHO -- prefer to be in more
sophisticated setting where they feel they are learning from
professionals. Facebook has been a pretty dismal failure most of the
times it's been used as an educational tool.
Twitter is another animal entirely, one that alllows near-instant
communication about rarities or sightings that is hard to replicate
with a listserv (as Dan well knows from the Twitter experiment last
year).
Just a few thoughts to keep in mind about the time and energy
commitment you make when you start up Facebook. It doesn't run
itself.
On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 9:18 PM, LATaylor <taylor.lat...> wrote:
> I appreciate and agree with many of the concerns abut social media.
>
> One comment I have is that Tweeting and Facebook seem to be an ever present
> part of the lives of many younger people. Good or bad, this is true. So, as
> a way to connect, potentially, with our next generation, these venues may be
> a valuable addition to the overall information available, for those who
> choose to use them. Not a replacement for this list. I am very grateful to
> be back in touch with MD birding via this news list since I had not been
> able to re-register to Mdosprey after leaving for a period.
>
> As a relatively novice, if older, birder - eBird has had an impact a number
> of times on my ability to confirm or suggest a bird I thought I saw at a
> particular location. I would personally appreciate if all data were in one
> place, but believe we may get more confluence over time, valuable for us
> all. I am not yet confident enough in my observations to add them to eBird,
> but expect to eventually contribute.
>
> lee-ann
>
> On Aug 6, 2012, at 8:57 PM, Andy Wilson <amw1328...> wrote:
>
> Kurt, I don't think it need be a replacement at all. PA has a list serve and
> a PA Birders FaceBook page, they serve different purposes. I've not heard of
> complaints about these complementary forums from anyone "north of the
> border".
>
> Cheers
> Andy Wilson
>
> On Aug 6, 2012, at 8:51 PM, Kurt Schwarz <krschwa1...> wrote:
>
> Frankly, I find the very concept of Facebook a huge waste of time. I have
> enough accounts, passwords, etc. to keep me busy. I would oppose moving our
> discussions to Facebook, but I guess that I'm probably in the minority, and
> will have to risk missing some sightings. You all clamored for a more
> accessible listserve/whatever, and got it. But I guess that's not enough.
> There are already multiple websites and such consuming your data, just add
> another leach to your data. Count me out.
>
> Kurt Schwarz
> Ellicott City
> goawaybird at verizon dot net.
>
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Rick Borchelt
College Park, MD
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http://leplog.wordpress.com
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