Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Facebook

This is topic Facebook - spying much? in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :

I've just made myself a Facebook account, one to do ebook marketing and the other to find some acquaintances. It's interesting that when I logged on the second time it gave me various 'Potential Friends' to look at. And most of them are from this forum.

Where in hell's name did Facebook get all these 'Potential Friends'?

Posted by BenM (Member # 8329) on :

Probably your gmail account, if you (maybe accidentally) allowed it to find friends that way.

Posted by skadder (Member # 6757) on :

It uses circuitry hidden in your computer to scan your cerebral cortex, reads your memories and creates a clone that likes Facebook...it takes a few days to create the clone and upload the memories.

Of course, the original is no longer required after that...

Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :

quote:
Probably your gmail account, if you (maybe accidentally) allowed it to find friends that way.

No, I specifically avoided doing that. It still begs me to click it every time I log on.

Skadder, no wonder you became a writer.

Posted by Unwritten (Member # 7960) on :

skadder, you are amazing.

Is it possible that you had already added one friend from this forum? Maybe they got the list from THEIR friend list.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I'm not on (or into) Facebook, but I suppose it's like the "recommendations" thing on Amazon-dot-com. "If you liked your recent purchase of The Autobiography of Mark Twain, you might like to buy the latest book by Tess Gerritsen." You know, not much actual connection to your interests or reading and purchasing habits.

Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :

As said, I didn't get a list of local friends but from this very forum. I don't remember sending e-mail to Kathleen but there she was among others I know from Hatrack.

I also routinely delete the cookies and temp files that internet hatches on my hard disk.

Anyway, just thought I should share. I can stay off the grid and be anonymous but then I shouldn't complain that no one buys my ebooks.

Posted by Wordcaster (Member # 9183) on :

My recommendations for "friends" are typically friends of friends.

If you had a hatrack friend, who in turn had other hatrack friends, then maybe they would be your potential friends.

Facebook privacy seems to be getting looser and looser and every time they update the software, it seems there are a new set of sharing defaults that are available to the public.

Posted by Reziac (Member # 9345) on :

It only takes one Facebook "friend" who doesn't grok that "find friends" means "parse your address book and look up all those people, then spam them" ... and lo and behold, you're friends with everyone in the known universe!!

I've become so annoyed with slow FB scripts everywhere that I finally blocked FB in my HOSTS file.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

It's a good idea to go check your privacy settings every so often (maybe even every time you log in) on Facebook.

Posted by EVOC (Member # 9381) on :

quote:
It's a good idea to go check your privacy settings every so often (maybe even every time you log in) on Facebook.

Yes check your Facebook setting for privacy all the time. Facebook is great for changing these setting for you on a regular basis.

Also, for the sake of marketing I suggest creating a "fan page" seperate from your regular page. These fan pages are what everyone click like on. I have used these for my old business and now for a couple of community groups I work with. They are handy for getting a message out (and to advertise later).

Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :

I think I already created a Fan Page but I don't know how to access it now. Is there any special way?

Posted by EVOC (Member # 9381) on :

In the search bar type the name of the page. When you go to that page you should automatically be able to use it. At least thats how it works for the ones I have.

Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :

quote:
In the search bar type the name of the page. When you go to that page you should automatically be able to use it. At least thats how it works for the ones I have.

I hate the way Facebook makes me feel like an idiot.

Posted by Rhaythe (Member # 7857) on :

Is it a bad thing if my Facebook account keeps insisting I find Sarah Connor?

Posted by Reziac (Member # 9345) on :

Is she lost??

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Rhaythe, tell it you've found her, and see what it says to do then.

Posted by Nick T (Member # 8052) on :

Hi Rhaythe,

I wonder how you'd remake the original Terminator movies nowadays? All Arnie would have to do to find the real Sarah Connor is log onto facebook and then befriend her.

Nick

Posted by Rhaythe (Member # 7857) on :

Wait for her to log into FourSquare with her phone.

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

quote:
I think I already created a Fan Page but I don't know how to access it now. Is there any special way?

Go to facebook, from the main newsfeed page there are three sections on the left. First section is your link to your profile, as well as newsfeed, friends, messages, events. Next section is the groups you've created or been added to (not everyone will have these, I don't think. I have half a dozen.)

Last section on my page shows up as: Game Requests, Apps, then "see more"

If you "see more" in this last section, you'll get to an option down the list called "Ads and Pages" - which if you click, will default to showing you "Pages You Admin" (meaning pages you either created or were added as an administrator to.)

It's REALLY convoluted and stupid. Want to know something else convoluted and stupid? An admin of a page can bow out. Thereby leaving a page adminless. Do you know what you need to do to add someone as an admin on a page? BE AN ADMIN! So I have a page that's related to my non-profit work and the dingbat who created the page un-adminned herself without adding me as an admin. So now this page just sits out in the ether, occupying virtual space and making me nuts. Have to figure out how to get FB to delete it so I can create and administer a new page (and note to others; best practice -- find someone else you trust who is moderately technically savvy and ask them to be an admin on your pages, too. If anything happens to you or your FB account, they'd be able to help you get things accomplished.)

Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :

Does anyone here use an Author Page or whatever it is called? If so, how?

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

Yes, see above. Just use the steps to "create a page" instead of administering your page (once you create it you can administer it.)

I have pages for myself as well as several events I am involved with, non-profits, and a just-for-fun reading group.

It's easy. I'm not currently using them for much but I do hook them up to the blogs that feed them (my author blog to my author page, my non-profit event to the non-profit event page) - using the "networked blogs" app on facebook. That pushes the blog posts to the author pages, and then they are viewable in the newsfeeds of anybody who is a fan of that page. Useful for getting the word out in a consistent way.

Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :

I know how to make the Page (I started this thread

). But what do you put on it to make it good?

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

Look for some of your favorite authors on FB - many of them have nice pages that they push certain tweets to and do other interesting things on.

Our own Jamie Ford has a nice author page that is a great example. Kevin J. Anderson does one, though I think he uses his personal facebook page as his business one (Jamie has two separate things - a facebook page for friends, and an author page for much more book-related and announcement-related stuff around his appearances and the like.)