RE: Facebook v LinkedIn for Business…
Facebook is a powerful tool for business via the Fanpage. I too find it a bit annoying when someone turns their facebook account into a running commercial but I see nothing wrong with an occasional mention of your goods/services and directing friends to the fanpage and/or blog. Plus, I can simply hide their feed if I find it too irritating and we can remain Facebook friends, though less in tune with one another. In my view the key is to have a fanpage so you have a place on FB to direct any who are interested in your entrepreneurial pursuits without clobbering those who aren’t with information they don’t want. Everybody wins.

I also steer clear of chastising anyone on Social Media platforms for etiquette considerations. I recently read the book Tribes by Seth Godin. In it he touts the virtues of being a business heretic, that is one who refuses to follow along according to the way things have always been done and takes the freedom to do things differently.

I submit that behavior is self-corrected by cause and effect in Social Media land since you will not receive the desired outcome if you cannot build a following (a tribe to use Godin’s language). If you can build a tribe and the tribe sustains you then there is little reason to pay attention to critics since they can opt out of the tribe (or toss the offending party out of theirs) and be blissfully unaware from that day forward. So etiquette is no longer an issue if the tribe is good with your style of communication.

When one doesn’t get the desired outcome behavior will be forced to modify and everybody wins. We have the power to individually choose what we will accept within these platforms and leave each to his/her own.

The thing I love most about Social Media is it allows us to just be ourselves without the need for approval or any particular credentials. It gives us all a voice and levels the playing field so that any with an entrepreneurial vision truly has an opportunity at success. What a dull world it would be if we all perform lock-step, the same thing as everyone else

There are many examples for Personal use of Facebook but there are just as many
examples for the Business aspects…ie: David Sher, Lori Ruff, Anne Wehner, and
Rami……The list goes on and on….

Why just today, …(Note: I, Ben Zito, am just a Rookie on Facebook and
LinkedIn)… a customer called for an estimate…….She stated that she had my direct
mail advertisement…. Looked me up in the phonebook….Found my web site… and called
the BBB, where Cherokee Hills Painting has an A+ rating…
All this was done in her research, but it still was not enough to move her to
make the call to Ben Zito of Cherokee Hills Painting……
Then, while she was browsing on Facebook, she saw that I was a friend of a
friend…. That was it….
She made the call… The estimate is tomorrow….

To find new work for a Painting Contractor after Thanksgiving, is almost
unheard……I have been in the Painting Business for 25 years………..
LinkedIn and Facebook are “GREAT BUSINESS TOOLS”…..
Yes, there is a “fine Line”…. Too much of any one item is never a good idea…

Being a Rookie to Social Media, this is just the beginning…..
I’ll keep you updated……….

Ben Zito
Cherokee Hills Painting