Facibus On Blogging

Facebook has a lot to offer bloggers in the way of social networking - after all, friends are readers, and readers often become friends. I’ve been on Facebook for a whole week now, and would like to share some of my favourite things from this buzz-worthy platform.

The three most important things about Facebook: Friends, friends, and friends
I can’t stress this enough - Facebook is about friends. In the past week I’ve reconnected with old friends and made new ones. Some tenuous connections (keeping Facebook invitation ettiquette in mind) have become firmer, and I’m finding myself substituting some Facebook conversations for email.

I’ve invited a couple of people that I share links with, and a couple of others who have been regular commenters on my blogs. Some have responded, some not. The point is, like sharing the link love, you can’t get bent out of shape if people don’t respond.

WordPress and Flog
I’m constantly amazed at the depth of applications that keep coming through for it. It is actually hard to keep track of them all - I read AllFacebook.com every day and rely on Nick to keep me up to date.

This morning I read that WordPress was coming to Facebook and got excited - it turns out that this is for WordPress.com hosted blogs and was disappointed. This would work for my friend Matt but not me. It turns out, on re-reading, that I’d missed a link in the article about Flog.

I’ve set up Flog to work on my Facebook profile page to show postings from Facibus Reviews. There is an automatic update option that you can set up from Facebook under Applications > Flog or by following this link. As part of the automation process, you need to set the Flog ping service to work every time you post (in WordPress blogs, this is under Options > Writing).

You have to experience the Mystery to understand it
A Mystery, in a philosophical sense, is something that must be experienced to be understood. I thought I understood Facebook until I signed up, but I know now that (like sex and chocolate) it was a Mystery that had could not be fully comprehended until it was experienced. This sounds trite, I know, but it reflects my experience - without giving it a go I would never have begun to understand Facebook (and I am still learning more about it every day).

Have you had a different experience to mine as a blogger? Are there killer applications that other bloggers absolutely must have? Can’t see the point of Facebook? Leave me a comment