Here's a little secret for you. I hate Facebook and I always have. I mean really, really hate it. I feed all my stuff to it, but I can't stand it and try not to go in there unless absolutely necessary - then feel guilty that I've missed a bunch of comments and invitations and whatever.

I don't hate that it has connected me to lots of people from my past and my present, nor do I hate being able to catch a glimpse of peoples' lives and find things in common. I don't hate some of those original motivation factors for its existence - I hate that it seems to have forgotten about those motivators while it's trying to keep up with the Joneses.

I do hate that it keeps all your data and you can't have it back. I hate that it has the worst usability of any site ever. (And I wonder about how the power of personal connections and tagged photos can keep people using it in spite of that). For example - I hate that many people message me through it then I have to actually go in there into the swamp to get my messages and reply rather than be able to from my email. I hate that when I have one task to do, usually involving a group, I can never remember how to get to where I need to be to do that task. I hate the fact that I am supposed to stay ahead of the curve on it yet I get stressed out the minute I have to go in there to check out their umpteenth new upgrade which seems to make it worse each time they do one. As a massively popular social network, or as something I have to keep on top of from a professional/association/nonprofit standpoint? Hate it.

The overarching, all-encompassing reason I hate it so much? Facebook suffers from the worst case of feature creep,that I have ever seen. Joshua Porter defines feature creep as"the process of slowly adding features to a product or interface over time. The result is a design that is less than the sum of its parts. The features may have added functionality, but the overall effect is negative. The complexity brought on by the features has, instead of adding value, made the design undesirable and a pain to use". All those "improvements" they supposedly made? I still haven't figured out how to navigate the "new" profile pages - which are now not new, since they're changing them - AGAIN. Talk about trying to be all things to all people, trying to compete with Twitter, trying whatever it is they are trying - which is totally unclear to me and totally irrelevant. How about making it user-friendly? How about making the features invisible? How about not making me click seventeen times because they keep moving the link to my groups?

So sue me. Anyway - I didn't mean to rant. I just wanted to tell you that it's ok to hate Facebook. I'm right there with you. What we can't do, neither you nor me, is ignore the fact that many of our stakeholders love Facebook and are hanging out there. So we just need to plug along and figure out whether it's a strategically good idea to build a presence there in order to connect with our members.

To that end, here's a bunch of Facebook resources for you.

Facebook for Associations (my article for ASAE's Communications News)
Facebook demographics (Quantcast)
Facebook - What you Need to Know (SocialFish resource)
Facebook Lessons From Kindergarten - SocialFish Food e-newsletter
Facebook Case Study: Chapters - Peggy Hoffman
What, Why and How of Facebook Pages - Beth Kanter
Facebook Pages vs Groups

And on the new changes:
Facebook announces new home pages - it's all about the stream
Facebook announces a myriad of changes

I will tell you I have not yet investigated the latest changes. I'm hoping Lindy will go in and just tell me what I need to know. :)

But I just wanted you to know that I feel your pain. You are not alone! We'll figure it out together.

Originally posted @ Socialfishing...