has Facebook become a skill. like HTML and Java?

[londrum]

i've never really been into facebook. i've signed up, because that seems to be in the rules of the world, but i've never bothered to learn how it all works so i don't do anything with it.

but i've got to the stage now where i feel i MUST learn it, so i can start promoting my site with it, like everyone else seems to do these days.

so i've been looking at it all morning. maybe i'm just a bit dumb (a likely scenario, admittedly) but it's not exactly obvious what everything is supposed to do "out of the box". it's almost like a skill, which you have to learn.
If it was this complicated at birth (and i have no idea whether it was) then i'm surprised it got so big.

Compared to this, Twitter is a piece of cake.

Do you think Facebook is now so important to business that webmasters can start putting it on their CV? much like they do for HTML, Javascript and all that kind of stuff.

im going to buy myself one of those "facebook for dummies" books to see if i can wrap my head around it.

[rocknbil]

For developers, definitely. It API has it's own language and everyone wants social networking integration on their site (many of them don't know why, they just know it's cool and are missing out on something if they don't. Like Web 2.0.) It's not all that difficult to learn, but it's a definite plus to know, along with Twitter Feeds, SalesForce integration, merchant gateway integration, Commission Junction and other feeds . . . just another peg in the ladder.

As far as marketing goes, also definitely, it's a big part of any marketing campaign. I used to think they types of users on Facebook were too homey for most business applications, but this is definitely a false assumption. Several clients get far more conversions from Facebook ads and their Facebook page than they do from their PPC campaign and website.

I'd say (IMO, not fact . . . see previous) it's far more powerful than Twitter. There's more you can do. People have more reasons to "hang out" there, and return more times a day. And to add to it . . . I see lots of Tweets posting right to Facebook timelines. I don't think nearly as many people "get" Twitter in the way they "get" Facebook (myself included.)

Personally, no matter to me, I let marketers do what they do and implement their ideas, but I get to look over their shoulders while doing the integrations. I learn a lot. :-)

There's a new one on the horizon (or more likely, has already arrived and can't be ignored.) On one hand I groan (yet more to learn), on the other, well it's something new to learn . . . seeing a lot of response to Pinterest. People do love to play, and wherever they play, someone wants to monetize. Enter teh coderz . . .

[Marshall]

They have become a necessary evil, so to speak. It is one time when the consumer is dictating to us regardless what our individual preferences/opinions may be.

Personally, except for "like" buttons, I feel loading pages with social network plugins just slows down the page and, depending on the site, provides irrelevant information.

IMHO, we have all become coerced promoters of these mega-million dollar social sites. And you have to admit it is bad when that ubiquitous "f" is in a print ad as if you could click on it.

Marshall

[rocknbil]

"loading pages with social network plugins just slows down the page"

... and . . . there's always tons of them. Most common response when I raise these points? "If people can't afford fast internet, they're not the type of people we want to market to so we don't give a s**t whether they can see it or how long it takes to load."

The Internet sure has changed in respect to building sites. :-\

[piatkow1]

"If people can't afford fast internet, they're not the type of people we want to market to so we don't give a s**t whether they can see it or how long it takes to load."

Wait for them to start screaming once they get their nice new smartphones.

[rocknbil]

But it's 4G, d****it!

[BillyS]

I'm quickly finding that Facebook is a skill. It's also a pretty useless site for us, so we've developed a process that makes maintaining it pretty simple.