Facebook

[Michael]

Personally I loathe facebook. Random people I don't even know request to be my "friend." It's difficult and confusing to use, and I don't really see the point of it. However, I do realize it is widely being used now for marketing and whatnot so I'd like to see your feedback.

Should I make Kili/Truman a facebook page? Do you think it would attract more parrot owners to my forum/blog? Would it make you more likely to read my blog and watch my videos than the way things are now?

[Azure Hanyo]

Facebook...oooh facebook... We have a love/hate relationship. XD Anyway I would add it! There are so many people on facebook, the exposure would be great for you and your birds.

[Red Moppet]

I can't say whether I think you should or should not, or speak to how many more parrot owners you would attract. I can say that I already read the forum and your blog on a regular basis so facebook wouldn't change that for me. I'll also mention that if you do create a facebook page you will be undoubtably overwhelmed with friend requests and messages, adding to the messages that you already get via the forum, your blog, utube and whatever else you may use (more "housekeeping" to do). Just a thought for what it's worth. On the flip side, if you create a page and decide after a while that it's not accomplishing what you had intended it to do, you can always delete it. Okay, okay, this answer is pretty wishy-washy. My apologies. I'm working on getting a spine!

[thegreatkatsby]

Earlyn has a MySpace page... but I haven't gotten around to Facebook yet. It's kind of cute how other bird owners will friend your bird, and then they have lots of little birdy friends online.

[lzver]

I voted yes, but I'm actually impartial. Since I'm a member of this forum and of your TrainedParrot blog, I don't need another avenue to receive updates.

It could bring you more exposure ... but it will most likely bring some of the unwanted exposure you mentioned.

[Brittanyv326]

I say YES! If you do have friend requests and messages daily, then you're accomplishing what you want to. Your birds (well honestly, really just Kili so far) are already famous, I think you'd have thousands in just a months time. And you really don't have to put that much work into it. Like a couple times a week, you could post a comment about Kili or Truman or a video and I think fans would just be happy with that. It would be a huge expanse of your fan base I think. But you would definitely be expanding beyond parrot owners as fans, which may bother you.

Are you thinking a fan page type thing or an actual facebook profile? I think you should do a fan page, then you don't have to respond to people's requests or anything and you'd get that many more fans, because all it takes is one click to "like" your page, then they receive your updates & everything.

I personally think it's a great idea.

[Kim S]

I'm not even on facebook. I've got enough problems keeping my hyves page updated

It will be a lot of extra maintanance for you, but a bigger platform as well.
Dont forget, this training business was suppose to be fun! Dont let all this extra work spoil that for you.

[Rue]

...although I have a Facebook account, pretty much since it started...I rarely use it...personally I don't like it. I only keep it because some of my acquaintances won't use anything else...

[MandyG]

It really depends on what you're going to use it for. You already have a training blog, a forum, and a youtube channel to keep everyone up to date with what's going on with your parrots. Will you be providing additional information about them that people can't find elsewhere? Will it be more time for maintenance without much benefit? Most people that are interested in Kili follow your youtube channel, those that are interested in Truman probably already follow your blog, and those that are simply interested in parrots are likely members of the forum already. I personally wouldn't follow anything on facebook if it was simply more of the same information I can find on the other 3 sources. I find it hard enough to find the time to follow the youtube videos, keep up with the forum, and to keep up-to-date with the blog! But that's just me, others might enjoy the parrots being on facebook.

[Michael]

It will be a lot of extra maintanance for you, but a bigger platform as well.
Dont forget, this training business was suppose to be fun! Dont let all this extra work spoil that for you.

Well that's why I'm having my brother make/run it. He doesn't have a parrot or do much with my birds (except watch them when I go away) but he does help me run the back end of the parrot business like building training stands, props, assembling cage, etc. He's more into the whole facebook thing so I'm letting him make that and run it.

Also as for spoiling the fun by making more work. Basically if I do facebook or any other time consuming marketing things like that, it would only be for the purpose of growing the business side of my parrot ventures. Between youtube, blog, and forum I really don't need another project to run. Any new under takings are for the purpose of expanding the market for my training stands, props, and advertising.

Will you be providing additional information about them that people can't find elsewhere? Will it be more time for maintenance without much benefit?

No, the facebook page would provide no real value to people who follow me on my websites. In fact it would mostly just serve as a portal of links to funnel people into my youtube, forum, and blog. I mean I would certainly appreciate if forum/blog followers would fan my facebook page just to help spread the word, but the real purpose of it would be to help parrot owners not already familiar with my websites to find them. So basically facebook would serve as a one way street for facebookers to come to my sites but not so much for people on my sites to go to facebook.

If by some chance the facebook page were to become incredibly popular (on par or more so than my other sites), then I would consider providing some incentives and special updates to get people to go there more. But as the way I see it now it would only be to help parrot owners find my existing sites.

Personally I like youtube, the forum, and blog much more as medium for online parrot activities. Youtube lets me share videos/audio, the blog as a one way stream of my thoughts from me to audience, and the forum as a two way discussion between lots of people. Facebook would just serve as a centralized collection of links to all new updates pertaining to Kili/Truman.

Any more thoughts?