Facebook Wishlist

Facebook is much loved around the world. It has a “population” the size of a country. They must be doing something right.

But for me it is my least favorite of the big social media tools. I try to like it. I try to use it. It doesn’t work for me because of small irritations, and I find myself just going in to housekeep friend requests and “suggestions”, block applications, that kind of thing.

While I have been looking at different strategies I have seen some small glimmer of usefulness. It has enough potential that I want to persist, no matter how annoying I find it.

I have been thinking about how Facebook could be made more useful for me and other small business users.

  1. Ignore fan page requests forever - After I have ignored a fan page suggestion for the fifth time, sometimes in a week, I yearn for a button that says “No and I never ever will”. This behavior is caused by the fan page owner inviting all their friends repeatedly, this should be either fixable at the recipient end (block forever) or have a restriction on how many times a person can be invited at the senders end.
  2. Block every application suggestion – I want to be able to opt out of every application suggestion, request or invitation. Instead I would explicitly seek out and join the ones that do interest me.
  3. Filter friend requests – If someone has MLM, teeth whitening or the name of my school anywhere in their profile then most likely I do not want to have anything to do with them. The few who I would miss through this system I would seek out or find through connections.
  4. Change “Fan Page” to be named something less sucky – Really, “Fan” page? Who wants to be a “Fan” of someone? Couldn’t they make fan page be something less objectionable like “Contact” page or something? OK, my suggestion isn’t much better but at least it would not feel as ego-ish to have one.
  5. Granular application permissions – Why does a map application need access to all my details? Apparently applications are going to get access to our email addresses too? I want to be able to set how much applications can access as I seriously do not trust any of them with my information.

All of those are irritations and requests to make the experience less of a chore but I have a big suggestion that I think could make Facebook way more useful.

My big suggestion? Be able to hold events on Facebook!

I see it as being a video conference feature. Individuals could talk to friends, family and contacts 1:1 like with Skype (possible to do via simple flash application which would overcome the technophobe aspect of getting relatives to use desktop applications). Webinars and teleconferences could be held directly on Facebook, so you could use the invite and event features but not leave the system.

Picture someone with a huge audience like Gary Vaynerchuk sharing an invite with all their contacts and the recipient just needing to hit one button to be taken directly to the event with no software, accounts or settings to be added or changed? I can see this being a great tool and revenue opportunity.

I’m sure Facebook will not see any of these suggestions, much less act on them, but I enjoyed writing this as social media therapy ;)

    Posted on November 5, 2009 by Chris Garrett 
    Filed Under Web 2.0

    Comments

    5 Responses to “Facebook Wishlist”

    1. Rebecca Leaman on November 5th, 2009 2:40 am

      The ability to hold Events right on Facebook would be a huge advance for nonprofits trying to connect with constituents! Something like that would open all sorts of possibilities, raising the comfort level for technophobes and the tentative, and help to equalize access to online education across the board. It is a fact that some (many) are not too comfortable about strayng beyond Facebook, so wouldn’t it just make sense to have less of the silly annoying “super poke” sort of applications, and more of the sort that lead to genuine communication? YEs, let’s hope that Facebook is paying attention! …but I won’t hold my breath ;)

    2. Scott Clark on November 5th, 2009 2:41 am

      Yes, thinking of facebook events should put the fear of failure into any of the existing event systems. Some of which suck.

      My wish list has a Profile->Page converter for those oldies who set up their profile wrong years ago as pseudo-humans and now find themselves with 20k friends. It’s a bad position to be in.

    3. Facebook Wishlist : Codswallop « Blog on November 5th, 2009 2:35 pm

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    4. Dick Kusleika on November 6th, 2009 2:43 am

      I agree with your sentiments. But for me, no new features will matter until they get an RSS feed. I have to go to the site to read it? What year is this?

    5. Michele Connolly, Get Organized Wizard on November 6th, 2009 2:25 pm

      I totally second you on points 1, 2 and 4.
      ‘Fan Page’ is so lame!

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