Spinning this off from the EBT thread, since it's unrelated.

There was the pretty usual comments of "I hate facebook, why do people put stuff on Facebook?"

Honestly, why does anyone not understand why groups and people put stuff on Facebook?
"1.73 billion people on average log onto Facebook daily and are considered daily active users" That's really all you need to know. Even considering duplicates and other countries and the like, the numbers are vastly higher than you can get anywhere else.

On a good day, I've had over 1,500 concurrent users at my railroadforums.com website. I'm kind of proud of that. However, if FB ever only had 1,500 users online, red lights would be flashing, sirens would be going off, IT guys would be having panic attacks and they'd be trying to figure out who cut the fiber optic cables to all of the data centers.

So, love it or hate, your group / museum / organization should be on Facebook. Nowhere else can you reach an audience of millions for free.

That's the good news, what's the bad news? Well, if you have a page, "free" isn't nearly as easy as it may appear. They want you to buy promotions, (ads), lots of them, and they aren't cheap. You can attract viewer "organically", by inviting them in your newsletter, at your location (in non-Covid times), inviting friends and asking them to invite friends. Posting on other website, like this one.

Doing it right takes some time and effort. But it can be done, and the rewards can be good.

However, I'm about to give you what I and many others consider to be the most critical piece of advice out there. Do NOT have all your content on Facebook and nowhere else. Build your own website, one you are in control of, and drive your traffic to it. That way if something changes at FB, you don't lose the audience you worked so hard for.

How's your Myspace account doing? Anyone been to the CompuServe train forum lately? What about my 50,000 member railroad photography group on Google Plus? How's it doing? Oh, that's right, they don't exist any more. All vanished, and in some cases, they vanished fast.

Imagine losing contact with thousands of interested people due to a change in the whims of some social media network.

Don't let that happen. Use Facebook but use it smartly. Drive traffic to your own page, where you control your destiny.

This is the internet version of owning the land your museum sits on and the track you operate on. And it's just as important.

If your museum and/or organization doesn't keep with media trends you will loss money from loss of ridership and interest.

You hit the nail on the head with many issues concerning Facebook and/or other media sites.

Facebook is great and is how Youngstown Steel Heritage has attain a great number of supporters, but something that we do that also has shown great benefits is our Youtube channel.

Our Youtube channel, "Youngstown Steel Heritage" currently has 5,986 subscribers, 3,700 views in the last 48 hours, and over its lifetime has had 1.5 million views and 80,000 hours of watch time. We have also made about $2,300 in ad revenue. When Covid hit and people were staying home, we gained 1,000 new subs and watch time skyrocketed. It was the boost that we needed to propel the channel forward and increase our rankings in the algorithms.

None of our videos are professionally produced. They are either cell phone video or GoPro video of us doing stuff. We started gaining views when I started the J&L 58 project and has grown ever since as our viewers followed us from beginning to end on that project.

Between Youtube and Facebook we have turned a lowly Porter tank engine into something that a lot of people are fans of!

I don’t have a personal Facebook account because: a) I don’t have much to say that’s either interesting or profound, and b) I see all the mindless drivel that’s posted by others and I generally don’t have the time available to get sucked down that particular rabbit hole.

However, Bob nails it exactly on how and why your organization must have a Facebook page. Not much else gets the word out faster.

Same with Instagram and a few others.

My primary reason to stay on FB, even with the cesspool of political junk, is because of the groups, from local railfan groups to preservation orgs. I follow Rick both on FB and Youtube. Steam guy Jason recently walked around a Frisco engine, explaining features, and how Frisco extensively used welding; very educational. The Ahead of the Torch group is often a source of interesting information. USS Slater not only posts regular information about what their volunteers are doing, but weekly historical pieces.

Just yesterday a post that US Sugar 148 pulled the last revenue harvest train of the season popped up on FMW Solutions LLC's Facebook page, which led to a US Sugar Press Release on the US Sugar website, a very nice way to spread the information https://www.ussugar.com/news/u-s-sugar-steam-locomotive-no-148-hauls-sugarcane-train-to-mill-ending-harvest-season-new-sugar-express-launched/?fbclid=IwAR2hKlAFCJDU5gmxMSx5huLFWfNJxpMP-9VYkZMDN-W7DsEwE_ycJ0D_T7w

Bob

I personally don't post much of any personal info to my FB page. I do use it to see what my family members are up to.

My biggest use, however is to see all that railroad "stuff" I could ever want to see.

I want to know what trains are running on my local shortline? Its posted. I want to know when an NS heritage unit will be near me, posted. How about the status of the museum down the street? It might be posted if they have someone that is sharing info regularly.

It has become invaluable to me as an owner of railroad speeders as I can ask a question about the need for a part or how something should be put together and within minutes I get a response, a photo, or even a video of how that item should be put together.

Just my opinion and I was not a fan when it first appeared on the internet and resisted for many years.

Facebook is a microcosm of the internet. There is some fantastic content and there is, as Eric put it so well, a lot of "mindless drivel." Unfortunately, it is heavily-weighted toward the latter as opposed to the former.

My issues with Facebook are mostly with the management. Like many, I have so far chosen not to have an account. The management there doesn't have a great track record of protecting people's private information. Unfortunately, for those of us who decide to remain observers rather than full participants, the management has elected to make our experience as painful as possible. I regularly look at the FB pages of many tourist lines and museums, because the information there is often more timely than on conventional web pages. But as I do, I am regularly presented with the full-screen "Facebook curtain of death" demanding that I login or get an account. I can get past that, but then perhaps 1/4 of my screen is obscured for the rest of my viewing session, with a similar demand. Essentially, Facebook is sticking it to their own members, by making it painful for anyone but other members to view their content. If I were the "Webmeister" for a tourist line or museum, I'd be regularly complaining about this practice. Much of the audience I'd be trying to reach is older and perhaps less inclined to give up their privacy.....but they still like to look. Shame on Facebook for making that difficult.

My other issue with Facebook is that too many people are literally addicted to it. So addicted in fact that as I'm out for an evening walk or run, I quite regularly see cars driving by in which the driver has one hand on the wheel and the other hand on a cell phone. Facebook....and social media in general, has become so much a part of some people's lives that they are apparently willing to die for it.....or risk killing someone else. For me, it makes the whole prospect of having my name associated with something like that a bit repulsive.

Just my $.02. :o)

/Kevin Madore

While I have a Facebook account, from a decade ago, I really don't know how to navigate it (what is a "wall"?) and it is because years ago Facebook "upgraded" to a more graphics oriented environment, and it does not play with dial-up folks. Yes, even in Califunny, their are areas with no cell service, no cable, just copper wires strung from pole to pole that are barely above party line ability. So at 37K speeds, I am grateful for sites like this that will still function (most of the time).
Someone posted a link to the US Sugar website, which sorta loads (I can at least read the text), but there's no way I can go to their Facebook site from home.
Supposedly this will all change for me soon as AT&T is string Fiber Optic cable in this area and one of the flagmen told me they were bringing internet to our area. Not holding my breath as this was promised back in '08 too--but they are actually building something out there this time.

Kevin M's second paragraph sums it the anti-Facebook viewpoint well. There are many, many examples of management behavior that suggests that they cannot be trusted at all.

At risk of dragging this further off topic:

How much are you willing to PAY a month for a "social media" service that doesn't have the things you hate?

Then how are you gonna get the folks whose news you want to follow to pay for it?

I had resisted getting a Facebook account for several years, but after retiring and moving to WV, finally relented to keep up with friends and family left behind. I follow several rail-related groups and have posted a lot of my old photos to three of them. From a personal standpoint, I learn a lot about what's happening back in my old stompin' ground. Sure, you can always call, but many don't and won't and when they do, it's about major events and not the small day-to-day stuff that really makes you feel connected.

I can do without all the political propaganda (from both sides), photos of what you had for lunch, the latest cat video, etc. Also some people sure know how to use the "share" button assuming everybody has exactly the same interests as they do.

On a positive note, one of the groups I follow is the Age of Steam Roundhouse. They posted a video back on May 18th with an explanation of staybolts, where I learned more in 7 minutes on that subject than in all the years before that.

Facebook is three things at once:

- An advertising platform on which we all do or should depend, and as much as we grouse, it’s still the best deal in town.
- A place to idly lose oneself in social media drivel, akin to YouTube or TVTropes, and we ask “holy cow, where did the evening go” or cannot resist checking it over and over like Pavlov’s dog. The entire experience is reaction driven, which is emotionally hole-filling but unrewarding - and we hate ourselves for falling in the hole..
- An outlet for pro-am social media creators, who if you look carefully, “glide above all” the drivel, and do not “engage” like normal folk. They don’t have the time.

Simple solution. Don't give them any...

Get a "disposable" e-mail. If you're really concerned, use a fake name, as long you don't get cute, and don't make yourself obnoxious, they'll likely never check to see if "Ken Nadar" is real. Or simply use your actual name, so your friends can find you, it's a pretty low risk if that's the only info they have.

They sell it? Somebody hacks it? Well, now they know your name and an e-mail that's not linked to any other account. What do they have? Nothing.

Meanwhile, most hacks are places where they know they can get more, like banks and financial institutions.

It doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can create a very "thin" account with virtually no information. You're not required to tell them your home town, school, whatever. They'll pester you, but you can say no.

And that is why you want to be there. It's one stop shopping for web surfers. They log into the black hole and they're there for the night. They're not coming here, and they're likely not visiting my site either, unless I post a link to an interesting discussion they can't resist.

It is the central hub of the internet for the vast majority of the public.

There are several noted photographers I know of that either 1) do this very strategy for FB, or 2) have a public FB persona tied to their job and a private FB account where they hang out online, keeping privacy for various business or personal reasons. There's even one I know of whose rail magazine byline is a pseudonym.

You think that's disingenuous or a problem?
You're hanging out here on a board that has several pseudonymous posters, a few of arguably some "worth."