Facebook

I created a Facebook account in October 2007 and have maintained it regularly since. It is fun and a great way to stay in touch with friends and family that you don't see often. Of course, it does have some drawbacks and it is important to use your privacy settings properly. I do occassionally get friend requests from people that I don't know and I always just delete them. I've fortunately never had to block anyone, but I have had to delete some posts on my wall. When you have a mix of coworkers, family, and old and new friends, things have the potential to get awkward. I have deleted "friends" for the following reasons:

1. He/she posted something inappropriate or offensive on my wall.
2. She was such an annoying Facebragger that I couldn't stand it. Honestly, do I need to hear about your 3 houses, your nanny issues, ski trips, and children making the cheerleading squad AND the honor roll??? To be fair, I "hid" this person at first so as not to offend her. However this is a person who has about 800 FB friends, so when I was "trimming the fat" on my friend list one day, I figured she wouldn't miss me and I deleted her. Within 1 hour I had a message from her in my inbox asking what was wrong. The weird thing is I really didn't know this person at all. We met briefly through a mutual friend, so I found the whole thing very bizarre.
3. I never liked the person, only accepted a friend request so as not to offend (she is in the same profession as I am), but the minute she moved away, I deleted her due to some offenses she had committed toward mutual friends.

If someone does a lot of the Farmville and Mafia Wars type things, I hide the application. Usually, this is sufficient for getting rid of these types of updates in one's newsfeed. I do have some businesses, celebrities, etc. that I have become a "fan" of. It's nice to get coupons and updates about special deals from businesses and tour updates from bands that I like. And,yes, I am a "fan" of the Frisco Public Library. I think it is great that we have an FB page. I would like to see something offered exclusively for customers who are "fans" of the FPL on FB. Maybe a contest- Taco Bueno does a contest on FB in which they give away food to the "Buenohead Photo of the Day"- which is a picture of a person or group of people eating at Bueno. I don't think we would be able to do something like that everyday like Bueno does, but every now and then would be fun and doable. I agree that what makes an FB page successful is if it is updated regularly- not just status updates but photos of events and such are pleasing, too.