Social Tuesday - Why the Chief Alien Left Facebook

Recently there has been a lot of talk about the changes to Facebook. I have heard the Timeline is really slick. I wanted early access but the only two ways I could do this was by giving Facebook my cell phone number or a credit card. No way jose. I trust Facebook less than I trust Russia to have free and honest elections. 

Recently I received from Spotify a bunch of invites that I could send to my Facebook Friends. Now really all they need is access to people in my network using Spotify. They don't need access to everything about me and my friends. But here is what the APP requested:

I mean really? Maybe Spotify should come into the shower with me, or my bed when I am with my girlfriend? All APPs ask this and you are crazy to allow it.

Then the changes came out for F8 and for once Mashable allowed an article damning of Facebook:

Facebook’s New Features Might Not Be as Private as You Think [UPDATED]

Which got me really aggro. Tomorrow I will blog about why this is different than Google or my ISP from seeing everything I do.

So to me this was the last straw. But I have two problems which make leaving Facebook harder than for most people. Most of my real life friends (meaning people I spent hours and days and weeks and months in person hanging out with) are in Los Angeles. They are not on the Twitter or Google Plus yet. I have a lot of them. About 200+ because I was part of the underground music and art scene. I risk losing touch with them.

Secondly is my career change to Marketing/Advertising. How can I consult on Social Media if I am not on Facebook, at least while they are still the prime network. I obviously have many blog posts analyzing the network's value, reach, success and failures. I even run a client's Brand Page!

Big dilemma. But then I read these two Blog Posts and the Media Post article with reader comments:

Some thoughts on quitting Facebook

Those analogue days

 What Do You Think of Facebook Timelines vs. Profiles?

And so I decided to go for it. I removed the cookies for Facebook from Firefox my prime web browser. No longer will I be freaked out by seeing my Facebook log in on non-Facebook websites. I created a dummy account to run my client's Brand page and I am using Chrome only for that purpose. And this is allowing me to still see what Brands are doing. My job is to help my clients sell. If that means using Facebook while the network is still alive I am ok with that. I also would be ok if Facebook turned off tomorrow. It will not hurt my client's businesses.

I also feel this is Facebook's Netflix moment. My feeling is forcing this over sharing is going to have people leaving. But will G+ or Diaspora or another network take advantage of this opening? I don't know. Meanwhile I am using Twitter, G+, Email, SMS Text, and the Phone. 

But as I pondered this move I thought how much am I really using Facebook personally? Not a lot. I update my status 1-2x per month. Most people do once every 4 to 5 days. I comment on posts from friends. But only 2-6 a day. I LIKE a bunch of brand pages but even with only 300 friends and 150 Pages my feed is so cluttered I rarely see anything from Brands. In reality I am not benefiting much from Facebook. And what I found interesting was yesterday at the OMMA in New York one of the panels brought up the fact that teens and millennials actually choose private methods of communicating far more than anything. Specifically text messaging. There are 182 SMS texts per Facebook status update on average. For that age group it is double that. Which has me thinking for all the listening and engagement on Social Media it is what is said behind your brands back that will make or break your brand. Not what is said online publicly.

And thus today is my second day of my life after Facebook. When is yours?