Dad Is On Facebook! Shocking Revelations From My Experiment with Social Media

By Mike McCarron

It created mass chaos for my entire family. As the news spread, their phones and Blackberries began sounding like Vegas slot machines. None of them could fathom what had just happened. It was the only topic of conversation around my house for more than a week.

Yes, it was true. Dad is on Facebook!

For years, I resisted the urge to chat, tweet, link, or join any form of online community other than the odd hockey chat room. More than once, I was invited to hook up with my goalie partner from Minor Atom hockey who now happens to sells tires for a living and wants to connect with his “old buddy.” I actually find it quite appalling that people would try and force themselves on me like this. If I didn’t talk to you 42 years ago, why would I talk to you now?

But there comes a point when you stop fighting the inevitable and pull a Roger Neilson and wave the white flag. It’s not 2004 anymore (believe or not, that’s the year Facebook was launched). I was time to wake up and smell the coffee.

For me, the impact of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media hasn’t just hit home, it’s at work as well. The face of trucking looks a lot younger today than it did three years ago. Most of my daily interactions are with people who have more in common with my kids than with me. If you want to reach Generations X, Y, Z, or the Baby Busters, your best bet isn’t the phone, e-mail, or direct marketing. It’s through social networking.

I was blown away when I discovered that between Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, there are more than 880 million registered users, and that doesn’t take into account other popular and well-established sites like YouTube and MySpace.

Here are a few things this Ultra Conservative Baby Boomer learned during his first month experimenting in the world of social networking:

Getting Started

My Petri dish had space for two social networking sites: Facebook and LinkedIn. Registration was easy—don’t be a dummy like me and waste 30 bucks on how-to manuals that will only collect dust in the back of the truck. I was pleasantly surprised when I went to both sites and within minutes had crossed over into 2011.

Once you’re official, it’s time to tell the world who you are by completing an online profile.

Take your time and be cautious about what you share. Facebook, LinkedIn, and other sites use information in your profile to suggest connections with people who have similar interests and backgrounds. Get ready to take the bad with the good.

My most memorable faux pas was on Day 1. The very first person I asked to be a Facebook friend was my 20-year-old daughter who called me in panic minutes after I hit the “send” button. Apparently, the boxes I checked on my profile page indicated I was bi-sexual and was interested in getting to “know” both men and women (in the “biblical” sense). The mistake was quickly corrected but not before I had some interesting messages from potential new “friends.”

Facebook vs LinkedIn

Facebook is by far the most-used social networking site in the world, but so far, I like Facebook the website about as much as liked Facebook the movie.

I’m really having trouble dealing with the site’s emphasis on sharing the details of my personal life. I have zero interest in telling 600 million of my best friends that I’m away on vacation and oh by the way, here are the photos from my trip. I know I sound like an old man, but privacy is a big deal, especially on Facebook, where the default settings on what information you expose to the world seem to change from week to week. And it’s going to take some getting used to before I can derive any tangible business benefits from joining.

LinkedIn is a different story. It’s a business-oriented site that’s mainly used for professional networking. Once I started connecting with people and adding them to my network, I was amazed at how productive my connections became. I even found some old customers who still have lots of freight and were interested in catching up. I have noticed and enjoy that LinkedIn is not populated with every one of my kids’ friends, their younger brothers and sisters, and every liberal politician that I never voted for.

Information Overload

I already get too many e-mails and have threatened to rid myself of my modern-day homing device called the Crackberry. But I was not prepared for the onslaught of interruptions that would accompany my foray into social networking.

Every time one of my online pals changes his profile, feels like chatting, or meets someone new, I get an e-mail. There has to be a way to control it, but I haven’t figured it out yet. At least I now know why my kids always have their heads buried in their Macs.

Set Some Rules

I get too many hits from so-called friends I’ve never met. Most appear to be salespeople looking to flog their products or services to MSM.

Decide early on the types of people who want to connect with. My early rule of thumb has been not to accept or send invitations unless I already know the person. That could change, but at this time I’m still trying to decide if I want to do business with someone who won’t pick up the phone to introduce themselves to me personally.

I’m not even on first base with social media and have lots to learn. I have some good ideas but I am still scratching my head trying to figure out how these services are going to improve my bottom line. My instincts tell me that the key is to be proactive with information and communicate it to key stakeholders in a medium in which they are comfortable. For some people, social media is it.

Like many of you, I fill trucks for a living. After a month in the world of social networking, I know it can be a very powerful business tool. I just don’t know how. I do have a couple of unused manuals in my car—and three teenaged children who can help me figure it out.