Will Facebook Group help Smaller Indiana grow?

[Pat Coyle]

In an experimental effort to help Smaller Indiana grow, Matt Theobald, has launched an SI group inside Facebook . Matt says inside Facebook there are 210,000 people from Indianapolis alone, not counting the rest of the state, and most of these folks are not members of Smaller Indiana.

So it would seem that SI could grow - and grow quickly - if Smoosiers with Facebook accounts would invite their friends to the SI group inside FB. Once they join that group, they're just one click away from SI.

We are excited at the possibilities, but slightly concerned too. So we need your advice. What do you think of this idea? Will it work? Will it help or hurt SI in the long run? Please share your thoughts here.

[Rae Kridel]

Hmm, I like that Smaller Indiana ISN'T Facebook. The purpose of the two seems to be different. Yeah, we have younger people on here and yeah, we have fun, but there's real discourse and networking going on here, real business relationships that are being built. Facebook just doesn't seem to be the venue for that.

[Pat Coyle]

I am all for open networks and I think Facebook can give SI some great exposure to folks who are active online, but who haven't yet heard of SI. I hope we attract a few good Smoosiers as a result of this initiative, but I don't expect anything viral to occur.

While many locals are connected through FB, and the FBSI group will be easy to join, I don't expect a high percentage of FB users to become active members here on SI. These are two very different types of communities. At least that's the sense that I have.

I have seen a similar dynamic at work in my sports business. I have a Linked IN group and an NING site, and while the LI group is growing much more quickly, a very low percentage of these LI users have joined and engaged in our NING community. Yet LI adds new features often and who knows? Maybe one day it'll make the NING site obsolete? (BTW, there's a Smaller IN group in Linked In too).

Back to FB. I don't have enough FB experience to know whether it can provide the same level of interaction and content sharing that we have on SI. I do want to find healthy ways to grow high quality membership in SI. So what do we have to lose?

[Nicki Laycoax]

I agree with you Pat. SI does stand to grow, but the chances that regular Facebook users will contribute as current Smoosiers do are probably slim. Having the extra bodies here will enhance the chance for additional quality connections, and may also help with bringing a new perspective on things.

I also feel Rae. I come to SI when I want to have intellectual online conversations, research, learn about helpful business topics, and events. I hope that the Facebook crowd doesn't bring the fun quizzes, SuperPokin', pieces of flair, Mob Wars, etc...type atmosphere that makes Facebook more of a social site than a business site. I like the grown up feel of SI. It's just different.

[Emily Myers]

I'm replying before reading any other responses so. . .

I think it's a great way to reach out to some others who may not otherwise hear of SI. I wouldn't have found out about SI were it not for Erik Deckers reaching out to me through our contact on Linking Indiana group on LinkedIn.

While Facebook is generally more about socializing rather than networking, I think one can compliment the other. In the end, SI is about people connecting people, right? Why not use every option we have to make those connections. Those who are not interested in the pure nature of SI will weed themselves out by A) not participating or B) not joining at all once they look over the site and see it's not a mirror image of facebook or myspace.
Just my 2 cents.

[Pat Coyle]

I think you're correct.

[Matt Theobald]

There are serious folks on Facebook. It is not a toy at all. i.e. the various library and semantic web groups I bleong have some heavyweights in there. And actually FB has lightened them up a little.

Don't forget that FB co-founder Chris Hughes was an underpinning of the barackobama.com campaign informatics technology. I love SMIN, don't get me wrong. But 100M users is hard to ignore. The SMIN/FB connection is just a bridge and not a floodgate. It'll be up to Smoosiers on FB to invite their friends in order see any rush to SMIN.

[Emily Myers]

Matt, I wasn't saying that FB isn't serious- I'm just saying that as a general rule it is used more for socializing with family, friends, old high school acquaitances, etc than it is for all other types of interactions.

But it does have it's place for business use too, I agree. I have set up fan pages for all 3 of the publications I market. It's very slow growing right now- but we are reaching out to all of our readers who also use FB in hopes of finding another way to connect with them and find out what they want out of our paper- but doing it on "their" turf rather than ours.

[Noah Coffey]

I guess it depends on the goal. Is the end goal to get people to join the SI group on Facebook or is it to get people from Facebook to join SmallerIndiana.com? I see lots and lots and lots of groups on Facebook and I have a hard time understanding the point behind many of them.

Similarly on SI, groups on FB tend to work more as badges/flair than actual hubs of activity and conversation. In that respect, perhaps it isn't a bad idea. However, maybe a more specific social media campaign could be launched looking at ways to pull in Hoosiers on FB and attract them to SI. Inviting people on FB to join your group can still achieve this, but then you end up with an empty shell of a group where not much happens on FB (since the point is for the interaction/activity to happen on SI).

You also risk confusing FB users who are new to SI. They may think the SI group on FB *IS* SmallerIndiana.

[Pat Coyle]

The goal is to introduce FB users to SI and invite them to join in our community.

According to our survey today:
77% of SI members have a FB account - 57% active weekly
66% of SI members have a Linked In account - 46% active weekly
49% of SI members have a MySpace account - 18% active weekly
46% of SI members are on Twitter - 23% active weekly
37% of SI members are involved in other social nets

[Andrew Ball]

I'm in the Ludite group which doesn't have a Facebook, MySpace or Twitter account. Maybe I should.

[Lisa Pellam]

I personally believe that having a Smaller Indiana group on Facebook will ultimately help the traffic flow through Smaller Indiana. From what I see, Facebook, is more a place of personal socializing. When I choose to discuss something with any substance, I would not choose Facebook to do it with.

I have watched Smaller Indiana grow quite a bit the short time that I have been involved. I say "Keep doing what your doing! Facebook will never be a replacement for this website!"

[Danielle Smith]

I think this is a good idea. I know that I joined after seeing so many people refer to this site on Facebook and Plaxo.