likeability
I'll be the first to admit that I was late to the party when it came to creating a business page on Facebook for jonberrydesign. I'm a pretty big user of social media, so it wasn't a matter of not understanding its value. While Twitter reigns as a medium for sharing ideas and information and engaging with others, I saw Facebook as more effective for sharing occasional personal things with friends and family. Plus in the creative industry, your clients often are also friends, so for me, it seemed like my own personal page already covered the bases, and I didn't want to add a second page that only duplicated my regular page. But in building the new website (which is finally nearly ready to go live), some functionality aspects made it necessary have a separate business page for jonberrydesign. I started one quietly at the beginning of January. A few friends noticed and followed immediately, but I kept it fairly quiet to get a feel of how it should develop rather than announcing and then going silent, which you see so often. I started posting and testing. People came on board gradually, especially with a couple spikes when I called attention to the page (but let's be honest, it's always awkward to ask someone to "like" you.) Nevertheless, I quickly realized the network and viral value of posts from the biz page as compared to those on my personal page, especially the effect of people liking posts. Instead of just sharing among people you already know as a personal page is set up to be, a biz page reaches outward much more than I realized it would. I'm sure the page will evolve over time content-wise. I make an effort to be sure it isn't just "look at our latest work", because that isn't the point of social media. So expect other occasional design stuff by others worthy of notice, creatively or topically interesting stuff, or just random fun stuff thrown in every now and then. I often mention how Facebook and Twitter made blog updates harder, because things that would be content for posts here on the blog 5 years ago are now much more efficiently shared there with a quick post and link. Having the page will give that type of content an easier way to co-exist with the blog. So if you haven't already, check out the page, give it a 'like' and help play a role in how it develops. (and thanks!)