You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile. ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 17
I’ve been noticing something on Facebook lately that absolutely irks me – regular people who are neither celebrities, nor an otherwise public figure, are deciding they need fan pages. I don’t understand why, and I finally tweeted about it last night after I had had enough.
I got a lot of interesting conversation out of it, mainly with Juanita Chronowski, who maintains a fan page for her writing as a way to separate the personal from the professional. OK, that I can understand. Ari Herzog does the same thing. But people who are NOT public figures in any way, shape, or form? Unless somebody else made the page out of appreciation or as a joke – my friend Jen had it right when she said, “that’s flippin’ weird.
Facebook allows personal profiles up to 5,000 friends, and if you actually have more than 5,000 friends then perhaps you do need one. Perhaps you are somewhat of a public figure, and if that is the case, then go ahead and make yourself one.
Call me a purist, folks, but if you are not famous except in your own mind, YOU DO NOT NEED A FAN PAGE. Regular people having a fan page for themselves screams of an ego problem and “look how self-important I am!” — and frankly, makes me question why I would be friends with that person in the first place.
I’m tired of regular people thinking they’re special, unique snowflakes and deserve their own fan page just to boost their own egos. Non-public figure fan pages cheapens the value of fan pages for those who actually are public figures. Don’t believe me? Fan my cat. She’s more of a celebrity than most of these conceited people.
What do you think? Am I wrong here? Am I missing something? Is there a reason regular people who have not exceeded the 5,000 friend limit on Facebook and are NOT public figures should have their own fan pages? This is such a turnoff!
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A lot of singer/songwriters have them. I do. The reason is for promotion of music. I don’t want to be talking all the time about my songs to my everyday friends. They would get sick of it. I have a fan page for followers and fans of my music that are not necessarily friends. The fan page is very business like and has frequent updates about my career. My personal page has frequent updates on my son and what I sang at karaoke last night
It’s a way to separate my personal life from my music life. I am still not a celebrity but I do have a following. I have no ego, actually I am a bit shy. But I still do have a Fan page! 
~Jodi Ann
Singer/songwriters – I can absolutely understand. In a past life I was music publicist but Facebook wasn’t around then. I totally understand the need for that from a musician perspective, I’m just talking about people who are in no way public figures — they’re not authors, they’re not elected officials, they’re not in any way a person who would be stopped on the street by a stranger saying, “Aren’t you …?”
Know what I mean?
My local state rep from where I used to live doesn’t even have a fan page. He doesn’t want one, and he IS a public figure.
You know, up until last week, I was totally with you on it. And the term “Fan” page is what jacks it up the most.
Here’s how I turned the corner, and why I started a Fan page for my blog (actually, to be totally frank, the Fan page was originally created for purposes of testing out Fan page functionality, but here’s why I started using it).
I want to promote my blog on Facebook, but I want it to be “opt-in”. I used to simply share blog posts on Facebook to my friends list…but I had some people on my Friends list who weren’t interested at all. By allowing people who want to interact with my blog via Facebook to “fan” it, I move all that Facebook/blog interaction away from my actual personal Facebook page, which is more about person-to-person interaction (in my opinion) than blog-to-person interaction.
Yeah, I know, Networked Blogs, blah blah blah…well, “following” a blog on Networked Blogs doesn’t get post updates from that blog in your feed. Fanning the blog does (if the blog is feeding updates to the Fan page).
Matt -
As I said above, I understand making a fan page for your blog. Ari does the same, and I get that. I’m talking about people who make a fan page for themselves – not their blog, not their writing, just themselves because they think they’re somehow more special/important than everyone else. That’s not cool. That’s lame and it’s a turnoff.
I manage three fan pages, actually:
http://facebook.com/ariwriter
http://facebook.com/ari4newburyport
http://facebook.com/cityofnewburyport
Each offers a specific outlet for me to share information, and for people to read/comment from their own FB walls.
Who are you to say someone isn’t important if someone thinks he or she is? If people fan it, how are their behaviors different than yours fanning me?
I knew you’d jump in and play devil’s advocate.
I understand the reasons why you have your separate pages, Ari. They’re for different purposes. That makes sense. And I even wondered the same thing to myself, “Who am I to say someone isn’t important enough if they think they are?” But you know what? My answer is this:
I am a regular person, just like these people are. They are not elected officials, they don’t have high-volume blogs like yours, they are not celebrities even in the most minor sense, and they have no real reason to have a fan page other than to make themselves feel better about themselves. If that’s what it takes for them to justify their self worth, then fine, but to the outside world, including me and others who have privately messaged me and don’t want to publicly comment here, it looks ostentatious.
What I don’t understand is why would you have a profile and then go out and get a Fan Page. I have seen it to. I don’t need your information twice. Especially if the content is the same so needless to say I don’t join these fan pages. I just don’t see the point and I am pretty liberal in most things.
Twitter Comment
RT @damnredhead If you are not a public figure, you do not need a fan page. Period. [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
Have to disagree with you on this.
A) Lots of people on “social media” — whether others would consider them public figures or not — are focusing on personal branding. Given how different Facebook “profiles” are vs. “fan pages” and the level of customization/branding that you can do on a fan page that you can’t do on regular profile, I understand why some want to create personal “fan pages”.
B) I have more and more business contacts wanting to “connect” with me on Facebook. I’ve made a conscious decision to keep my Facebook friends list very personal. And, I know others that have as well. They don’t want to share photos of their children or other personal details with business contacts. Setting up a fan page allows them to connect / network with business colleagues without opening up their personal information. (Personally, I chose to point these folks to either my twitter account or my LinkedIn profile, but I know others that do want to keep that connection on Facebook.)
a) Well, “personal branding” is a whole ‘nother post for me to write – those that know me know that I think the entire concept is ridiculous and nothing but a buzzword for one’s reputation. But I won’t get too into that right here, right now.
b) If one is versed in Facebook enough, they’d understand that you don’t HAVE to share everything with everybody. FB’s privacy settings are more customizable than they have ever been – and frankly if you’re setting up a fan page for yourself so that you don’t share all your personal information with everybody in your friends’ list, you’re actually making more work for yourself. There are myriad places online that teach you how to customize your privacy, here’s a good start from AllFacebook.com.
Twitter Comment
RT @jfavreau RT @damnredhead If you are not a public figure, you do not need a fan page. Period. [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
Couldn’t disagree with you more, Stacy. Every business professional that needs to find new customers and earn a living should create a Facebook Fan Page. Here’s the two biggest reasons:
1) SEO. Search Engine Optimization. Facebook is one of the most visited websites on the planet. This means Google is quite fond of Facebook too and indexes the active public pages of Facebook often. A well constructed Facebook Fan Page helps shine a light on your website and other social media outposts.
2) Facebook Fan Pages are outside of the walled garden of Facebook. Normal Facebook profiles are private – meaning only your approved friends and see and interact with your content. Fan pages, on the other hand, are public – anyone can view them at anytime (visitors and web search engines looking for information).
But enough chatter, thanks for reminding me to get off my duff and finally create my overdue Facebook Fan Page.
- Charlie
PS – You are a brand. So am I. Everyone is. If you weren’t a brand, you’re clients would pay you the lowest wage going for commodity work. Luckily, your personal brand is already strong.
Every business, yes. Every business professional? That’s debatable. I still know PLENTY of people who insist on keeping Facebook for the personal and LinkedIn for the professional. Go ahead and beat that and the SEO horse into the ground all you want, but the fact of the matter is that most adults are simply not comfortable with putting their professional selves on Facebook, yet at the same time recognize that their businesses need fan pages.
Also, I am not a brand. This is who I am. I don’t try. I’m a real person, not a persona. Michael Jordan is a brand — he has shoes named after him. Vera Wang is a brand — she has dresses and mattresses named after her. I am a regular person who coincidentally (not luckily) was nicknamed after a malediction.
We will just have to agree to disagree on some things, Charlie.
I know of someone that was made a ‘public figure’ without their consent and he is livid ???? what can be done about it please ( we have good reason to believe wikipedia’s entry has been shared with Facebook which is weird because details have changed and of course the wikipedia has been changed but not facebook entry on his ‘public image’ profile ?????? so weird
if u know what to do, could you pls tell us ,
wikipedia you can edit , this Fecebook public figure setup appears impenetrable
well, if you are only making a fan page out of a joke or appreciation then it will be better if you just post it to their wall but it is not necessary to flood facebook with unnecessary fan pages from people who doesnt have anything good to share or to say. It is understandable if business professionals, singers/songwriteers would have it, but should an arm pit of a celebrity should have a fan page?
Great post. You had me at the title.
I get annoyed when one of my friends, who happens to be an actor or singer/songwriter, sets up a fan page and then asks me to be their fan. I’m just their friend, I don’t need to worship them, too. Especially if you’re an actor — if you set up your own fan page, it serves no purpose other than to validate that you have a job like everyone else.
I was wondering about this too. Only things that makes sense to me is. Unlike profiles, the search engines your Facebook Pages will show up when people search for you. If you have a business that would also help with getting your name out. I just can’t think of any good reason anyone would want a fan page about themselves. Only thing that comes to mind is (I Love myself) to be honest.
Zoey
I’ve got a friend who created a fanpage for herself. I just find it funny and lame, well same as you do. They are just regular persons, and maybe they just super love themselves and has nothing to do so build their own fan page..hahah..their quite pathetic actually.
Maybe your cat is conceited? Maybe your cat wants a ton of attention, or maybe…just maybe
Your cat doesn’t understand the concept of Facebook, or fame, rather, your cat just wants some tuna out the can.
Have a nice day Mr. Blogger, Mr….Peter Griffin on “You know what Grinds my gear”
LMFAO because this reminds of an ex girlfriend.