Got a email from GFK about a drawing they are having to win a free ticket to the IMSC conference in Florida and Las Vegas. But in order to win you have to become a fan with them on facebook. Has anyone gotten this email? And what are your thoughts about becoming fans with the MSC's.

That life is too short . . .

Bribery comes to mind.

I have actually been mulling over the original post off and on during the afternoon. While I am not a fan of the 'social media' and don't twitter, tweet, facebook, mypage etc. I wondered how inconsistent that was with my interest in forums. Perhaps I just choose to do my 'social media' a different way.

But as to our 'employers' twittering and facebooking, philosophically I feel it sends the wrong message. We are not their 'friends'. This is SUPPOSED to be a business relationship. Certainly many of the jobs we are asked to do sound like (and pay like) they are favors based on mutual friendships. Thus I arrive at my conclusion that the use of these sites is overall a way for the abuses of this business to continue.

And I will be the first to admit that I like working with a friendly scheduler, but that working relationship is first and foremost that--a working relationship. If a friendly scheduler is willing to provide me with decently paying work, then an email relationship can be a valuable tool. And in fact I am aware of some personal details of my friendly schedulers' 'real life' in much the same way that I knew some personal details of professional colleagues' real lives when I was in the 9 to 5 world. But these come from one-on-one relationships, not from systemwide broadcasts.

"Fan" pages are different than friend pages on Facebook. They cannot see any personal information, other than your name. There are some great advantages to social media these days, perk-wise. Many companies offer promotions exclusively through twitter and/or Facebook. That said, I have two Facebook accounts, one "real" one, and another with an assumed name. When I see a perk for which a FB account is needed, I "like" them with my assumed name account. That said, regarding this offer (in which I have no interest, anyway), I suppose you'd have to use one with a "real" name, so they can verify through their database. The only reason I'd hesitate to "like" an MSC under my real name is because there are friends who I don't want to know that I mystery shop. But again, in terms of privacy, there isn't a drawback.

Re: twitter, it's typical for people to have handles, and not use their real name. Twitter is the BEST news feed ever! I "follow" some MSCs on there, but I really haven't seen any necessary information. But, I've gotten plenty of perks by following other types of companies...coupon codes and promotions exclusive to twitter, etc. Twitter is currently the best way for a company to promote itself via social media.

The world is only going to become more social media driven, not less. Even if one doesn't become a regular user, I think it's important to join, and see how it works.

nicely hit the nail on the head. "Fan" pages are different from "friend" pages. Fan pages are designed for businesses, organizations, bands, groups, celebrities, ect. They don't have the same access to your info your friends do.

Like it or not, Facebook and Twitter are the future (and now). Society changes, and we are in the midst of a revolution.

Businesses can benefit from being on Facebook. Seeing all of your friends "like" the same page does a hell of a lot more for the ol' fashioned "band wagon" approach than having strangers read off a teleprompter on a TV ad.

You can also broadcast promotions and advertisements free of charge to your followers.

If you don't have a Facebook, I suggest you try it. Although it's highly addictive, I was able to connect with so many people that I hadn't talked to for decades. Old friends from my high school, coworkers from past jobs, frat brothers from college...

Although it was sort of creepy when I first signed up (Facebook correctly "suggested" close to fifty people that I actually knew by only having my name, e-mail, DOB, and city), I was addicted. Within my first week, I had reconnected with close to 200 people, and was "tagged" in old pictures from back in the day. The whole experience was magical.

If I were to sign up for Facebook again, I would supply a fake "real" name (you can control and change the name that's shown on your page, but FB will always have access to the name you signed up with). I'd choose a fake name as my "real" name, and then change the displayed name to my REAL "real" name! My privacy concern is not with the fan pages, but with Facebook itself. The FB page I use to "like" many businesses to receive promotional perks, etc., has no friends except (the real) me.

I did find Facebook addictive at first, but I'm not there like I used to be at all. I've hidden myself from people I'd rather not connect with, and on twitter, I'm almost completely anonymous. I use twitter as a news feed a lot, and because of that, I've been able to unsubscribe from several newsletters that clogged up my email inbox.

Proceed as you see fit or not, but this stuff is not going away...