I jumped on the LinkedIn bandwagon around 2 years ago, I want to say. I figured it was a professional social network, it was starting to gain momentum, and I’d best partake in this if I wanted to make good connections.
Now that I’ve graduated college, I’ve been taking LinkedIn a lot more seriously. I’ve applied for a few jobs via LinkedIn (they tell you how many others also applied–I’d rather not know!) and I’ve made some good connections. One of the features I like on the site is that people can endorse one another for various skills. I enjoy endorsing people, and some have kindly endorsed me, but I’m a little perturbed by the fact that my most endorsed skill is…
Facebook.
I’m not even sure why I listed it as a skill–it’s kind of like listing Microsoft Word. If you don’t know how to use it, you probably don’t own a computer. I guess with the social media work I’ve done, it was important to utilize Facebook in a professional manner.
But is Facebook really a skill? The people who endorsed me for Facebook are all friends with me on Facebook. Is it a humorous way of saying I spend a little too much time there? (Which I don’t, at least not anymore, except when I’m playing Candy Crush Saga or Pyramid Solitaire Saga….)
But in all seriousness, what are the merits of Facebook? Anyone can get a profile, anyone can make a page, and anyone can start a group. How is it a skill if virtually anyone can “do” it?
In defense, I can say that I was an admin for House Party’s Facebook page while I was an intern there. I didn’t do as much on the page as my supervisor did, but I did have to occasionally post event photo albums, and there was a process I had to follow to make sure the album was posted at the right time, with carefully chosen and organized photos, and with the correct information and creative captions.
For the past 8 months I’ve been an admin for the Christian Rockers group and the Christian Rockers fan page on Facebook, both founded by my friend Topher, and my experiences in running both have taught me a few things about responsibility, organization, and community management (really!).
At House Party, they use an Excel sheet for organizing the company’s blog schedule. I adapted the format of that spreadsheet for the Christian Rockers’ page “Band of the Week” posts, and Topher and I used this sheet to schedule an entire year’s worth of posts. We watched the insight section of the page to figure out when the best times for posting were (we didn’t always stick to it, but still). We even used the spreadsheet as a calendar to delegate who would post on which days (once I graduated, I started posting less often so I could focus on my job search…and stuff….)
There are 425 members in the Christian Rockers’ Facebook group, but only a core group of about 15 people frequently post and comment. Recently there was a mild political riff over the New York Times, and I deleted someone’s comment because it seem too overcharged and off-target.
Then I realized that the previous comments on this post were also slightly off-target and politically charged as well, so I made the decision to delete all the comments on that post. It was only fair. Then I wrote this:
It was a decision I had to make as an admin. I did not want a fight to start, but I also did not want to single out one person. So, instead, I generalized the issue at hand and put the focus back on the music.
Is all this a niche thing? Yes. However, it does show some level of skill in terms of administration. And this was all Facebook related.
So, if you’re someone who actually does work on Facebook, then yes, Facebook is a skill. 🙂
The downside–nobody really cares (according to this article).
~Nikita
Weigh in: Do you think Facebook is a skill? Also: what are some skills on LinkedIn that you find run-of-the-mill and not worth listing (i.e. Microsoft Word)?
Nikita Says 💛 