Converting Facebook fans to Facebook subscribers

Yesterday, I wrote about the new subscribe feature on Facebook and how  it is helping Facebook become more open, random and supportive – more like Twitter, in other words. Since yesterday, I now have over a hundred subscribers to my Facebook! Awesome, thank you all! Today, I was reading on Mashable that Facebook intends to have an option publicly available soon to allow people to convert their Facebook page fans over to Facebook subscribers if they choose. It sounds like it will be an either one or the other type situation rather than a best of both worlds, unfortunately. It will be interesting to see how many people will opt for the conversion. Some, like Mark Zuckerberg, Kevin Rose and  Ben Parr have early access to this option and have already chosen subscribers over fans. How many celebrities will choose that option, I wonder? How long will Mark Zuckerberg’s record as the most subscribed (known) Facebook user hold? Probably a few weeks at most, since surely at least some celebrities will choose to migrate.

Subscribing on Facebook – FB becomes more open, random and supportive

Listening to Michael Q Todd’s talk on social media at TEDxHomer, I was intrigued by his use of the phrase “open, random and supportive”. Based on how well he seems to be doing on his social media network scores on Empire Avenue, I suspect he has much to teach a lot of us about using social media in the 21st century. So, I looked around online for other examples of that phrase to learn more.

It seems that a few years back Penny Power wrote a piece using this phrase which gave examples of Linkedin and Facebook as closed networks (one business and once social) and Twitter as an example of an open, random and supportive network:

Two companies that have established themselves in the world of Brands and  then, after all this time and energy has been spent an enormous noise came along, like a thundering train, called Twitter.Open, Random and Supportive, it allows anyone to follow anyone, it broadcasts ‘tweets’ openly and randomly and it creates broadcasted conversation and a place where others support on another. It moves people from ‘it is wrong to have a shallow, wide network of people you don’t know’ into ‘it is cool to be followed and it appeals to my ego to have followers’. At last, it has taken eleven years, the view of the Founders of Ecademy has been vindicated, Open, Random and Supportive Networking is the future. Twitter is the fastest growing network of all time.

So, two years later with the advent a few months ago of G+ circling and now Facebook subscribing, we now find that we have a record setting fast growth social networking site (G+) and a previously closed social networking site becoming more open, random and supportive with the addition of subscriptions on Facebook. People can now allow others who are not their friends to subscribe to their Facebook posts which they choose to make public. This, in my opinion puts Facebook in the ORS driver’s seat going forward over both Google and Twitter given FB’s established user base, less strict character and sharing limitations and improving privacy controls by Facebook (this is an opt in feature). If you want to be more open, random and supportive in your social networking, I definitely suggest giving Facebook subscriptions (both allowing and subscribing) a try. If you need a place to start, my feed is available here. As long as FB allows me to, I’ll continue to subscribe to at least most of my subscribers in an effort to be open, random and supportive.

I’ll close with another quote from Penny Power:

Social Media is  ’Collecting and Sharing Knowledge‘, while Social Networking is ‘Collecting and Sharing People‘. You can have all the knowledge in the world in your head, but unless you start to Blog it, video it and be more visible and sharing, it will go unseen. However, there is no point in creating this content if you have not got a network that wants to listen and this is where Social Networking comes in, ‘Collecting and Sharing people’ who have given you permission to tell you what you are doing.

Ironic YouTube video title: 9/11: FEMA in New York on the day BEFORE 911

I believe this Youtube clip comes from the movie 9/11 Mysteries. Ironically, the YouTuber who posted it chose for a title
9/11: FEMA in New York on the day BEFORE 911 which is definitely one of the myths of 9/11 least likely to be fact.

FEMA’s Prior Knowledge of 9-11 Put to Rest

Considering all the other material which could have been emphasized, why choose that particular one. Shrug. Oh, well… enjoy the video:

Flight 175 video NE518

It’d be nice to have seen some analysis done on the original source video for this Youtube upload by a neutral party say 10 years ago. I’m a bit sceptical now 10 years later that a YT upload proves or disproves anything. But, here’s a video which the uploader describes the source of as follows:

Federal Bureau of Investigation Penttbom Unit, Video NE518 released in Nov 2008 under FOIA. This video copy came from the raw original NIST FOIA #20 file clip # 3.

Richard Clarke interview with “Who is Rich Blee?” producers

Since the site SecrecyKills.com is temporarily offline, I thought I’d visit YouTube and The Washington Post after listening to the podcast interview with Sibel Edmonds and the documentary “Who is Rich Blee” producers – the same guys who produced 9/11: Press For Truth. While their site is down, at least we can still watch the YouTube interview with Richard Clarke, right? And like it on BuzzFeed (and share it around).

Temporarily Offline

On Thursday, the CIA threatened the journalists behind Who Is Rich Blee? with possible federal prosecution if the investigative podcast is released in its current form.

We are delaying that release while we consult with others and weigh our options. A press statement with a more complete explanation will be made available at this site soon.

…

(This appears to be the video excerpt which was covered last month by The Daily Beast)

ETA: – I just noticed that I’m still getting pretty healthy traffic to my blog from Barry Jennings searchers (FYI – he survived being trapped in WTC 7 for several hours prior to the collapse (controlled demolition?) of that building on 9/11/2001, and died a little over three years ago) who might be interested in this video as well, so I’ll include a mention of him here. My primary post on his death is here.