There are people who like my photographs.  Everytime I upload a new photo, I hope that they look at it.  But even the people closest to me can't be expected to be constantly checking my web site to see if there is anything new or fresh.

So I came around to thinking that I should look at Facebook Pages.

Everybody probably knows more about Facebook Pages than I know but, just in case, here is what I know so far.

Facebook Pages are not for people, but are for businesses, organizations, brands and the organizational entity that a person like a movie star or sports figure might be. 

I'm not a dancer, doctor or monarch, but photography is an art, so I am an artist.  So the entity which is "Mike MacKay Photography" fits nicely into Facebook Pages.

And there are a couple of reasons for taking the trouble to maintain a second Facebook page.

Some people who are currently "Friends" on Facebook may be interested in Mike MacKay Photography but may not really be interested in my cousins' newsfeeds, or my gushing about the babies of nieces and nephews.  Now that Mike MacKay Photography is a Facebook Page, those people can connect in a more purposeful way and they may prefer that.

And of course, my cousins and nieces and nephews can still get the newsfeed about my photography stuff.  All they need to do is go over to that page and "Like" it.

And, if it turns out that they don't really like those newsfeeds, they can "Unlike" it without "Unfriending" me.

Facebook Pages have a LOT of capabilities.  I'm working through trying to make sense of the capabilities which seem useful.

I have done some testing but, even though I am quite experienced in web design, I cannot get the "Like Button" to work reliably on my web pages.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.  It appears that it doesn't work for people who don't have a Facebook cookie in their cache.  For me it does not work reliably if I am logged in as Mike MacKay Photography (instead of my personal FB page). 

For the time being I don't see myself using it.

The next thing has me completely baffled.  According to the documentation, I can feature other people's Facebook Pages.  Those featured pages will list themselves on the left side of my page. 

In order to do that, however, my Facebook Page, Mike MacKay Photography, has got to "Like" the candidate page.  Damned if I can figure out how to do that.

So far, so good.  I have a few "Likes" but I need more.  When I get enough, facebook will let me have a URL with a real name and not just a number.  To promote that, I am prompting web site visitors on my Information Page, and adding a tag to certain outgoing e-mails.

YOU!  "LIKE" me on Facebook.  (Please.)

Posted May 02, 2011 at 3:56 am.