Caring for Facebook Pages- when is it work, and when isn’t it?
Gabriela AvramInteraction Design Centre
University of Limerick, Ireland
Presentation at the ‘CSCW at the Boundary of Work and Life’ collocated with the ECSCW’13 conference, Cyprus, 21.09.2013
Outline Motivation Digital media literacy The role of Pages in the economy of
Facebook Related research Methodology Findings Discussion Future plans
Motivation I have a long term history of involvement with
social media going back to 2002; I observed the evolution of Facebook from a
yearbook to a sophisticated money making machinery;
I started “work” on Facebook early on almost without noticing;
I started using social media in my teaching in 2004 at CNAM and never looked back;
I see social media becoming a requirement for the kind of jobs my students are applying for.
Digital media literacy Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest - learning by
doing; Young people are “naturals”; “It’s time for social media literacy to enter
mainstream education. Learning to use online forums, be they social network services like MySpace and Facebook, blogs, or wikis is not a sexily contemporary add-on to the curriculum – it’s an essential part of the literacy today’s youth require for the world they inhabit.“
(Rheingold, 2008)
Managing a Facebook Page
What are Facebook Pages for?
Personal profiles and Pages
Organisation, brand, charity
Add friend
Page
Like me!
Who is behind a Page? A person with an individual profile can
create the Page and becomes automatically the Manager;
He/she can appoint other Page Managers, Content Creators, Moderators;
An organisation can create a Page without going through an individual profile; in this case, the activities allowed are mostly paid advertising.
Two more roles are available: Advertiser and Insight Analyst.
Related research The first academic study on Social Network Sites
(SNS): (boyd&Ellison, 2007); Social capital implications, various
communication practices on Facebook (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2011)
Use of SNS in the workplace (Archambault&Grudin)
Mobile devices and practices allow people to integrate home and work (Barkhus & Polichar, 2011)
Work and non-work worlds are “made” by people “in and through the ways they move, mobilize people, objects, information and ideas” (Ciolfi et al, 2011).
Methodology Own diary on managing Facebook Pages
(annotated screenshots); Reflecting on collaboration situations; Survey – to get a broader perspective on
existing practices amongst Page Managers;
Pilot with a social media content manager in an advertising agency;
21 respondents, most of them in Ireland – none of them advertising professionals.
Findings: Diary Shared authorship can create confusion and
frustration; Making decisions about what is appropriate and
what is not can be difficult for different managers. The immediacy of posting leaves very little
space for making mistakes. The timeliness of posting creates pressure and
requires scheduling; Awareness of pending tasks is facilitated
through Facebook’s functionality of flagging new content;
Communication and Coordination between managers occurs mainly through “caring” for the Page.
Admin panelPosts, notifications, insights
Survey The survey targeted the practice of
updating (posting on) Facebook Pages; Questions on the place, time and the type
of devices used when updating Pages. Shared responsibilities; Perception/attitude regarding this type of
activity.
Findings: Survey
When do people update Pages: 1/3 permanently on Facebook from a
device or another; another 1/3 spend 2-4h a day on the site.
Page management happens during office hours, during own time, during week-ends.
On holidays – only 45%!
Findings: Survey
How many Pages? 21 respondents: 70 Pages (from 1 to 9
each);
Alone or in collaboration? only 25 Pages have a unique Page
Manager.
From where? (Place, device) Office, home, public places; Desktop, laptop, tablet, phone.
Findings: Survey
Why maintaining a Page? the creation and maintenance of the Facebook
Page(s) was their own initiative, either for reaching out to customers for work or for engaging with the public as part of volunteer organisations.
10 - for their current employer, 12 - for their own businesses, 14 - related to communities and charities they
volunteer with, 7 - for their hobbies one stated : “my dog has her own page, for fun
also :)”!
When is it work, and when isn’t it? “Yes, updating a facebook page is work, each post has to be
carefully monitored to ensure that your company is being represented in the way you want it to online.”
“Though it's a volunteer page, I consider the page as
"work", in the sense that I would take care to post accurate information relating to the page's objectives, and respond to all contact from interested parties.”
“Yes it's work, it has to be strategic, measured, set a tone,
promote things properly so not quite the same as personal Facebook use.”
“Yes it is work, but not paid work. It's my own company +
additional charity effort so I set goals etc myself.”
Discussion Is Facebook as a medium sucking us in,
making us do work while we think we’re socialising?
Different Pages serve different purposes – permeation of work and private life;
We acquire skills at work that we then use for leisure;
We acquire skills from our hobbies that we get to use for work;
Manifestation of micro-work; Amateurs vs professionals.
Future plans Looking deeper under the surface – maybe
an ethnography of a Page?! The situatedness – a “work” Page? A
hobby or charity Page? Studying the collaboration between Page
fans and managers; Finding an appropriate method for
studying the intricacies of this type of work.
