Facebook for Storytellers

I've created a group for storytellers to network on Facebook, the fastest growing social networking site online*. I initially did this as a means for the New Voices discussion group of the National Storytelling Network to network online (they currently are using a listserv, which is moribund, as well as monthly conference call).

I had assumed that by virtue of their age (New Voices is meant to encourage and support storytellers under the age of 30) that these "digital natives" would jump at the chance to do more online networking... so far, there does not seem to be much jumping.

The group is open to anyone. It's meant to be a tool for storytellers to use. So jump on in!

If you're new to Facebook, and reluctant to share your profile with the world, set your privacy settings to private and don't import your email address book.

Storytellers, as performing artists, are underutilizing social networking sites, both as a means to network with peers and as a tool to reach audeinces.

The largest social networking vehicle for storytellers currently is Storytell, a listserv hosted by Texas Women's University. It's been going strong since the early 1990s, but as a networking tool, it is limited in its capability since it's just email. The list has created a fiercely loyal social network, but it's a walled garden: there are no publicly available archives anywhere, and if you don't know about it, you would have a very difficult time finding it. There was some interest from the storytelling community in MySpace last year, but only a handful of storytellers were interested enough to hang their shingle on MySpace.


Further reading:
Entrepreneurs Need Both Facebook and LinkedIn
(Anita Campbell, Small Business Trends)
12 Ways to use Facebook Professionally (Web Worker Daily)
Are You on Facebook Yet? (Ann Handly, Marketing Profs Daily Fix)

*Fastest growing in the United States. If you live and work in a different country, you may need to consider other sites, such as Bebo, Orkut, or Friendster.