Does Facebook have a place in Scouting?

I am caught between a rock and a hard place. I am set in my ways but I am also a technology geek. I have been heavily involved with technology for the last five years and an interest for many more. But like many people, hard times have hit me. I have been underemployed for some time and current unemployed, so like many people in the current economy I am looking for a redefinition of my career path. I am starting my own photography business, since I have over thirty years of experience in that area.

One thing that I have considered is increasing my Internet marketing skills. I have already learned a lot about promoting web sites, search engine optimization, email marketing and such. I have heard about Facebook and MySpace for years but rejected it as a waste of time and energy. I thought of it as a youthful exercise of futility. But recently I have heard more and more about using Facebook in business as a way of communicating directly with your customers. Right now, there are over 250 million (yes, million) users and that number is increasing exponentially. Over 300 million users by November is within reach. Considering the growth began early in 2006, those numbers a nothing short of phenomenal.

With all that said, let's get back to the original question. If this medium is the communications center for the youth of the country, why would it not have a place in Scouting? What better place could be found to communicate with our audience? Using television to sell sugar coated cereal on Saturday morning certainly worked, but how about Facebook selling Scouting?
If you think about how Facebook works there are two good opposing arguments. First of all, Facebook is huge. There is a lot of, for lack of a better term, clutter. Most youth have their circle of friends and their interactions do not venture into the "great beyond." It is difficult to get into that circle unless invited. That is a good thing. But if the idea is to get into that group to promote a group or concept, it may be a bad thing.

On the positive side, the youth are definitely there and involved. Kids don't email or IM, they use text messaging on cell phones and communicate on Facebook. I can't think of anyone I know under the age of thirty who does not have a Facebook account. Some are very active and some are not, but they all have accounts. The key here is to be allowed into their circle.

I think every parent needs to know what their child is doing on Facebook. This should be a given. If a child is either posting or associating with posters who are presenting material that is questionable, the parent needs to know. Kids need to realize that material on the Internet does not go away. More and more recruiters look at the Internet presence of a person before offering a job.

Sorry, I got sidetracked for a moment. Getting back to circle of friends. If a parent is in the circle of friends, groups and other associations can be introduced to the group. That does not mean that it will be accepted but if there is interest, there is potential. Groups are a key here. The group associations can certainly have an influence.

Of course, there are 35 million groups on Facebook. There are many groups with Scouting interests. The youth who are already Scouts have an interest so they are more likely to associate with these Scouting groups. What about non-scouts? Every Scout probably has many friends who are non-scouts. The groups and associations are shared within the groups and just maybe some interest may rub off on the non-scouts. It sounds good in theory anyway.

We, as adults and leaders, need to promote groups which are interesting and really promote the values of Scouting. I know there is a group for the local contingent members of the 2010 National Jamboree. There are probably many more. These groups, such as Order of the Arrow, Philmont and other high adventure bases, and other local groups are interesting to local Scouts (and their leaders). We as parents and leaders, from my perspective, have a lot of catching up to do. Facebook certaily has the potential to be the biggest waste of time on the planet, but even with all that waste, we have the potential of using it in a positive and useful way to promote Scouting.