Why?

It's possible that many of you know I recently (late January, anyway) signed up for Facebook. I was unsure of its utility until I managed to friend an old mate of mine who'd had a stroke a couple of years ago, and although we'd been in touch via email while she was in hospital, we'd ended up out of touch again. Once we'd become FB friends, I found myself able to see her updates, share in her frustration with physio, and rejoice in the delivery of her new, disabled-friendly car (and yes, I know that's horribly un-PC, but I just can't work out how to say it). This alone has made signing up for FB worth it all.

However, I find myself perplexed by companies' insistences that I "follow" them on Facebook. Why? Please tell me why I'd want to "Like", for example, Domino's Pizza on Facebook? And Domino's are not the only ones. I keep seeing signs - Follow us on Facebook/Twitter etc.

I truly cannot see any kind of advantage to me in doing this. It's bad enough that every band/film I've cited on my preferences page puts unnecessary updates on my home page on a semi-regular basis (until I worked out how to stop that nonsense!), but can you imagine how much extra spam through which I'd have to filter if I said I Like Domino's?

I'm going to do an experiment. Sorry Domino's, it's not you! I use a chat client called Nimbuzz on my phone, which I find a particularly useful tool, but every time I fire it up, I'm exhorted to "follow us on Facebook!" as it loads its network and checks to see which of my friends are online. I'm going to "Like" Nimbuzz on Facebook and see what happens. I'm going to see whether this enhances my life, or is completely meh.

I'll get back to you on this...