Facebook

Belly Love

New member
Does anyone have Facebook for belly dance and if so, is yours under a personal page or a business page and why did you choose that one?

Thanks :)
 

Mosaic

Super Moderator
I don't have a BD page, but I believe a lot of dancers do, I would say that some would go the business route to keep their personal pages separate from their personal pages. I am not sure, but maybe as a business page you don't have to have your real name on the page, just your biz one which would offer privacy & anonymity. Other than that I don't know what the advantages would be.
~Mosaic
 

gisela

Super Moderator
I don't have a dancer page but I have one for ceramics and it is quite cool to have it. I get weekly (I think, or monthly? time flies...)updates where I can see how many visits the page has had and how the activity has been. Also I don't have to friend every stranger, and they don't have to endure reading about what I had for dinner or whatever :lol:
 

Darshiva

Moderator
I have a "personal" page and a "public person" page. The personal page would have been a business page if they'd done such a thing when I joined, and I treat it that way, but I have no intention of changing it over. The public person one is pretty much for attention whoring - it was kinda the fashion to do it at the time so I did for no particular reason. The fun thing about the public one is that anyone can post to it after liking the page (they don't need me to approve them) so I get the occassional update about workshops and events that might not make it to my notice otherwise. The downside is spammers - particularly sports spammers. I do find out about them fairly quickly, but they still rankle me.

AFAIK, there's no real benefit to a business page over a personal one for a bellydancer. Why bother? My business already has a website & if people like it they can either friend me or like my public profile to share the love.
 

Belly Love

New member
Thanks for the input ladies. I was going to go with a business one, but decided on a personal one for belly dance. I like the idea of having a friends vs. fans- that way it doesn't feel so one sided to me. I can understand why a professional dancer would have a business one though- especially because you can have unlimited fans/likes.

I suppose if I ever got huge, I could do a business one :dance:

If anyone wants to friend me, let me know :)
 

Darshiva

Moderator
I'm Darshiva Dancer on facebook. The rest is up to you. I like staying in contact with other bellydancers - so much to learn, so much to be inspired by!
 

Belly Love

New member
I requested you :)
Nice that you put in Dancer for a last name- I tried BellyDancer and they wouldn't take it :( I should've been more clever! I just ended up making up a last name.
 

Amulya

Moderator
I tried to use belly dancer as well, they don't take that, but dance they do take. I have a belly dance profile, but not a page, I don't see the use for a page honestly, unless you got something special, like Ozma's Costume page, that is very useful becuase it's a costume tips page.
 

Darshiva

Moderator
It'sa handy way to redirect the people who are just adding you because you're a dancer. That way they can do the fan of bellydance thing without being all weird about it & if done gently the redirect comes across as a compliment instead of a brush-off.
 

gisela

Super Moderator
I do see a use for two separate pages, one personal and one business, as I don't like to friend people I don't know in some way.
 

Taslin

New member
I see you already decided but, its cool that you put so much thought into it.

I didnt,lol. I have a seperate facebook page for when i was working as a dancer when i wasn't in the states. Not the fan one just 2. My "real one" and the one for dance related stuff. I totally used a different name, and one that the locals could pronounce. I wasn't belly dancing, I was back-up dancing for some non-english speaking artists at concerts, and nightclub performances,and getting work is some hotel choreographed shows for tourists.

I liked it because i could post pics of performances, costumes, artists, and me in the costumes on there without out explaining to my acquaintances from college or just conservatives from past professions well, every little thing. I also used a moniker, for safety reasons and for privacy.

Now im thinking about deleting my dancer account, as i have already exported the people who are important to me from it to my "real" facebook. Im glad i had both and im glad that there were people i was close enough to to add to my real one. Mostly other dancers, musicians, dj's, a couple artists, and people i interacted with in my daily life.

Actually come to think of it i may be able to convert my 2nd one to a Belly Dance profile....But i am sooo not there yet,lol. I dont have a name, and wont even be performing until the fall at the soonest.
 
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shiradotnet

Well-known member
I have three different ways to connect with me on facebook.

There's my real-life personal account, which I use for keeping in touch with family, long-time friends from high school & college, coworkers past & present, and other people I know from my non-dance world. With that account, I'll accept friend invitations ONLY from people I actually know in real life - people whose faces I can envision, people whose voices I can "hear", people with whom I have created memories. And I've even turned down some of those people - if I disliked them back when we worked together, then I see no reason to "friend" them on facebook. On that facebook account, I say almost nothing about belly dancing. Some of the people who know me are aware of my alter ego, some are not. But it's not something I talk about on that account.

There's my Shira-the-person account, which I primarily use to keep in contact with dancers that I have some kind of relationship with. For example, I'll accept friend invitations from people I've spoken with here on the forum as well as people I've met at various dance events over the years. But this is still a "person" account, in the sense that I'll post stuff about my cats, recipes I've been experimenting with, the weather, etc. Most recently, for my profile picture I posted a photo of my dad in his Army uniform and included a few comments about the Memorial Day holiday and his service in World War 2. I have accepted many "friend" requests from people I don't know, since I assume many of them like my web site and want to connect with me.

Finally, there's my "fan page" at https://www.facebook.com/Shira.net . This is intended to be almost 100% dance-related. This is where I post quotable quotes about dance, belly dance tips/ideas/advice, links to interesting web sites related in some way to belly dance that I stumble upon, news reports from the Middle East that may be of interest to dancers (such as the recent satellite image discovery of 17 additional pyramids in Egypt), and announcements about new articles (or revamped articles) on Shira.net. I also use this page to post announcements about workshops that I'm teaching - it currently features ones I have coming up in San Diego and Las Vegas.
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
I requested you :)
Nice that you put in Dancer for a last name- I tried BellyDancer and they wouldn't take it :( I should've been more clever! I just ended up making up a last name.

I think Facebook is on to that "trick." ;) You might want to use your real first name and Dancer second. A lot of other people get away with that.

I just gave in and used my real name with my dance name in the middle: Welcome to Facebook - Log In, Sign Up or Learn More
 

~Diana~

AFK Moderator
I only have my personal facebook page which I use for both. I don't see the need to have a business page as I'm not putting myself out as a professional dancer nor see the need to have random people checking me out, etc. The main differences between the pages is that a personal page limits how many friends you can have to 5,000 and you can have the option to add/accept friend requests, while a business page has no limit and anyone can join/like the page.

I have bellydance professionals, hobbyist, and enthusiasts on my facebook but I have my settings so that they can only see certain things. I also only add those people who I have either met in person or have interacted with on forums.
 

MissVega

New member
I just have one facebook page which started out as my personal and now is more like a dance one. I can barely keep up with one facebook profile, I can't imagine having more lol.

I can see why people would want two, but for me, I prefer to just have one. I am who I am, when I'm dancing or other:) I also like having a personal aspect to my page that people who are fans, or find me from youtube can see. I always like finding out that someone I admire is a cat person or something like that. Plus I don't have a stage name so the whole anonymity thing wouldn't work lol.

Feel free to add me:)

facebook.com/cassandra.z.fox
 

Belly Love

New member
Everyone has different views on this and they are all valid- I can totally understand everyone's reasons of why they chose what.

I have it under what my pro dance name is going to be and it's predominantly going to be a page for my belly dance world. I don't know anyone in the bd world yet except for my fellow forum members ;) so I'm sure it will be awhile before I will build a social network of fellow dancers on Facebook. I think it's a great way of learning about events or just keeping up with things- especially since I have not taken any classes, been to any workshops or haflas yet... but I will soon.

MissVega- Great, I will request you :)
 
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Darshiva

Moderator
Tips on expanding your friend list for facebook noobs:

1) if you want to find bellydancers, type in the names of famous bellydancers into the facebook search bar - they almost always say yes to friend requests.

2) always check the profile of the person in question - if you look through the info and there's no interest in bellydancing nor anything to indicate they're a bellydancer, avoid unless you have a mutual friend that you KNOW doesn't accept every friend request. This one can be tricky, but it'll help you avoid letches for the most part.

3) use that same idea to find bellydancers from your friends lists. This one borders on stalkery, but for me it helps when I've met someone but I can't remember their name or don't know their dance name.

4) sometimes guys are genuine. If you aren't sure, make a polite enquiry. If they get rude or clam up, you can feel good about hitting the 'ignore' button. Sometimes they are photographers, musicians or artists looking to network with dancers, even more rarely they are the elusive male dancer. If you're polite about it you won't ruffle the feathers of genuine people, and you make some very important bellydance contacts at the same time.
 

shiradotnet

Well-known member
Tips on expanding your friend list for facebook noobs:

These are good tips. One more I would add: when you're sending a friend invitation to someone you don't know very well (such as a famous dancer you've never met), use the "add personal message" feature to say something that will help the other person feel some sort of connection to you. For example, "I really enjoyed your performances on the IAMED Fifth Awards of Belly Dance video..." or "I took a workshop you taught in Chicago in 2008 and really enjoyed it!" This will increase the chances of the other person accepting your invitation.

I personally don't accept friend invitations from men unless they're either 1) Someone I've heard of, or 2) They do what I suggested above, telling me something about who they are and how they're connected with our dance.

For friend invitations from women, I look at their profiles before I accept the invitation. If there's something that makes it obvious that they belly dance (their profile photo shows them in costume, they have a Middle Eastern dance name, they mention belly dancing in their list of interests, etc.), I accept it. but if I don't see any evidence of interest in belly dance, I don't accept it.

The reason I'm picky about accepting friend invitations is that facebook's security is horrid. The more we CHOOSE to let someone access (ie, friending them), the more havoc a hacker can potentially wreak.

Also, FYI, a lot of Egyptian men like to friend random belly dancers on facebook. Our photo albums are basically like free subscriptions to Playboy for them, and they have a tendency to try starting up live chats with you saying inappropriate things to you.
 
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