PostSecret's push to Facebook

Today I cam across a link on PostSecret that offers exclusive content only available on their Facebook site.

Personally I'm not sure how to reconcile my feelings about this . One on side, I think this is a really good use of Facebook and push advertising by PostSecret. Here you have a good site with lots of dedicated, loyal readers. I think offering exclusive content on another site is the best way to get people to use the Facebook site. Otherwise, wouldn't most users get what they need from the native site? Other sites usually do have some kind of discussion board/comments feature. In that case, I guess Facebook could provide some kind of feature that the native site doesn't (or bring in $$$ somehow). PostSecret doesn't really have its own discussion board so maybe FB provides that for them.

This is something I'd like to see us do with the FB application. I think that's the key to getting people to use it--provide something unique there that users can't get anywhere else, e.g. an interactive map to find our friends in the library.

My one hesitation? People that don't use FB. As librarians, making resources free and available to everyone is in our blood. It kind of reminds me of sweepstakes that still have to provide an alternate way for people to enter that's not web based by providing a telephone number or address. Providing exclusive content on another web site creates a barrier. It's not a huge barrier, since FB accounts are free and open to everyone (now), but it's more of a mental barrier for some folks who have various reasons for not wanting to sign up for FB. Plus, in higher ed, is it fair to build in this extra step to a resource that's ultimately supported by tuition dollars?

A drawback to making it open to everyone? The TIME it takes to think through an alternate access point and put those processes in place. And we all know we move slowly enough as it is in libraryland! So, as I said, I'm not sure how to balance all these things...certainly open to suggestions and would love to hear feedback.