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RSSAnd each of these individual and distributed advancements has one common theme: the inherent tendency to spread virally, luring people back into the network. For example, I have Twitter syncing with my blog, as well as my Facebook profile; I can update Twitter on any one of those three platforms, and all three will update instantaneously, encouraging tighter integration with my disparate networks.(As a metrics guy, I'm extremely intrigued by the massive amounts of transactional and personal meta data being created behind the scenes -- very compelling!)
Being a newbie on Facebook, I found it striking that the site is designed for a better user experience -- versus the current publisher system that rewards page views and ad impressions. I'm all for monetizing and advertising, but many social networks have suffered terribly from page-view addiction, resulting in near-intolerable user experiences.
While advertising on consumer-generated media platforms is still in its infancy, the advertising on Facebook - for me - seems pleasantly subtle and, fortunately, not risqué or pornographic (even though I exposed my 18-34 male status to the Facebook profile database). Moreover, I've yet to be spammed; I've only been bombarded by genuine friends and contacts, nearly 100 of them in the last day or so.
Beyond my initial observations of Facebook, what makes it tick? As Jeff Jarvis recently noted: "...a powerful newspaper publisher beseeched Mark Zuckerberg, the young founder of the hugely successful social network Facebook, for advice on how he could build and own his community. The famously laconic Zuckerberg replied "You can't." Zuckerberg went on to explain that communities already exist and the question these magnates should ask instead is how they can help them to do what they want to do. Zuckerberg's prescription was 'elegant organization.'"
Jarvis is correct about enabling people in an elegant, organized fashion. But Seth Goldstein considers what's at stake in Facebook's success as a social operating system, or platform, well into the future. He notes three axioms deeply inherent in two of the most successful digital media platforms, Microsoft Windows and Google:
1. Wide distribution
2. Application developers making money
3. Good tools
Seth then considers Facebook:
1. Wide distribution? YES
2. Application developers making money? NO (not yet)
3. Good tools? YES
Seth's conclusion: "the question for establishing Facebook's value as a platform is no longer whether Facebook itself can make money but whether its developers can do so."
I think that eventually will happen, though it will take some time to figure out the right model. It could be advertising, but also could be something else. But it will happen, for the concentration and impact of human attention is too great.
What do you think?
RSS FEEDS
This is an excellent piece. Having over 14 years of online marketing / community building experience, I agree with your observations and those of Seth Godin.
To answer some of the feedback observations:
FB will endure a short "transitional" phase that is typical and commonly occures when a singular community is opened up. However, off-setting the attrition will be
(1) a more granular search mechanism
(2) development of useful, meaningful widgets created in a storm of urgent development - this will serve to attract users from other networks who have rendered those widgets inoperable.
FB os off to an excellent start, publicity and buzz are drawing an audience that have yet to discover FB. Rapid implementation of features and widgets should serve to reduce attrition.
Final stage: Monetization. Again, I've been talking about this since Myspace hit 30 million members - and had no distinguishable revenue model. The axiom of developers making modey is critical for the long haul - on that front, I have to agree with Justin, development of an ad network and a payment processing system will expedite commerce.
My client, CartFly (www.cartfly.com) is a social shopping cart widget that is ready to plug into the FB API.
I also love the monniker "social operating system" - but will FB address the biggest problem I see bearing down on social networks? The problem of "User Subscription Fatigue".
User Subscription Fatigue relates to the limited capacity that one individual can devote to managing his/her online social networks - and eventally being forced to participate in only a few.
Yet - I view it possible that users could belong to many more online social communities, think about it... How many "communities" does your life touch?
Professional - Company Professional - Industry Professional - Functional Professional - Geographical
Personal - Social Personal - Relational Personal - Recreational Personal - Special Interests Personal - Hobbies
However, until we address User Subscription Fatigue, a user will self impose limits on the number of social networks, online groups and user forums they will engage and participate in.
Allan Sabo Alti Success Strategies ::: Creating Value By Using Social Media & Web 2.0 Techniques ::: www.AltiConsulting.com
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I don't think your intern is truly representative as I've seen the opposite, a major surge from MySpace to Facebook. These are people who almost seem like they're looking to 'upgrade' from MySpace. There's no doubt that FB is far superior in pretty much all major featuresets.
As for profile deletion, that happens quite a bit. One of my friends has deleted his MySpace account many times, only to re-sign up under a new name. It's easy to leave...and just as easy to come back.
Many of the older members were actually on the teaching faculty of colleges where facebook members are enrolled.
The point here is that social networks are really niche marketing. If you actually had a facebook "in-person event" where would you hold it, what would the food be, and who would you get for entertainment.
Tools won't change this to build a larger "older audience". Unless they "walled off the searches by demographics and/or interests".
Andrew
http://www.ewarrior.com http://www.mediamensch.com
I agree that Facebook needs to help its developers start making money. I wrote a blog post today explaining how they can do that: 1) by building an in-house ad network, 2) by building a payment processing service. Check my blog for more - would love to hear your thoughts.
Justin
http://www.insidefacebook.com
There is a deluge of new applications being released on facebook daily. Some are very useful, some not so. We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of what is yet to come. Deeply integrates applications vs. lightweight "widgets" also offer huge opportunities if executed properly.
We are trying to help bring the most useful and engaging facebook applications to the surface to save people the time consuming task of trying out new applications and deciding if they are of value to them.
There is also a facebook application group on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2548175922
We have been publishing text and video facebook application reviews and rating on new applications as they come to the facebook f8 platform at http://www.facereviews.com
Cheers!
Rodney Rumford