[Missouri-l] [leadership] Facebook on its way to being social superpower

[peter altschul]

---- Original Message ------
From: "Richard Rueda" <richardrueda at sbcglobal.net
Subject: [leadership] Facebook on its way to being social 
superpower
Date sent: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:51:25 -0700

Hi list, because your chapter or affiliate may be gearing up to 
promote on
Facebook under the events or group tab, this explanation of 
Facebook may
help you and your members.

Richard
 
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Sunday, August 16, 2009 (SF Chronicle)
Facebook on its way to being social superpower
Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer


   Facebook was born in 2004 as a way for college students to 
connect with
friends.  But what does the Palo Alto social media giant want to 
be when it
grows up?
   Similar to how Microsoft, Google and Apple have inserted 
themselves into
users' everyday lives, Facebook also seeks that type of influence 
by
providing a social layer to every online activity.
   "They want to be a communications platform," said Jeremiah 
Owyang, social
media analyst for Forrester Research.  "This is what they've been 
trying to
indicate to the market all along."
   Put another way, Owyang said Facebook is moving toward 
becoming like a
computer operating system for communications.
   Evidence of that evolution came last week when Facebook 
unwrapped an
upgraded search function that gives its members instant access to 
the news
links, hot topics and other status updates posted not just by 
friends but
also across its growing network of 250 million registered users.
   That new search capability went live hours after Facebook 
announced a
deal, reportedly worth nearly $50 million, to acquire FriendFeed, 
a
company that allows users to combine content from their favorite 
sites,
blogs and social media networks, including rival Twitter.
   The combination of these events gives Facebook the potential 
to deliver
much more relevant information its users seek as well as 
real-time
marketing data to companies hoping to sell products and services 
to a
rapidly growing audience.  Membership growing
   Privately held Facebook started as a network of Harvard 
students and
eventually expanded to other universities like Stanford.  But 
today, it's
open to anyone older than 13, and various studies show it's 
attracting
members from all age levels and demographics.
   The status updates and other posts created by Facebook members 
have
created a collective stream of consciousness that has marketers
salivating.
   According to its own numbers, Facebook says 120 million of its 
registered
members log on at least once daily.  And they share 1 billion 
photos and 10
million videos each month, and post 1 billion pieces of content - 
news
stories, Web links and blog items - each week.
   And its reach goes beyond just Facebook.  Through Facebook 
Connect,
members
can log on to outside sites and distribute information with their 
Facebook
friends.
   Boston University Professor N.  Venkat Venkatraman notes that 
Internet
powerhouses like Amazon.com built their audiences around an 
e-commerce
platform, and Google became successful by collecting and 
delivering
information from around the Web.  Data gold mine
   But in creating a "de facto social platform," Venkatraman said 
Facebook
is
tapping into the next level of the Web's development, a gold mine 
of data
about what people are talking about, what they like and dislike, 
and how
they are influencing the opinions of others.
   "We're more likely to be influenced by what our friends are 
doing," said
Venkatraman, chair of the university's School of Management 
Information
Systems Department.  And with social media networks, "our friends 
need not
be just friends in a physical world, but people who are like us 
who share
our interest," he said.
   For example, he said, newspaper critic reviews and advertising 
used to be
primary motivations for someone to go see a new movie.
   But now, reviews by several friends on a network of movie fans 
can be
more
influential because the film "has been ratified and amplified by 
my social
network rather than just endorsed by The San Francisco 
Chronicle,"
Venkatraman said.
   And with the acquisition of FriendFeed, a 2-year-old Mountain 
View
company
headed by former Google executives, Venkatraman said Facebook now 
has
access to a staff that can develop techniques to do data mining 
on what
"social people are doing."
   Then again, there are no guarantees that Facebook will 
succeed.  Ray
Valdes, an analyst with Gartner Research, said many tech 
companies have
had a vision for "world domination," from "Microsoft to Amazon to 
Google
to others that enjoyed a moment in the sun, such as Netscape." 
Lags behind
Google
   Forrester's Jeremiah Owyang said Facebook is still far behind 
Google as
the Web's dominant entity, although that could change if it 
crosses the
500 million member mark.
   And he noted that social media users have tended to migrate 
quickly from
once-hot networks like Friendster and MySpace.
   "I don't expect there will be a king of the hill for a long 
period of
time," he said.

E-mail Benny Evangelista at
bevangelista at sfchronicle.com.  
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Copyright 2009 SF Chronicle




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