About Facebook

I think it's pretty obvious to everyone by now that Facebook has gone well over the tipping point. Interestingly, it's done that by recently attracting my peers, those folk who have left college or university. The 30-somethings (and above!)

A quick sidebar before I continue. An intriguing issue I have with all these new people joining is this. How do you politely refuse someone as a friend once they have tracked you down and sent you a request? Look, I am a friendly guy, but like everyone else, there's some people whose lives have previously crossed with mine, socially and professionally, who, in all honesty, I didn't really consider as "besties," to put it mildly. Yet, here they are again, out of nowhere, grinning inanely in their profile pic, and..."poking" me. Hmmm. Anyway, off the rant and on to the topic at hand...

Some are describing Facebook as the operating system for social networking. That's high praise indeed among the likes of MySpace and Bebo and the many others that are out there. The comparison to Google is interesting too. What any search company struggles to achieve is a network of connections and the ability to reach them. Facebook has created something they can't, a viral distribution platform.

Recently, Facebook took the next step and opened up its platform to outside application developers to create and monetise widgets for its users. LinkedIn followed suit, or at least anounced their intention to follow suit.

"They're all going to Facebook at the moment." Now who said that? In fact, it was Rupert Murdoch when asked if his News readers where using MySpace. He's certainly noticed.  

To date, not many brands have launched applications within Facebook, to some degree because Facebook isn't encouraging it and partly, I would quickly suggest, that unless you build something that is actually useful for Facebookers, as opposed to just adding your logo to their profile, you will damage your brand as opposed to enhancing it. And finding that Facebook widget that manages to be highly useful to users and also connects them to your brand with the right message is no mean feat. Very discerning, this lot, and they can destroy a brand as quickly they can build it for you.

/dp