Facebook: Internet Success Story Or Virtual Tchatchkes?
If 2006 was the year of Nintendo’s Wii, then 2007 is the year of Facebook (I know it’s still early November and that in the Internet time, a lot can happen until December 31st). Two years ago, Facebook was considered a MySpace “also-ran” for the college crowd, and then they opened their gates to corporate America and widgets and applications. Today, the $580 million or so Rupert Murdoch paid for MySpace would buy less than 5% of Facebook. What a difference a few years make.
But beneath the dollars and sense, I’d really like to explore with you the value proposition of Facebook and of the broader social networking space.
As a publicist working with a number of Internet companies, I signed up for Facebook earlier in 2007. I made the strategic decision to test the site (and my own popularity or lack of) and see how many people ask me to be their friends (without asking anyone to be my friend, except for one cousin). What I found from my experience, which might be a reflection of my age (41), is that Facebook offers a lot of cool functionality but less real utility for me.
I have been a passive LinkedIn member for a couple of years. Though I haven’t really used the social networking functionality, I do browse my Connections and I am planning on using it as a tool for generating new business leads for my PR agency.
This July, I was intrigued by a post from noted VC Blogger Michael Eisenberg “LinkedIn vs. Facebook”. I was surprised to read the following comments about Facebook vs. LinkedIn: “…Even more remarkably, they are CEOs and senior level management people [ME’s Facebook contacts]. Conversely, on LinkedIn, I am linked to far fewer of these senior people. That was an Aha! moment for me. LinkedIn is valuable and connects me to many entrepreneurs and potential recruits but, anecdotally, the “senior staff” is hanging out on Facebook and searching for contacts!”
When I asked Michael, who is a great blogger with a lot of intelligent insight about the Internet, why he thinks so many senior staff is hanging out on Facebook, he said that he suspects it’s because one can do a wider range of things on Facebook and their speed of innovation.
If you look at where Facebook was two years ago and where they are today, you cannot argue with their speed of innovation (or their marketing gut instinct).
If you permit me to segue, I have a long running debate with a client about the value of promotional giveaways or ‘tchatchkes’ at trade shows. I think they’re an utter waste of time with no ROI and tell my client that she should instead invest more money in PR (me). And she always says “Yeah, but people love them.”
Returning to Facebook, maybe these widgets and applications that people seem to love so much, are Facebook’s ‘virtual tchatchkes’. Maybe people are just craving the contact and interaction made possible by all of these cool applications?
What do you think? And can it last (for Facebook)? Find me on Facebook or LinkedIn and let me know what you think.
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