Why Facebook Is Such a Big Deal
The way I see it, there are four types of people when it comes to Facebook:
1) Those that use it for fun and to stay connected to friends (“The Kids”).
2) Those that use it for both fun and practical purposes (“The Pros”).
3) Those that try to use it in a half-hearted way and just don’t get it (“The Cynics”).
4) People who will just never use it (“The Naysayers”).
I’m in the Pros group, and way off to the practical side of things (please please don’t SuperPoke me, send me flair or buy me a gift that I can do nothing with, although thanks for thinking of me). When I started getting into it last year, I quickly got excited about the long-term implications that everyone being on Facebook would enable. It seems that barring some huge disaster (like one 10 times worse than the Beacon fiasco) Facebook is going to become a central portal – for virtually everyone that uses a computer and has an email address anyway – for connecting and communicating with the people you know. Nonetheless, I still struggle to successfully explain this to The Cynics and The Naysayers, of which there are still many tens of millions.
So the other day, I had a very simple Facebook experience that really highlighted to me how powerful this social networking thing is. I was getting ready for the day, turned on my iPhone and went to my Facebook app after checking email. I have some problems with what Facebook has made available on the iPhone app, and how they have formatted things, but that’s another story. In any case, the home page basically lists the recent status updates (or Tweets) of folks I’m connected to. While it’s fun and oftentimes amusing to read through what people are up to or thinking about that day, I was amazed at how much useful information I got in a matter of just a minute or two. For example, I learned:
- A client was on vacation.
- A friend was about to have a second child (ok, so not a great friend) and he set up a Twitter account to use from the delivery room. Great idea.
- A high school pal runs a fantasy hockey league and is looking for new managers. Sign me up!
- I missed my friend’s birthday. Whoops.
- I was reminded that I needed to get in touch with a potential client.
- Apparently my cousin has a Harley. Who knew? Need to catch a ride next time I’m in Connecticut.
- Brussel sprouts and pancetta is a great dish. Should try that out sometime.
Facebook may never find a profitable way to monetize that huge user base, at least not to the tune of a $15 billion valuation, but man is it a great everyday tool. The imminent ubiquity of social networking (and I think perhaps even just Facebook) will have as profound an impact on behavior as email and web commerce did.