Booking Some Face Time

I realize that Facebook is all the rage and with the gazillion dollar valuation, massive user base, cult following, and its ability to cure most major diseases, it is not fashionably cool to speak ill of her highness. 

Fortunately for me, I am not fashionable on any scale so here are some observations on Facebook.

Facebook can be a great marketing tool. (Maybe)

On the surface, the law of numbers says go for it.  Create a FB app, launch it, and watch the viral benefits of FB in all her glory.  Two of your friends times two of their friends, times two, so that by the end of the day your user base is the equivalent to the population of Bolivia ( nine million since you were wondering).

Here's one of the problems.  Take a look at this screen shot of FB applications I took off somebody's page. 

The phrase "lost in the noise" comes to mind, for sure.  But even more important is the count.  When somebody comes to my office and tells me they have tons of "users" of their FB app, they normally count users like the one above.  Naturally, the value here is questionable.  Eventually, tons of these apps will die from just this problem; i.e. being tossed on somebody's page and generally forgotten.

As a homework assignment for you:  Checkout the virtual bookshelf application and see a) how many of your friends have it, b) how many books they have on it and c) how often it is updated/changed, etc.  You will be surprised but I'm sure you know where I'm going with this.

In some cases, it's fine. Your start up might only be using the FB app to get people to your web site and/or service.  In other cases, the app is a data gathering point.  All this is to say I am not trashing FB at all, just pointing out that simply making and saying "we have a facebook app" without truly understanding the metrics, the issues, the desired objectives/results, is a risky (and potentially time wasting) endeavor.

The Walled Garden is back! (sort of)

Steve Chase must be smiling.   What's the difference between AOL and Facebook? Facebook doesn't give out CDs by the billions (yet).  Think about it. The wild web vs. the quiet of FB.  Only your "friends" can bug you. Only your "friends" can see/interact with you.  You pick the "apps" you want to use on your page and the rest of the world goes on by.

For some reason, people seem to think it is faster to send me an email message inside FB vs. normal email.  (Hint: It isn't)  We called postal mail "snail mail" so what are we calling non-facebook email?   Anyway, feedback from people I've spoken to leads me to believe that this "spam-free" zone for messages is a welcome relief.

It will be interesting to see how long it can stay 'pure and to see how much of this peace and quiet  can be maintained given the inevitable drive to collect revenue from all the fine FB users.

I think the call of the Loonie, will be loud.

The redefinition of the word "Friend.'

Years ago (pre-facebook), while making one of my treks to California, I hooked up with Dave Winer for lunch.  He is in a category of people that I love to buy a meal for, ask an opening question, and simply stuff my face with food while they talk.  Lots of great ideas flow from folks like Dave.  During the conversation, for reasons that escape me, Dave made the comment "You're not my friend but we could become friends."  To this day, I've always filtered that one liner as a compliment and as an indication that Dave doesn't pay lip service to the word "friend", i.e. when he uses the word, he really means it. 

Enter Facebook and the word friend.  On LinkedIn, it's clear. If I know you, have worked with you, etc, we can hook up and do all the six degrees of separation thing.  On Facebook, the world appears different.  I've had single 30 minute meetings with people who, within an hour of that meeting want to be 'friends' on Facebook. Weird.

There seems to be some badge of honor in having everybody on Facebook as your friends.  I'm not sure, but I have to believe there is some group of people spending hours and hours everyday, make friend requests and requests of those friends's friends; doing this for no other purpose then having the most friends.

While I suspect this group of people needs to get our more and are probably edge cases, I wonder about the mainstream devaluing of the word friend.  It may or may not be a good thing.  It may change the way we value our 'friends' recommendations if our 'friends' are 12,541 random people on Facebook. 

Dunno, but clearly there is a bunch of changes happening and it will impact businesses like yours.  It is a trend and data point you may want to consider as you build out your service or application.

Some dirty little secrets you probably already know.

• It's not about us, it's about them.  I've spent time with some kids in High School and University to try and see what's really going on with Facebook.  I think my usage and those in my age bracket are not really important.  The College, High School, Middle School crowd, that's what I would term the coming mainstream users and those are the folks, as they grow up/get credit cards (jobs!), will have a style/flow about Facebook usage that I believe is worth understanding.
• It's mostly about writing on walls.  These group communications of happy birthday, you go girl, etc, represent the flow of communications right next to the email messages.  Over and over, I get the same feedback from 20 something types.  They see what people are doing, write on walls, give hugs, and post pictures.  That's all they do with Facebook.  Some would argue that Facebook's picture collection is rivaling Flickr.  Maybe. But the larger point that I'm trying to make is that, at least today and at least with the feedback I'm chasing down, 90% of FB is one to many communications (wall) and one to one communications.  This is followed up by lurking with respect to what people are doing at any given moment.
• Applications are hot and not with lighting speed.  It's been said for years that on the Internet your competition is exactly one click away.  Watching the notifications flow on by, it's clear that the hot then not process surrounding Facebook applications is a seriously ruthless ecosystem.  In capturing all the notifications that flow by on my account and putting them into a database, I've managed to come up with some interesting stats on how fast people try it and dump it. Without going into painful detail, I can just tell you that making Facebook the center of your business strategy might not be the wisest thing you could do.  Have other options.
• Nobody is really using applications, at least not yet.  The numbers I've managed to compile say it all but in talking to the users (not the echo-chamber types), I believe there are a limited number of applications that do have widespread usage.  The odds of you being a mass hit with true, widespread, active, meaningful usage, is a tall proposition.  While I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this, I'm saying it anyway because for you, the start up type, you need to avoid drinking too much of anybody's Kool-Aid, Facebook included.

Well, there you have it.  A rather long post. I would have written more but I have to go check Facebook, update my status, lurk on my kids pages, and check messages!

Comments

[Jim Courtney]

This becomes a reference post for all those "unknowns" who want to become my FB friends. There is a reason for the "Ignore" button but often I will send out an enquiry asking courteously what his/her interest is, especially if I see that we "share" some friends.

However, when you asked me to be a Facebook friend (and we have known each other for several years) it was an "upper" for me.

Great post, Rick

[Tom]

Great point on app usage. I disable apps from showing in my profile because I hate the clutter. In terms of marketing potential, I believe that FB groups are a much more effective means for marketers currently because of the level of interactivity that occurs within them.

I'm sure your not wondering but my personal favs are:

I F*in love to Text!!

and

You know your in University When... (check out #112)