They say that the first step in beating an addicition is admitting you have one.
Well…here it goes. I am a Facebook addict. I love to read it. I love to write posts. I love playing Word Challenge. I love having real time chats with friends. I love that none of this requires me to pick up a phone. I came to this realization last night while I tried (unsuccessfully) to post an update, watch Big Love and give the baby a bottle simultaneously. While the baby eventually won this tug of war taking place on the sofa, I realized that I am hooked.
I am obviously not alone in this. In November, 2008, Facebook drew 200 million unique worldwide visitors. To put that in perspective, 1 in 5 people who accessed the Internet that month visited the site. While Facebook might be king of the world, MySpace is still dominating the U.S. Whether that will continue to be the case….who really knows for sure? Trends indicate that Facebook might surpass MySpace in the U.S. by 2010.
My opinion is that both will survive, but for different reasons. Facebook is my go to destination for for updates on how well “old” friends have aged and reproduced over the years. MySpace is a destination to connect with new friends over movies, music and entertainment. Will there be overlap? Sure. They both want to be a sustainable global business and brand and will need to find the sweet spot that delivers both eyeballs, revenue and profits.
But I do think there will continue to be distinct differences on how people use each of these massive platforms. This difference will become the true indicator of engagement.
The things I do (or in some cases don’t do) on a personal level are often the starting points for ideas we can take to our clients. For example, I am fascintated by the notion of “the personal cpm.” Check out Charlene Li’s blog when you have some time.
While it’s nothing new to elevate your planning process beyond the traditional starting points of a target audience (e.g. age, HHI, ethnicity, etc.), how cool would it be to not only talk about “influencing the influencers” but actually establishing a metric system for measuring the success (or failure) of our ability as marketers to harness and direct this powerful channel of communications? Ok, that was a bit wordy and too chock-full of marketing speak. More simply stated…how can I get the right go-to person to advocate for a clients’ brand, product or promotion in an honest, legitimate voice?
Facebook is probably leading the pack in these types of opportunities, but the reality is we are all still figuring this out. CareerBuilder, for example, is taking a chance with new polling ads available via Facebook in conjunction with the Super Bowl. The lines are continuing to blur between WOM, Social Media and “traditional” media and marketing. One of my personal inspriations is to find out how one can directly impact and grow the other.
As for my plans to manage my addiction, you’re just going to have to “friend me” to find out.
Lara Kretler
Friday 30th - Jan 2009 @ 5:25 PM
As a Facebook fanatic, you’ll love this blog - http://whyfacebook.com
See you on FB!
Chris
Friday 30th - Jan 2009 @ 8:00 PM
I completely agree - I started out a skeptic, tried it - became a believer- then evangelist for Face Book - I am pretty sure I have brought people in and bet they are getting hooked too!
Amy
Friday 6th - Feb 2009 @ 3:15 PM
I, too, continued to be amazed by Facebook, as I watch more of more of my 40-something friends creating an account. This is something that marketers targeting older women need to note. Women age 55 and over are the fastest-growing U.S. demographic group on Facebook in the last three months, according to new data reported by Inside Facebook. No wonder so many people are explaining Facebook to their parents.
Keri Samiec
Wednesday 11th - Feb 2009 @ 6:54 PM
A couple of days after this posting, the February 2 edition of Advertising Age wrote a very interesting article about Facebook.
A couple of things jumped out at me - namely the growth rate for Facebook since September of last year and the big discrepancy between Facebook and MySpace from an ad revenue standpoint.
While it didn’t surprise me, I was still pretty amazed that Facebook has been growing at a 10% clip each month since September. That fact alone made me think of Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point and how Facebook seems to have reached that point where the critical mass are starting to join at a phenomenal pace. Evidence to this is the fact that my 69 year old father joined Facebook during this same 120 day time period.
The other point made in the article was how far behind Facebook is from MySpace in Ad Revenue dollars. The discussion puts me in an interesting dilemna from that of a marketer and also as a user of Facebook. Without a doubt it’s easy to see the value of advertising on Facebook simply because of the number of visitors that are coming to the site on a monthly basis. That’s the marketer side of me. On the flipside, as a frequent visitor to the site I know that I’ve enjoyed the clean and unobtrusive advertising that currently is employed on the site. If Facebook chooses to be more aggresive in their approach to capture ad dollars, I hope that they are able to continue the approach they’ve instituted thus far.