Facebook’s Torrid Growth
According to the Inside Facebook blog, Facebook hit 200 million active users seven months after the most popular US social network hit 100 million users and only 90 days after reaching 150 million. (That’s the power of a site built from the ground up to be viral.)
On average, Facebook has added 500,000 new members a day since late August. 70% of its members are outside the U.S., which I find extremely interesting. Kinda debunks the myth that this social media phenomenon is something businesses can ignore… small, medium or large.
I like Facebook for consumer brands and causes especially, and have found it a great platform on which to blend the personal with a tiny little bit of the professional, or vice versa. (Your mix is up to you - no one should tell you how much of which is okay…)
I don’t follow your logic here: “On average, Facebook has added 500,000 new members a day since late August. 70% of its members are outside the U.S., which I find extremely interesting. Kinda debunks the myth that this social media phenomenon is something businesses can ignore… small, medium or large.”
I don’t understand how the myth that businesses can ignore social media is being debunked by these stats.
So I guess I was dashing through this post a bit too quickly, huh, Craig? Why can’t you read my mind as well as you read my blog???
I should have been more clear.
Businesses who ignore social media as a channel of communication do so for a plethora of reasons, in my experience. One of the biggest reasons they do so is because they don’t believe (the Myth in my opinion) that their customers and prospects are already “out there” in social groups like Facebook, LinkedIN, etc.
With 500,000 users being added every day, I’m betting that every single business or cause - small, medium or large - will find clients, prospects and partners are hanging out in Facebook and other social networks. No matter the age group, no matter the country…
Hope this makes my quick post more clear. Let me know if it doesn’t.
Gonna have to slap you on this one. You and I traveled down the Blogging for Dollars road together and have the t shirts.
You are sliding down the slippery slope of turning social media into electronic Val Paks.
The only people who advocate the business end of life as we know it, are people who are trying to turn ‘their’ time on Facebook and similar sites into billable’s.
This includes the Social Media Consultants, PR 2.0 Loons, and what is left of the advertising agencies that are running around in a panic as businesses are discovering that they do not to spend big bucks to get next to customers. Simple web sites work just fine. Yes this is a golden oldie moment but still as true today as it was 10 years ago.
The buzz surrounding the hue and cry about social media is at its core self generated as in more cases than not a bitch session about some thing that does not measure up to some fantasy, or has some other negative connotation.
Two recent examples are the Motrin Mom lunacy, whose ‘uprising’ was limited to a subset of the internet. It got amplified in the echo chamber of the Social Media Consultants, PR 2.0 Loons, and the advertising agencies, which are using it as a poster child for selling social media consultation.
“How I Made Millions with MY Facebook Page”
No better example of this mind set comes from a recent AdAge posting
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135605
where this was the money shot:
“The data is a really compelling reminder that a lot of our target consumers are not the people who are sitting on Twitter freaking out over a packaging design that they don’t like,” said Diane Hessan, CEO of Communispace. She added, “These are people online, having conversations, and yet they are totally out of the loop on stuff us marketing junkies love to obsess over.”
These are the people that want to control the conversation, and generate billables.
On the same day Seth Godin said this:
“You don’t get to decide what’s better. I do.”
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/04/what-does-better-mean.html
The internet hasn’t changed business at all, It is still one customer at a time. The only thing that has changed is speed of communication and that there are many voices that are heard on any claim on any product.
You can’t make claims on products or services that are not deliverable anymore.
See Factcheck your ass:)
Using Facebook and other sites to fish for customers is turning companies into being bait, and it never ends well for the bait.
Businesses are waking up to the power of the internet and discovering that they can speak directly to customers, and no longer need ad agencies, and PR folks.
The internet is destroying the first mover advantage that agencies had, and are getting their own game on.
As far as Facebook having 200 million users, I don’t believe it for a minute. They may have given out 200 million accounts, but I doubt seriously that there are anywhere near that many actives, and out of that number, that on any given day, there is a lot of opportunity to sell folks anything, since most folks are connecting on these sites to find out what their friends and families are up to, not how they feel about the latest parakeet grooming products.
But like you say, your mileage may vary.
Alan! I’ve missed you! And your comment is a fresh example of why…
We have many points of extreme agreement:
“The internet hasn’t changed business at all, It is still one customer at a time….
You can’t make claims on products or services that are not deliverable anymore….
Businesses are waking up to the power of the internet and discovering that they can speak directly to customers….
The internet is destroying the first mover advantage that agencies had, and are getting their own game on.”
The fact is that people are coming online to fact check products, businesses, people and reputations first, though, before they buy, date, hire or submit to services. And much of that fact checking is done online with other people, one person at a time.
I tell my clients they should be listening, not selling. And adding to conversations when they’re relevant.
Kind of like what you and I got T shirts for discussing back in the day. (BTW, what’s a Val Pak?)
Val Pak
Snail Mail Coupon Cluster Bomb
http://www.valpak.com/advertise/