Posted by Facebook continues to grow, change, add, adapt and connect us all (whether you like it or not).
In the past few weeks there has been three pieces of content that best frame Facebook’s place in our society. For some, it’s easy to write off Facebook as the online social network du jour. This would be a mistake. While the company has deep challenges ahead of it (like getting a better grip on marketing opportunities and truly creating a more comprehensive mobile strategy), if you’re at all interested in marketing and media, do yourself a favor and spend some time reading, watching and thinking about this…
- Charlie Rose interviews Mark Zuckerberg. In this exclusive interview, Charlie Rose sits down with the famed founder of Facebook (and CEO) along with Facebook’s Chief Operation Officer, Sheryl Sandberg. Pay close attention to the dialogue around business, strategy, growth and the future. Facebook is not just about friends creeping on each other’s profile.
- Why Facebook Will Win. The current issue of Fast Company creates a four-dog race for technology and business supremacy. This article article pits Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook against one another. Beyond a world where Microsoft doesn’t even make it to the final four, it may appear (on the surface) that Facebook just snuck into this list against those behemoths. If that’s what you’re thinking, you are sorely wrong.
- Facebook Will Be 50% Of Online Retail By 2015: Infographic. In the end, most people don’t understand Facebook. They don’t understand or respect the information and data that they have and everyone else struggles to understand the inherit value of a place that truly has become ubiquitous in how we are connected as people. Facebook is an economy and society unto itself. While that may sound like big words and hyperbole, it’s hard not to see the impact of Facebook, when you start looking at data like this. It’s all about how people make choices… and huge mitigating factor in making purchasing decisions revolves around our social circles.
With each passing day, Facebook becomes an ever-more interesting company to watch, analyze and lament.
Never another podcast episode or article 
Thanks for the links. Il will read those soon.
I always wondered why there isn’t a Facebook module to integrate Facebook ads on websites, like the Adwords module. I am sure it’s in the works and will contribute to a huge growth of revenues in the future.
Facebook has become an almost pavlovian response for many people, from the banal “I just finished making dinner” to the sublime. Many people use it the way I remember my mother using the telephone. Its future depends though not on the people who make a living from interactive media or understand its nuances but from the everyperson in Lethbridge or Tulsa. When it becomes too complex or too challenging for them to share even the most trivial aspect of their lives, its relevance will start to go down hill. FB’s biggest challenge is too keep the complex hidden and the simple visible, if they fail at that, I think they will fail in the long term. Success is based on maintaining some simplicity of use and not from adding layer over layer of feature enhancements. As my mom would have always told me “Clean up your room or you’re going nowhere”
Maybe I’m alone here but I’ve almost stopped using Facebook completely. I only occasionally log on to catch up with family members who aren’t computer savvy enough to use something else.
The feed is a jumbled mess. I don’t bother liking businesses anymore because the diarrhea they post is simply not worth wasting the time to read.
I will never buy a product from Facebook because I’m not looking to buy anything, just looking to connect with people.
I think most of the power users have moved on and the rest of the world will follow shortly.
Philip, at a lecture I attended couple of years back, Jakob Nielsen talked about the stingy clicks and the two second attention span of the average user, that we are all competing to win. I applaud your comment. And the fact that you hold dear and warmly remembered, the advice of your mum. 🙂
This is true, but there would need to be a huge collection of websites in order to do so. The Google Display Network is huge, and Facebook would need time to gather something similar in order to rival that. On the other hand, Facebook has other things, which the Display Network does not — namely, applications where users are spending hours upon hours. Could Facebook ads become more integrated on apps for a higher fee? Don’t know if users would enjoy that.
What else could they do?
“Facebook Will Be 50% Of Online Retail By 2015: Infographic”
This header/link is little misleading don’t you think Mitch? I clicked on it and the Infographic seems to indicate something less dramatic, but still significant.
I have to disagree with Tyler, the line “I only occasionally log on to catch up with family” is the reason Facebook isn’t going anywhere.
I think the falling popularity of Google+ points out something very clear, we have invested too much into Facebook to transition to something else.
Unless a platform can easily transition all the historical data from Facebook (plus move our friends at the same time!) I don’t see any other platform taking over.
Smaller niche social platforms ( like 4SQ & Twitter) will be harmoniously orbiting moons around planet Facebook.
Although Facebook may not perfectly make each step they make, they do have Momentum combined with enough smarts to keep that Momentum going for a long time.
How many websites have the “like” button or a “like box” ? That’s your huge network of potential sites where to put display ads.
A serious Adsense/Adwords competitor would definitely be a good thing for all site owners.
As much as I’m losing faith in Facebook I might get it back if they roll this feature out.