Social Engagement Media
A major trend is sweeping through our media universe. It began innocently enough with Friendster in 2003, which came from nowhere to become the celebrated buzz of 2003. But Friendster was quickly toppled from its social network pedestal by an even faster moving phenom: MySpace.
When Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. acquired MySpace in July 2005 for $580 million, the move received a lukewarm reception in some financial circles. Now that MySpace has more than 200 million member accounts, making the popular social net larger than Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world, and each account costing a mere $2.90 each, those nay-saying nitpickers are signing a totally different tune.
But there’s an even faster-growing social net among us. Facebook, which was conceived as a university-only digital meet market, unlike MySpace, which traced its roots to music trendsetters, has soared from 10 million in September 2006, just prior to Facebook opening its ivory gates to everyone, to 40 million this week, more than quadrupling its member base.
If your inbox is anything like mine, it’s being clogged by Facebook “friend” requests, reflecting the groundswell in popularity that this social network is currently enjoying. How is it that an upstart was able to wrest away the crown of “hotness” from its massive social brother?
Simplicity is clearly a core Facebook strength. Unlike MySpace’s cluttered spaghetti-code interface, Facebook is a breath of fresh air, far more elegant and easier to use. While Facebook wins in the digital cosmetics department, it still needs to create that essential “community” feeling, which neither MySpace or Facebook possess, perhaps due to a lack of content leadership from above.
Still, when Facebook CEO and Founder, Mark Zuckerberg announced on May 25 that Facebook would open its interface to outside developers, thereby allowing third-party applications to enhance the Facebook experience, the Palo Alto-based company discovered an age-old technology tactic that dates back to dBASE days, for those who can remember that far back.
Zuckerberg dubbed the move of opening up the Facebook architecture through an “API” (application developer’s interface), akin to creating a “Social Operating System,” or SOS. The tactic has worked beautifully. When I attended the Facebook Developer’s Garage a few weeks ago, the electric atmosphere in the way-too-small room at company headquarters had the air of a revivalist meeting.
Facebook’s popularity is being propelled by the people in this room, Facebook application developers, who overwhelmed Facebook’s corporate office in Palo Alto at the “Facebook Developer Garage.”
That feeling of exalted exuberance was cemented by “Lee,” from venture capital firm Alta Partners, who exhorted the troops with a cheer that knocked the room down: Join the Facebook bandwagon. This company will IPO in late 2008 with a valuation of more than $100 billion! Tying your fortunes to Facebook will pay off handsomely for anyone smart enough to ride on the company’s coattails.
While casual observers might see this type of cheerleader chant as only another manifestation of irrational exuberance, they’re forgetting that Facebook, and all those thousands of other social networks already online or in the planning stages, are being propelled by a fundamental shift in the rules of social interaction.
What Bebo, Friendster, MySpace, Piczo and the Facebook avant garde have already discovered is that social networks can put network building on steroids, giving you a Barry Bonds-like edge in a world of wimpy non-social netters. And if the Internet can be blamed, in some respects, for driving many a consumer into an asocial cocooning corner, it’s quite evident that social networking is the anti-dote to uncivilization, to paraphrase that Club Med’s famous tagline.
It’s this fundamental shift that makes social networking so incredibly exciting. It’s also what is fueling an onslaught of new social nets, aimed at every conceivable niche. Already, Johnson & Johnson has forked over more than $10 million for social network Maya’s Mom. And VantagePoint Venture Partners announced that I had led a round in social network Multiply, aimed at boomers.
We think this only the beginning. What will make this trend explode is the discovery of marketers that of social engagement marketing, the inevitable outflow of the social engagement media world will fundamentally help rewrite the rules of social engagement.
It’s that kind shift in consumer values that will help vault this trend into the global limelight. If Lee’s forecast is any indication, social networking could one day make Google’s IPO look like a day at the beach. Such a feat can only be possible if Facebook succeeds in changing some fundamental social interaction values.
And there’s plenty of evidence that such a change is already underway. About 260,000 daily users send a virtual toast via the “Booze Mail” application What might want one to send others a drink they can’t consume. Well, it may find its roots in a college-driven prank, but like the old saying goes, “it’s the thought that counts.”
Facebook already offers more than 4,000 applications, since announcing its program May 25. “Booze Mail” lets you send friends a drink. Apps like this, and others like SuperPoke! and FunWall, point to a revolution in social engagement.
There’s no question that our social dialog is undergoing a sea change shift, as the foregoing suggests. We can’t wait to see how the world will evolve around this new social interaction. Social engagement media have arrived and things will never be the same.
Add comment September 13th, 2007