I did it. I set up a Facebook profile for myself.
What possessed me to do this? I was reading Charlene Li's Groundswell Blog about Facebook's potential valuation at $6-10 Billion (up from $1 B last year). This seemed kind of mindboggling to me - as was the calculation that this valuation meant that (at 42 million registered users/members) each Facebook member is worth as much as $138-142 in ad revenue.
This says a lot about the potential for social media sites & applications to keep the advertising model strong as these sites prove themselves both stickier (people staying on the sites longer) and more targeted (able to deliver more individually appropriate ads to viewers who have logged in). Online advertising revenue continues to show healthy growth although the rapid changes in users' behaviors as these new Web 2.0 technologies come online are keeping the ad companies on their toes.
My Facebook experience also demonstrated the power of these social technologies to both engage people with technology and to connect with offline friends through online channels. I initially signed up just to check it out, but w/in a few minutes, I had invited several friends - professional and personal - and they had accepted and - darn it if I wasn't facebooking! I started playing with the applications and found one for promoting causes which I thought was nice. And then I added a few more.
So what's my takeaway from my little Facebook experience?
Well, first and foremost, I am now a member of a new community - a subset of my own circle of friends - and like most good community sites, I can see things about them, who their friends are, causes they support etc. And if I'd just met someone at a conference or meeting that I wanted to stay in touch with, I might be considering whether they were more appropriate for my Linked In network or my Facebook network - or both.
But Facebook and Linked In are both big generic sites. I looked up my Alma Mater (UCLA) and found 48,266 members on Facebook (which is frankly a small number for that place). I don't plan to go combing through that list any time soon! But still, I ended up hanging around because I found three friends right away and connected with them. How much more viral would it be if we were all in the same profession? Been to the same conference?
I must say that although I was a bit skeptical at first, I liked it as a place to blend personal and professional information about myself and to bring together friends from both sides of my life in a way I think might be fun. We'll see. Come play with me and we'll find out together.
Wanna friend me on Facebook? Go ahead, just let me know you 'met' me here at Member-to-Member.
UPDATE (Oct 4): After a week on Facebook, I have 23 friends and have started an Alum group for a company (now defunct) that we used to work for. At least 15 of these friends are people I'd lost contact with and I now know what they're up to and have a simple way to stay in touch with them. I'm having fun.
