Before I begin, let me first apologize for the short-term hiatus I took from writing. I hopefully will be getting back to clogging up your Facebook news feed and Twitter streams on a regular basis over the next few weeks.
I also wanted to preface today’s piece on Facebook with the following disclaimer:
This particular Brand Awareness piece relates to one aspect of Facebook, and does not cover Facebook in its entirety. It is impossible for me to write about every aspect of Facebook’s brand. The only way to do so would be if I was locked in a room with a laptop that only allowed me to visit Mashable, Facebook, a document where I can type, a notepad, a pen, bread, peanut butter, jelly, a huge supply of iced coffee, and a full bathroom. Thus, this is just the first of many times Facebook will be featured on Brand Awareness.
Recently, Facebook, received some scrutiny (and in my opinion rightfully so) for their privacy policy (or lack there of). Facebook’s open policy was met with mass hysteria, everywhere from the smallest blog to Capitol Hill.
Some believed (myself included) that this might leave Facebook in a vulnerable position to competition. The way Facebook initially handled this criticism, by placing the blame on the consumer for not taking responsibility for their own privacy, only strengthened my opinion.
Over the past few weeks Facebook has shifted its stance on its privacy laws and shouldering more of the responsibility. They are even forcing applications to be more user-friendly when it comes to privacy.
It is safe to say that Facebook survived its first main stream scare. However, I believe that Pandora’s box is about to be opened.
Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg are synonymous with one another. Any bad press on Zuckerberg automatically impacts Facebook, and vice versa.
If the trailer of The Social Network is just a slight indication about what the movie is going to be about – a two-hour lambasting of Zuckerberg – Facebook must be prepared for the ultimate backlash.
When this movie is released it will be viewed and debated by billions around the globe as it will enter the home of all demographics, and not just a select amount that analyzed the privacy fiasco.
Lastly, if the rumors are true about Google Me (Googles’ Facebook Killer) and it happens to be released around the same time as this PR nightmare, Facebook’s growth may come to a screeching halt.
Watch the trailer, and let me know what you think.
Yawn. Facebook may not live forever, but it’s nowhere near losing it’s reign. People are addicted to Facebook, and it sucks hours and hours (sometimes per day) from people to blab away. But we do it, because our friends are connected. So what is stopping another service from becoming a serious threat? There are two main factors preventing this switch.
The first is that we’re just busy. We don’t have time to learn a new social network. A competitor to FB would likely want to add all types of cool features and improve upon the product. But that’s the problem… more changes means more (perceived) time required to learn the new system, and people won’t want to do it since it would mean taking that “social recess” time away from Facebook.
The other problem is users. In order for people to make the transition (including the reallocation of their social recess time), they would need to be sure that all of their friends were also making the switch at the same time, or else they would need to maintain two independent social networks. As we saw with the FB/Myspace war, that won’t happen. There is no reason to maintain two separate web presences as a private individual (Twitter doesn’t count in that), plus it would take up about twice as much time, and cause twice as much privacy-related stress.
So I’ll present two scenarios with potential for Facebook getting dethroned:
1. A stealth app designed to appear like a regular Facebook plug-in, or even a mainsteam gaming app like Mafia Wars, grows its users on Facebook, collects their information, and then offers them an easy way (a simple opt-in button) to replicate their FB info onto a different social media site. This would solve most of the problems I listed above, but probably would be defended against by FB.
2. A non-hostile approach where the social network is affiliate-based. The focus is not on one’s friends, but rather hobbies and interests. This would be a Facebook plug-in app as well, and focus on finding new friends as opposed to maintaining current ones. There are sites like this now, but no clearly-defined market leader. I don’t mean LinkedIn. I mean a concept that leverages Facebook to get its users, provides a new service that Facebook isn’t, and is poised to protect its brand (and user-base) should Facebook collapse.
I don’t know if #2 is very clear, but as always, I’ve already spent too much time commenting on your blog.
Thanks for posting valuable commentary on our industry, as always.
Adam