Social Media
Facebook – The Challenge & The Opportunity
What I find the most interesting, exciting (and scary) thing about Facebook is the way young people make use of it.
Obviously they login as a way of keeping in the loop with their friends but increasingly it’s their PRIMARY online messaging method too.
Just think about that for a moment……
Not only are they using Facebook instead of instant chat services (like MSN) but now they’re also using it to REPLACE email too.
And if you’re a direct response marketer who DEPENDS on email to get your message across then this should be both a scary and a challenging thought.
Facebook and Google have been locked in a battle for dominance of the Web. The evidence suggests that Facebook are winning. Recent reports confirm that people are spending more time using Facebook than Google. Additionally, a report in the widely respected technology blog Techcrunch revealed on September 1,2010 that many Google employees are leaving the company and some have gone to Facebook. Some of the most prominent employees to have left the company include Omar Hamoui, the founder of AdMob; Lars Rasmussen, who along with three others developed Google map and wave left to team up with Facebook in November 2010.
Facebook use is also expanding amongst older web users. Facebook has expanded to such an extent that, if Facebook was a country, it would now be the third largest country in the world!
Therefore, for anybody who’s serious about internet marketing, to ignore Facebook will be at their peril. Not only are they squandering a very powerful tool for projecting themselves online, they will also be left far behind by those who successfully embrace Facebook.
