Facebook is nothing short of a phenomenon. With major media conglomerates sniffing around making multi-million dollar bids, it's hot stuff. Articles are being written in national broadsheets debating whether Stephen Fry's Facebook entry is real or fake. The fact that the famous are posting their faces online and abandoning their highly prized privacy says a lot about its power. If you've been holidaying on Planet Zog, Facebook is the latest social networking site. Members post a photo, email address and profile and invite all their friends. They get to see their friends' friends and track down everyone they've ever sneezed on who has a broadband connection. Facebook combines the allure of FriendsReunited with Hotmail and MySpace to create the ultimate social media network.
Social Media Networks Expand
The expansion of social websites such as MySpace and Facebook seem unstoppable. Facebook traffic is growing at 30 percent each month and boasted 4.8 million UK visitors in May after an incredible boom in popularity.
Social networks tap into some fundamental emotions – vanity, curiosity, ego and insecurity. The notion that people voluntarily list their friends, their favourite books and broadcast their ‘status' at any given point is remarkably candid. The fact that this information can be read by employers, parents, governments and predatory businesses doesn't seem to faze us. Everybody becomes the authors of their own image, projecting themselves to the world dubbed by The Guardian as, "the striptease of the vanities." Who needs surveillance or underhand technology to illicit personal details and extract contact info when it's all voluntarily handed out on a plate?
Online Social Networks – Can they make money?
Online social networks present big possibilities for the business world. As well as reaching a massive online audience through straightforward, transparent advertising, it's possible to use social media networks to build traffic, increase brand awareness and generate links. With Facebook you have immediate access to your friends' friends, their lifestyle, jobs, photographs and favourite movies. You can search out lost flames and old enemies and keep your foes as close as your friends. You can tell the world you are about to do the ironing or watch a re-run of House or that you're staring aimlessly into space. But it seems Facebook is like one big school party where the kids have forgotten the teachers can see everything. Stories have already been reported of potential employees being turned down for jobs after being checked out on Facebook. Telling the world you were fired for calling your boss a bully may make you look principled to your mates, but a new employer will think twice about your manageability.
Networking online – the Phenomenon
Already sociologists and commentators are coming up with theories as to why social networking and social media is the huge phenomenon it is. Some say it's a response to the increasing isolation of modern life, where sitting on your own in front of a computer screen connected to your own tribe is the closest we can get to the sense of family and community human beings crave. Social networks online make us all ‘global villagers'. They are revolutionizing how we communicate, who we keep in touch with and impacting on traditional media.
Newsnight tap into new audience
A recent story on the trade website, Journalism.co.uk reported how Newsnight is tapping into Facebook to build closer relations with viewers. It's the ultimate exercise in brand building. One of the programme's correspondents Paul Mason created two social network groups on Facebook that have attracted over a thousand members so far – Get Yourself on Newsnight and Feral Beasts of the Media. "The editor said to me 'I am keen to get our correspondents' Facebook profiles linked to the Newsnight web page'. I said something to the effect of 'Duh! It's the other way round," Mason told Journalism.co.uk.
Attractive Audience
As more and more people get clued up to the Facebook phenomenon, the more valuable its appeal will become. And the big pull for businesses is the fact professionals from all walks of life and of all ages use the online social network, making it perfect for rich pickings. Unlike MySpace that makes money from advertising, Facebook is open to people willing to use their ingenuity to perhaps eventually make money.
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