There seems to be a lot of media around why Facebook is so popular. After all, its entire design concept is similar (in some ways) to that of MySpace. I asked some co-workers why they enjoyed Facebook. If they where able to produce an answer at all it was along the lines of social networking or simply wasting time at work or home. However, that didn’t sit well with me. After all if we wanted to social network, we would add an online messaging system and talk to our friends that way. If we wanted to be distracted we would go onto more entertaining things like YouTube or the millions upon millions of entertainment geared sites on the web right now.
So it got me thinking, why do I like facebook? Then it hit me….
Facebook was a hub, a media hub for individuals. Not only did Facebook allow me to connect with current friends but it allowed me to expand my friends to older chums and newer friends. The uses for Facebook have actually become so utterly convenient I have begun to use facebook as a tool in my every day life. I can imagine your probably thinking I am crazy at this point, which is fine. Read on. With the addition of third party applications facebook has become what I will call a media hub. On my page, I can do a multitude of extremely convenient things. Firstly I can upload and share pictures of myself and others. I can “tag” other people so they can have copies of these pictures. Most users do not appreciate the use of this function.
Instead of having to print or develop the pictures and send them or scan them and email them to friend, users can now simply upload, tag and they are done. They now have an endless supply of pictures from multiple different individuals, with out any effort or coordination. Moving on, my Facebook page allows me to stream music from the cleverly designed LastFM service. This service records what music I listen to and compiles it into a database, which it then displays to me in the form of a profile page. It then recommends new music to me before it even begins to garner media attention. In a music driven society, this is an extremely valuable asset. With the function of groups on Facebook I can coordinate birthday parties for hundreds of people in under 5 minutes. The Facebook database allows users to record different responses to invitations. This not only reduces the environmental impact of paper flow and general resources it also reduces time investment significantly.
Groups can also be information sources for a variety of different events or concepts in general. Applications such as the iBook allows me to track books I have read and books I want to read, allowing a convenient and easily locatable list I can build with. I can also record where I want to go and where I have been around the world, coordinate trips with friends through groups and post those images on the site. Furthermore the email inbox makes it more convenient to email friends inside the same application window. You also have a variety of other customizable options, like the ability to participate in fantasy pools and rate movies.
Overall the facebook phenomenon has become the new media hub of the future. It is there that users interact with the greatest degree of media in multiple forms, and it is this media which will be the defining success of those who know how to utilize its power. Just ask Molson Canadian and Coors Light who have effectively utilized groups to promote events and ultimately their product. Other companies have used applications such as iBook to recommend places to purchase the book at the lowest price. Who need a search engine when I can customize a personal page with all the fixings. If I where a CEO looking for a marketing channel I would definitely harness the clean and powerful resources of Facebook. Now if you will excuse me I have some…er….things…..to do.
- Steve
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