The TrueTalk Blog

Facebook: Unprecedented Social Phenomenon?

There are now over 300 million people using Facebook. Roughly half of them log in to the service on any given day. About 70,000,000 of those users—call it 25%—live in the US. Anywhere from 700,000 to 1,000,000 new users arrive each day, and that growth rate is itself accelerating.

This chart shows us that Google and Yahoo were ahead of Facebook in unique visitors in August.

But neither Google nor Yahoo have anything like Facebook's sticky engagement. In fact, according to Facebook's own numbers, users spend six billion person-minutes per day there. That means each Facebook account is using the service for an average of 20 minutes per day; Nielsen says it's almost six hours per month. Forget the decimal level accuracy for a minute: Mashable calls Facebook "the Internet's ultimate time-waster."

Has anything like this ever happened before?

I don't think so. It looks to me like we are witnessing, participating in, bootstrapping, the biggest social phenomenon in our species's history. 

Why?

I asked that question on Twitter yesterday and received a couple of answers. One fellow said Facebook is a trend and that large adoption of trends are not terribly unusual. Another said that each new user agrees to join Facebook because of the other 299,999,999 who are already there.

I think the latter gets close to helping us understand what we're seeing.

We know that we are inherently social creatures. It is very difficult to force us to stay away from like-minded fellows, or, for that matter, non-like-minded.

We congregate.

When I was a youngster growing up in New York City, we prided ourselves on being the biggest city in the world ("there are eight million stories in the Naked City...this has been one of them.") But today, there are 38 cities with populations greater than 8,000,000. Metro New York is #6 with almost 22 million, Tokyo #1 at 34.

We flock to one another in real life and now, increasingly, online.

And, probably for the same reasons.

More people means more action.

Defined any way you wish, being in the presence of more people like (and unlike) ourselves is exciting. Socially. Culturally. Economically.

Everywhere on Earth we see this trend towards urbanization. Soon, many people will spend their whole lives in cities, never leaving. And soon, many people will spend their whole online lives on Facebook.

How many do today? How many of its 300 million members never consider doing anything else but checking in on Facebook?

For those people Facebook is the Internet. 

We often speak of Internet sites as transitory. First there was CompuServe and AOL, then Friendster, then MySpace, then Facebook. And we think this means something—some upstart in a garage somewhere—will come and dislodge Facebook as the premiere place/time destination. 

I'm not so sure.

Some social phenomena—like the development of agriculture and the attendant shift away from hunter-gatherer culture—are uniquely transformational.

I'm wondering if Facebook just might not be one of them.

Technological Eras

In his new book, The Nature of Technology, Brian Arthur says the following:

 An era does not just create technology. Technology creates the era.

 How can we describe the era being created by our current technologies?

 How about calling it something like "the era of meta-communication?" That is, not only does the current technological Zeitgeist center around enabling richer and more rapid communication methods, it also provides more and more powerful platforms and tools for aggregating, analyzing and annotating that communication in order to discover its deep patterns. As Arthur might put it, we may be seeing the emergence of a new communication domain, one that defines the style of our time.

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Brands: Embrace Idiosyncratic Supporters

Everything's pretty corporate at the new Yankee Stadium. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But, when I was at a game last week, thanks to the generous hospitality of my friend Dean Landsman, I saw something that did my heart good: Freddy. Freddy is an odd sort. He dresses in Yankee pinstripes and a hat and has attended most home games since 1988. Freddy also makes a sign, a quotation under his nom de game, "Freddy-Sez," that he wears to each game. Oh, and did I mention that he carries a saucepan that he continually beats with a wooden spoon throughout the game?

Yeah. Freddy's an original. Ah, and given that today's Friday, let's take a look at a Featured Foto of Freddy. 

Now, rumor had it that sometimes Freddy had tickets to the games he attended and sometimes he didn't. Seems he has friends at the gates.

But, earlier this season I'd read that the guys who man the new Yankee Stadium turnstiles had been instructed not to let Freddy into the games for free any longer. 

Hey, building this ballpark cost the Yanks a lot of money, ya' know?

Imagine what the reaction was. No Freddy? "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" was that about??

But, in this case, wiser heads prevailed. This was all a "miscommunication" a team spokesman said; Freddy's always welcome.

Now, what if this was your brand? What if you were trying to create a high-class atmosphere with luxury customers and big pricetags? Would you find a way to accommodate an oddball like Freddy? Do your customers have to meet your standards to qualify as diehard brand supporters?

Or, are you smart enough to appreciate the importance of idiosyncratic people who just love what you do and willing to encourage that support by putting your money where your mouth is? Or is that, putting your money where your heart is?

That's the question. 

PS - Freddy's also a Fordham Rams fan. I've seen him at their basketball games, rooting against my Dayton Flyers and bangin' that damned saucepan like there's no tomorrow. But I'm not going to hold that against him. How 'bout one more World Series for Freddy, guys.

Never Forget

This Friday's Featured Foto is commemorative of that awful day, eight years ago, when our country was changed forever. I was over the Atlantic at the time on a corporate jet, heading for Paris (re-routed to Amsterdam by corporate security) and not able to return to the US until the 15th. When I did return, New York's outpouring of grief was enormous. This is a glimpse of Union Square Park a day or so later. How can we overcome the madness that leads us to slaughter one another in these ways? 

Please take a moment to remember those who lost their lives and their loved ones on this horrible anniversary.

To Succeed: Stand Out/Fit In

It may be a paradox but being successful today means both standing out as special and fitting in as a team player. Here are a few ideas about how to do both. Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

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This Time I Think I've Got It!

OK, no more double posts via Posterous! I'm certain of it (I hope!).

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Getting Feeds Right

The proliferation of feed tools leads to confusion (at least for me!) and double blog posting on Facebook and Twitter. Let's see if I can get this right via Posterous. Thanks for your patience.

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Waiting For A Genius

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Stuck Without A 9

My Mac Book Pro's 9 key has been balky so I'm at the Stamford Apple Store trying to get it unstuck! Fun!!

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Testing Posterous Photos

Just learning difference between using iPhone camera app and PicPosterous.

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