Facebook: Fleeting Fancy Or Long Realtionship

An old colleague of mine who is a very prominent creative director posted his last Facebook message over the weekend.

It seems his acct was hacked and his "Friends" were all sent a spam message. I received it. Was a bit of gibberish and harmless But my friend, who is up on social networking and was a reasonably regular user of Facebook says he's out.

I often find people (and also clients who are figuring out what to do with Facebook) saying that now that they are users of the network they can't imagine being without it. My friend who dropped out obviously doesn't feel the same. People made the same type of pronouncements about MySpace. And Twitter is the new darling app. So is it the public that has the short attention span or he media?

MySpace still has more than 100 million users globally but you hardly hear a word about it. The answer, I think, is in between. Just as the TV networks (the Big Three originally) emerged, and then added Fox and all of the cable channels to the choices consumers have, and I think we'll see the same in the social network space. Therefore it's important to keep in mind that we are still in the infancy of these platforms.

MySpace is five years old. Facebook is three. Twitter two. It's important that agencies and their clients continually monitor these platforms. It's also just as important to do some testing. Put a toe into the water. Feel out what it's like to put your brand in the middle of these communities. These social platforms have become part of the cultural fabric and conversation. Are you or your clients a part of it?

Comments

[Matt Spangler]

I agree that these early moving giants can be compared to the main networks, with the future being a series of offshoots and competitors purchased and rolled up as the short attention span of the consumer continues to be stretched.

The amount of spam has risen exponentially in recent times on both Facebook and Twitter. Consistent users have all experienced it in the last month. Its the same trend we saw at the beginning of Myspace. Viruses and hacking are the slippery slope of success.

I think its a bit dramatic to "jump ship". Especially from a creative director in today's age, who should be considering the application of their ideas to the social network realm in some way at the minimum.

To me, it provides another barometer for their long term success. Can Facebook move quickly internally to tackle this issue and eliminate/reduce spam. Twitter is not better, so when the dust settles, spam control will certainly be a big factor for long term success of major social networks and a way to build consumer confidence and brand affinity.