Facebook - Ten Reasons for Success in Social Networking

There is much speculation about facebook being another platform where people come for a year or so and then lose interest and move onto another network. Facebook appears to actually be making decisions which many of the other social networks have not done or done well.

1. Making hard decisions to change and evolve - If you were sitting around as a young 20 something executive, it would have been very easy to stay with a great demographic of users -- college age ivy league students and their friends. That social network alone would be valuable to advertisers and sponsors. It easily is a valuation of a million dollars. Not bad for a startup for a college student (Marc Zuckerberg). However, he and his team saw the potential beyond this and opened up the platform to all including their "parents" generation and others outside the "ivy league" social strata.

2. Attracting the Creative Class - Facebook is attracting the creative class of people. These are actual authors, musicians, filmmakers, tv producers and executives from major media companies. Facebook has now crossed over in an area where MySpace has been the leader for a while. Their is fast becoming a more mature audience on facebook which allows for artists which did not appeal to the MySpace crowd to find an audience. I personally am working with a record company, whose groups such as The Supremes and The Spinners. Facebook is allowing them to reach a new audience. There are also executives from MTV, HBO, E! Entertainment, Dreamworks on here. Filmmaker Michael Moore is also a facebook member and is able to promote his appearances on shows like Larry King and Oprah to his "friends".

3. Opening Communications - Facebook has allowed for members to connect in multiple ways. They have their own e-mail, poke, posting and discussion boards. The mini-feed itself allows your friends and associates to see what you are doing without having to spam them with an enewsletter or e-mail update. Outside vendors are encouraged to develop their epplications on the new Facebook development platform. Jaxtr which allows members to call each other for free worldwide from a normal phone has an application called MyPhone and according to their founder just grew by 1 million users last month with a good percent coming from the facebook community. Other companies are now coming in to allow for video.

4. Leveraging digital media platforms - facebook again has allowed itself to be open to bring in content from other sites. facebook easily could have kept itself closed to video content which would be loaded directly into its platform which in a sense may have put it in competition with YouTube. Instead it allowed YouTube content to be easily posted by users so it can be seen by their friends. StumbleUpon.com which allows users to give a thumb's up to websites they like has an application which allows your friends to see your favorite video's and regular postings. Again a powerful combo saving facebook users from having to double post.

5. Attracting a diverse demographic - facebook again seems to know that an older demographic has money and that the business community has bring in serious cash potential. They seem to be making moves to encourage the business community to network on here.

6. Political discourse - Facebook has allowed and encouraged political discussion within its platform Again, this seems like a natural area, but again the executives could have restricted these voices. For the 2008 Presidential election cycle in the US, facebook will be a major asset used by campaigns, politicians and individual voters. There is also a viral ability to share news or even break news faster than blogs did in the 2004 election cycle. There are both positive and negative portrayals of politicians. Facebook has allowed for this "free speech"

7. Games and Fun - facebook has attracted a "fun" culture and in the business world you might say "work hard/play hard". For those on facebook, an individual can do anything from send a drink, hug, throw a sheep, or have a food fight. They can be a werewolf, vampire or zombie and create their own army. Members can also play games such as poker or scrabble with each other.

8. Affinity Groups - facebook allows users to set up any type of group they want and encourages them to invite or promote those groups. Again, this is something other sites like LinkedIn discouraged or controlled. Through these groups I have able to find like minded individuals for sports interests, politics, business, culture and causes. In my own case, I have found a way to set up groups to offer "classes" for facebook from Facebook 101 - The Basics to Facebook 301 - Advanced. There are also specialized groups on Facebook and Politics, Facebook and Politics, and Facebook and Movies, TV, and Music

9. Third party application development - Facebook has encouraged third party applications and has even set up a $10 million fund to allow for the development of these applications without taking an equity stake in those companies. Again, this shows that they are willing to allow others to be creative without imposing their will or vision. From these developments we may see hundreds of new applications created. Of these, I would expect at least a dozen to be "must have" type applications.

10.Commerce - facebook is allowing applications to be installed to raise money for causes to booking travel. Again, facebook is not taking any percent of these revenues at this point, but obviously has potential to "toll booth" down the road. Facebook also has not created the environment of pop-ups, large banner ads and other traditional online ways to monetize. Instead they have come up with their own idea of a "poster". This to some extent reminds me of the old town square where people would "post". The potential for monetization in multiple ways is there, leading the this multi-billon dollar valuation.

I am sure there are more than ten ways, however these are important trends. The management of facebook needs to be commended for the way they have kept their platform open and encouraged partnerships from smaller companies and individuals with passion.

If you have other ideas on what facebook is doing right, please comment below. If there are things you wish facebook could do better, let's hear them as well.