Facebook Opens Pandora’s Box

March 23, 2009 by Steve Schultz @GeniusbyOsmosis
Filed under: News, Social Media

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

Thus far the world of Facebook has been protected in a digital box but now, the box has been opened. Imagine this: 180 million individual accounts constantly updating their status, importing RSS feeds from blogs and news outlets, sharing photos/videos, interacting through applications, and providing other content through their notes and other apps. This is Facebook in a nut-shell and until now search engines have been unable to utilize this content. Let’s just say, like many social networks, not all 180 million actively participate in Facebook. While it probably does have higher participation rates than other sites like Twitter & MySpace, let’s randomly assume only 40% of the users actually provide consistent content. This will still have a huge impact.

Facebook really is becoming the all-in-one package and now that they’re open for everyone to view we will start to see some major things happen – integration, findability, & content.

Integration:

Previously we were stuck with very limited integration between Facebook and other social networks. They allowed you to create badges and use your URL to include on blogs and profile pages but nothing that would update outside of their world. I couldn’t embed my Facebook updates on my web page or blog. I couldn’t share content from my friends with those in the outside world (being everything outside of Facebook) without copying and pasting. Immediately the developers of TweetDeck, which is a client to track Twitter updates, have now added a Facebook update feature. I can now update my Facebook from my desktop and read what everyone else is saying too. without ever going to their website.

Findability:

How many of you have tried to track down an old friend on Facebook and when you searched their name, John Smith, there were a million results and most of them didn’t even have a picture. To make it even worse, 99.9% of them were not connected to one of your networks so you either had to invite everyone of them to be your friend or just give up. I imagine most of you gave up.

Well, the solution isn’t a complete fix but it’s a start. As individuals continue to make their information public you will see your internet findability factor substantially increase. Publicizing your information is bound to become a trend on Facebook. Especially as more and more businesses and organizations utilize it. As this occurs you will see an increase in the number of friends you have through Facebook searches. Even better, search engines can now index your profiles to make them findable. If I Google my name I’m on the second page. Is the link to my blog or website? NO. It’s going to go back and forth between my LinkedIn account and Brazen Careerist account. The searching power a network like Facebook can deliver has the potential to surpass any other in a flash.

Content:

Go to all your friends on Facebook and count how many times they’ve updated what they are doing or feeling. Count how many posts they’ve put in there notes. Count how many photos and videos they’ve uploaded. I would of stopped after just one of them. Facebook is easily the most content heavy network in the world. You can now bring your content to the faces of millions.

Most users on Facebook are likely to not understand the power of content, especially video content. Even the heavy users just picked up the addiction in college or high school and can’t quit. As more and more profiles go public you will understand why they say that in 2010 the amount of information in the world will double every 6 – 8 months. Why is it my LinkedIn & Brezen Careerist profiles were the best for me? First, both are incredibly content heavy websites. Second, of all the other Steve Schultzs out there I provide more content than they do which is why I’m on page 1 or page 2 of a Google search. If today, all other Steve Schultzs publicized their Facebook accounts, I’m positive my LinkedIn & other profiles would move past page 20. Why? That’s how much content is on Facebook. The others would accidentally knock me out of there with the exception of my Facebook profile.

Why does this matter to you?

As a politician or public figure your success is based on your findability. If you aren’t on TV, in the newspaper, or online people won’t know how to extend the conversation and easily share your message with others. Thanks to Facebook and their recent changes you can drive traffic to your blog/website through social media integration. You will bring relevant content in all forms to a larger audience. Your findability factor will move you from page 100 of the Google search to page 1. If utilizing Facebook as a political tool wasn’t already obvious to you before this change, it definitely should be now because they just let it all out of the box.