David Armano (of the incredible “Logic + Emotion” blog) offered up this Twitter entry on Labor Day:
“just uploaded a pic of my newly created tree stump on FB. I didn’t want to do it, but the storm got the best of it…”
“are you using the new Stumpy! Application for Facebook? Or will I be able to view it on DebrisMaster..?“
Sadly, Facebook has become its own parody.
The Defining Question
Welcome to the billion dollar question, and it’s the Social Media version of the Chicken and the Egg:
“Does the Application host the Network? Or does the Network host the Application?”
Let me explain, using Facebook as an example. Facebook doesn’t build “community,” it reconnects existing relationships. You can’t “join” the Upton High class of 1989, any more than you can dress up in a Yankee uniform and expect to split time with A-Rod. The advantage is you can quickly hit critical mass and draw the flock to membership. Conversely, the flock can fly the moment another shiny object flashes into view.
I’m not yet impressed by the growth in Facebook membership, because we’re about to lose the shine on the toy. 
All the new apps and the openness has been fun, but when it comes right down to it your Profile page is a virtual bonsai tree. It’s cute, it’s cool, and it squeezes a lot into a little space – but it takes forever to keep pruning, it’s expensive (on your time), and it is guaranteed to die when you stop feeding it. And that’s exactly what is happening. I quit feeding my page a while back. I’m tired of turning down invites to applications, and I don’t want to take sides in Zombies vs. Vampires. If I’m going to participate in multi-level marketing, I want actual financial compensation and not just a badge for my website.
At one point, I had a Wall, an Advanced Wall, and a Mega Wall – all so various friends of mine could write me virtual graffiti. All I needed was a fourth wall to keep all the invite crap at bay.
Facelift? or About Face?
A year from now, will these same people be playing with Facebook? Or will they abandon the platform with the same gusto that they now shed applications? Can a platform like Facebook with so many disposable elements avoid becoming disposable by association? In five years, what will differentiate it from Classmates.com?
I’ve been a part of a number of online communities. The successful ones are those that add value to the conversation and to the relationships, by virtue of allowing members a chance to do something different. The successful ones evolve and take on a character and syntax of their own. In that regard, they are a microcosm of successful businesses in a service economy. Don’t just sell me a product. Sell me a lifestyle. Sell me membership in an exclusive club. Let me be your customer evangelist.
Facebook’s challenge is in staying relevant to its core. I don’t buy the argument that today’s Sophomores will bail because their parents now have profiles and FB has lost its cool. Rather, all the extraneous “stuff” required to make it the Internet Swiss Army Knife also makes it exceedingly distracting. Kids used to spend an hour or so on Facebook connecting with classmates, sometimes for reasons associated with learning. Now they can spend that amount of time just keeping up with messages they could have gotten sooner elsewhere, turning down applications, or playing Tower Defense.
Trivial Pursuits
Facebook is currently a Network of people supporting a closed platform with an API that is way too open. Build a better ‘Facebook’ with a higher ratio of signal-to-noise, and the world will beat a path to your portal. Otherwise, this could happen to you:
(actual screen capture from Ike’s Facebook page)
Seriously.
Somewhere, in the middle of C.a. Marks‘ installation of “Free Gifts” and Allan Jenkins‘ acquisition of the Interactive Friends Graph, Lee Hopkins found the time to get married. Good on ya, mate! (Come to think of it, “getting married” is at the intersection of interacting with friends and free gifts…)
This post makes a very good point. That a community member must read other community members updates, including their use of applications that may have no value to the original member.
Social media forms work best when content is created that is interesting to said members. When it is uninteresting, sooner or later it fails. In the end Facebook will need to filter out some of this, or we will become blind to it. In either case we become blind to these applications.
This means the application creators will find themselves with a deaf ear from their targeted community. In turn, that means failure for businesses that can’t create a super valuable app. that just compels the daylights out of people. Facebook is not the easy answer for companies looking to engage in social media.
I must agree that the continuous updating on what widgets people have installed is one of Facebook’s least endearing traits.
I like FB a lot, however, as most of the invitations I get (online seminars led by friends, new groups of common interest) are of interest. Of course, I have taken care to keep my “friends list” pretty compact — I’ve met most in person or, if only online, I feel “close” enough to them to reasonably believe we would be friends if we met in person (like you, Ike). I routinely turn down requests from people I barely know, but who happen to have me in their addy book.
In doing so, I find FB to be more valuable than Twitter/Jaiku (where even my friends write trivial BS) and LinkedIn (where no one ever says anything). For now, FB is providing valuable content, if not conversation.
Unfortunately, it’s leading me to read blogs less, and post on DRC less. The latter may be welcomed by many; but the first is not good for my keeping up with what’s important to me.