Facebook Community Hits 250 Million

That's right - 250 million. That's according to company founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's blog post. That's up 100 million from January. Funny the snowball effect of it all. Just recently, a German friend of many years past befriended me on facebook. Obviously its starting to cut across the Atlantic.

I think a big part of the success of applications like Facebook is its exploitation of social networking to peer pressure everyone in net-sight to get online and start making facebook friends, else one may find themselves left out of the loop. Plus the ability to stay simultaneously updated (some might say inundated) by news, photos, updates, links, videos, preferences, and random thoughts is undeniable and interesting (usually...).

Anyway, here's what Zuckenberg had to say about the success of it all:

From the beginning, Facebook hasn’t been about building a website. Facebook is about all of the people using it and all of the things that are important to you. The 250 million of you on Facebook today are what gives Facebook life and makes the site meaningful to everyone using it, so we thank you.

Each person who joins makes Facebook better by adding a presence to the site that friends and family can connect with and feel closer to. For us, growing to 250 million users isn’t just an impressive number; it is a mark of how many personal connections all of you have made, and how far we at Facebook have to go to extend the power of connection to the billions of people around the world.

Talk about a thriving and vibrant community. Give it another few years and it's population may well overtake the American population.

Online Communities - Managing your Personal Brand

Do you twit-blog the interscape? Do you or your organization distribute information through the comprehensive and amazing medium of an "online blog website"? Do you have an account on the new social networking tool Bookface? Perhaps you employ these mediums as a means of connecting with friends, or maybe you're a "pyjama job hunter" (someone who looks for work by emailing job applications through monster.ca rather than physically connecting with people), or maybe you've got a blog and/or an ex-boyfriend you follow and/or stalk through Twitter.

Whatever the case. However you do it. The vast majority of people today have some kind of online presence.

Here are some amazing findings relating to our online community's behaviour:

Twitter is arguably the hottest thing in new media. Usage is up 752% since December 2008. Last month, about 7.7 million people used the professional social networking site LinkedIn (being mindful of these tough economic times, if you haven't already, get on there and get connected). If Facebook was a country, it would be the eighth largest in the world. Speaking of Facebook, did you know that 20% of Facebook users do not use any privacy settings? And of the users who do use some or all of their privacy setting, last year nearly one-quarter of them still shared their telephone numbers. Nearly 50% of users concerned with divulging their political views still posted them. And nearly 20% of Facebook users employing their "top" privacy setting.

So, would you like a job one day? Or maybe you fancy yourself as the next Gregor, Gordo, Merkel, or Obama. Maybe your family's opinion of you is the most important thing in the world. Get this. About 25% of graduates from 50 countries say there is something about them online that they do not want their parents or employer to see. And, last year in North America, 83% of employers searched online to learn more about applicants. Of job-applicants who were dismissed in 2008, 43% were turned away because of what recruiters found online.

So that's the game. But how should we play in it?

For students and young people:

- According to the Vancouver Sun's Mitch Joel, "the amazing thing about developing your personal brand in a world of online social networks and blogging is that you can home in and really focus on meeting and connecting with those that have shared values."
- You can be social and professional, people. Trust me, employers, recruiters and friends alike want to make sure you separate work and pleasure. Man, no one wants to check out a Facebook profile that looks like a resume. It's just not fun. Now, you should still strive to build an amazing social and personal brand by using Facebook. Check this out: http://mashable.com/2009/04/02/facebook-personal-brand/.
- I have a lot of students who are smarter than me. One of them sent me this link to Guy Kawasaki's blog, which outlines 11 key ways to use LinkedIn to connect with professionals in your field. In these tough economic times, take full advantage of this advice!
- Long story short. Having fun is important. Being social is important. Being classy is important, too. Maybe leave the funnel out of the picture next time, dude.

For teachers and counsellors and parents:

- Teach and encourage your students/kids about the concept of Link Love. Get them to collaborate in a positive way and to connect their online communities. The more things written about people and groups, the more "searchable" they become. And when the "link love" is positive, once a group or individual is found, say, by Google, their online brand will be well-received by its audience.
- One of the reasons Generation Y is incredibly useless when it comes to comprehending the implications of putting career and socially damaging photos and information online is because they have not been taught proper online community etiquette from their parents and role models. I mean, Shaquille O'Neal is a Twitter MVP, but that doesn't mean he should replace you/us, parents and teachers. We need to get involved, too.
- First step, get your kids/students to explain to you how an online community works!

For employers and recruiters:

- Is Facebook reflective of a new way of doing business? Find another tool that can put a grassroots movement or a cool new product past the tipping point on a global scale in a more collaborative way in a shorter amount of time. There probably isn't one.
- With our global networks expanding at lightspeed, this figure has never seemed so real. Organizations must be sure to utilize internal and external social networks to attract, engage and retain top talent. Spreading your company's brand through the word of mouth of an elaborate global network, after all, is pretty powerful stuff.
- Recent findings show that a cross-section of industry experts believe that the majority of employers suggest several HR professionals see the world of work transitioning from a "machine" to a "community" and from a hierarchical system of management to one that is more reflective of a social network. If the medium is the message, what do employers today need to know about Facebook and Web 2.0? Probably lots.

The Globe and Mail recently profiled the, um, online profiles of Gordon Campbell and Carole James. Like much else in British Columbia's election, neither candidate showcases the stuff of inspiration. When managing one's online presence, it's of course important to be sincere, authentic and to have integrity (in the article, the closest Ms. James or Mr. Campbell got to being authentic was when Mr. Campbell chose a quote from the author of Faust, Wolfgang von Goethe, perhaps all too reflective of devilish deals politicians and their ilk have forever made). With so much noisy information clogging the series of pipes and tubes that make up the internet, those of us twitblogging are way through it must also strive to be unique, interesting and entertaining in addition to being sincere. Whether you're a student, educator, employer, or politician, think about how you`ll be adding value to the experience of those connecting to your online community.

We here are The Gumboot add value by talking about pirates, communal nudity and cutting edge architecture way before fringe media groups like the CBC or up-and-coming politicians like this guy Stephen Harper do. Some people talk about what's already cool. We make it cool.

And that's how you manage an online presence. It's a beautiful thing!

- JCH

Perils of Online Community

Online communities are lauded these days. Applications like facebook, twitter, myspace and friendster are seen as the new way to create and maintain one's personal social community. With these new tools people can expand their community to hundreds of friends, sharing information like never before. Can't be anything but good, say our online gurus.

Maybe online communities aren't so perfect after all. As our Web 2.0 communities grow and the amount of time we spend online grows with them, many people are spending less time with their close friends and family. Instead of going to a park with your close ones, doing dinner with your family, or strengthening friendships via common interest and common activities, the new online community leads us to spend endless hours viewing flickr photos, writing facebook wall posts, and yes, writing and commenting on blog articles. At first it is no big deal. But slowly, one starts to notice sometimes we're spending more time with our friends online than offline.

And instead of focusing our quality time with a small handful of close friends, we spread our net wide, communicating with hundreds of "friends", many of whom we've never even met. In effect, we're watering down our social community, trading personal flesh on flesh relationships in exchange for hundreds of pixel images, superfluous comments/posts, and short bios of people we once knew a long time in a galaxy far far away.

Is this the future of our communities?