Member-to-Member

I Facebooked Myself

I did it. I set up a Facebook profile for myself.

What possessed me to do this? I was reading Charlene Li's Groundswell Blog about Facebook's potential valuation at $6-10 Billion (up from $1 B last year). This seemed kind of mindboggling to me - as was the calculation that this valuation meant that (at 42 million registered users/members) each Facebook member is worth as much as $138-142 in ad revenue.

This says a lot about the potential for social media sites & applications to keep the advertising model strong as these sites prove themselves both stickier (people staying on the sites longer) and more targeted (able to deliver more individually appropriate ads to viewers who have logged in). Online advertising revenue continues to show healthy growth although the rapid changes in users' behaviors as these new Web 2.0 technologies come online are keeping the ad companies on their toes.

My Facebook experience also demonstrated the power of these social technologies to both engage people with technology and to connect with offline friends through online channels. I initially signed up just to check it out, but w/in a few minutes, I had invited several friends - professional and personal - and they had accepted and - darn it if I wasn't facebooking! I started playing with the applications and found one for promoting causes which I thought was nice. And then I added a few more.

So what's my takeaway from my little Facebook experience?

Signs of Life: Web 2.0 Investment is Up & Diversified

Dow Jones has reported that "Web 2.0" investments have doubled in the first half of 2007 over the same period in 2006. Interesting to note is that this increase has been fueled by greater global investment and though U.S. investment has been flat, it has been more regionally diverse... i.e., Bay Area investment has decreased as the first wave of risk-taker VCs step back to watch where their initial investments go.

I thought it was really interesting that in the U.S., many of the new companies receiving capital are in the "Enterprise 2.0" space - concentrating on B2B and organizational collaboration technologies while international investors continue to look at consumer applications.

So what? Greater diversity among investors and investees is certainly a good sign that the sector's growth will be sustained. The increased focus on the business and productivity applications for these technologies is also a good sign since the business models in these sectors are typically more stable. What this means to membership organizations is that we should begin to see less technology risk from vendors and more focus on meeting the business needs of serious social networking customers.

Will this risk-reduction happen overnight? Of course not. But when you're planning your technology strategy 3-5 years out,  knowing that investors are starting to look at making sure you have solid and successful vendor options in the Web 2.0 space is a good thing!

Basic Social Media Etiquette

View all Member-to-Member.com posts on Social Media Etiquette.

Whether it's you, your executives or your members that need help moving into this brave new world of social media, everyone needs to learn the basics. Remember when email came out and people lost their jobs for flaming their boss and hitting the "reply all" button? Today, everyone knows the Don't Email When Angry and the Don't Write It If You Can't Defend It On National News rules of professional emailing (well, almost everyone).

What are the equivalent rules in the land of social networking?

Let's Talk!

This market is moving so fast that no one could possibly have a corner on all the interesting information and insights. I want to make the Member-to-Member exploration of social media an interactive affair. I encourage trackbacks to my posts, and I will be happy to link to your site or post if you have something interesting I can note in my blog.

Please feel free to comment on any post or email me to engage in dialog, provide information or critique or suggest ways we can help each other expand our networks and engage more fully in the human community.