Today there are plenty of important social networks in America, each filling an important niche. But Facebook doesn’t inhabit a niche. It towers over every other social network. It has over 500 million users … and a major motion picture!

Even considering this prominence, a couple of recent articles on Facebook by Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington on are nothing but eye-popping. In a Sept. 1^st article, Arrington writes that Facebook has unofficially claimed that revenues will exceed $2 billion in 2010. In another article, Arrington outlines how Facebook has been poaching talented employees from Google. He claims that Google employees are rejecting spectacularly huge counteroffers from Google to join Facebook, mostly because of the promise of stock options.

According to Arrington, Facebook has been quietly suggesting that the company’s stock will be valued at $100 billion in the next few years. The promise of making millions off of 1/10000s of the company’s value has been attracting top talent. This kind of valuation would put the company in the upper echelons of corporate America. Seems ambitious, and hitting that number may take more than a few years, but it looks far from unlikely. It’s been said that Google was the Microsoft of the ‘00s, and Facebook will be the Google of the ‘10s. Facebook’s value has just begun to grow. While Google will continue to grow if it makes the right moves and continues expands beyond its core business (search) in the right directions, the sky is the limit for Facebook.

Current search engines are fast maturing, and as search becomes increasingly social, Facebook is set up to reap the benefits. Facebook has barely scratched the surface of various businesses it could dominate. Email, ecommerce, entertainment, finance even!

How about watching TV from within Facebook, where the company would get a cut of the profits every time you click on a character’s shirt and buy it with your Facebook credit card? Or what if Facebook tracks all of your purchases online and offline. Using Facebook places, Facebook often knows where you are. They’d have unprecedented power to suggest purchases and coupons to you, getting a cut out of all kinds of purchases you make. I’m confident that Mark Zuckerberg and his top brass have fleshed out dozens of potential revenue streams beyond the Facebook ads that currently pepper the site.

I don’t know what they have in mind, but I’m confident that all of our lives are going to be getting a lot more social in the next few years, and Facebook will be finding $$ in unprecedented places.

Places is pretty spartan at the moment, but expect WAY more features coming within the year, from location based advertisements to coupons and suggestions of places to visit. It opens massive new arenas to Facebook that are already being explored by many locations based social networks. However, Foursquare, Loopt, Gowalla, etc. etc. suffered from a major stumbling block –it’s only fun if people you know use it. Luckily, every person you’ve ever met in your time on earth has a Facebook profile. As penetration of smart phones steadily increases here in the U.S., I expect places to be absolutely massive.

In typical Facebook fashion, all users have already been opted into places. Anytime I check myself into a place, I can also tag friends that are there as well. This information will appear on their profile. They can opt out of it in the infamously impenetrable privacy settings, but I’m going to guess that only a fraction of Facebook users realize this (I’ve already checked friends into nearby aquariums and juice bars unbeknownst to them, unfortunately there weren’t any gentleman’s clubs on the way to work). I expect there will be a privacy backlash as people begin to understand the privacy implications, but that it will eventually blow over as Farhad Manjoo of Slate argues it always does.

Brands’ role in places will need to expand as the service is further embraced, and the possibilities are expanded. They’ll need to keep an eye on reviews and tips that people leave at their businesses, take advantage of promotions and of course reward customers who check-in frequently as savvy businesses like Starbucks has already begun to do with Foursquare. This is a very exciting opportunity for us as marketers, as places opens the door for so many cool marketing initiatives. Interactive online scavenger hunts, social applications that tailor your use of products to your location, contests that involve location components … so much room for creativity.

In any case, I predict 2011 will be the year location finally goes mainstream, and it’ll be a fun ride.

Effective Monday August, 23rd Facebook is changing the maximum width of all custom pages from 755 to 520 pixels. Additionally, the site is removing the “Boxes” tab, which has been an important feature for developers of 3rd party applications. This means major changes are in store for the look and layout of fan pages.

Having designed many fan pages for our clients we feel a responsibility to notify everyone in time of the change. If you don’t make the change by August 23rd your page will look something like this:

(notice the cut off images in the 3rd column)

So the Smarter team has decided to offer all clients currently on retainer a free redesign of their Facebook pages. For clients not currently on retainer we will be offering to redesign your Facebook page for $500 per tab. This offer is open to the public. Any brand or business that needs to resize their Facebook page in advance of the August 23rd deadline can contact me directly (drew@smartersm.com).

In the past, Facebook has stirred up controversy by hastily implementing its new features without fully bracing for resistance from its users—such was the case when the “newsfeed” was first introduced in 2006. This time around, Facebook is doing everything in their power to make sure this change does not bring the activities of individuals and businesses to a screeching halt. That being said, these pages do need to be reformatted to fit the new 520 pixel layout.

As usual you can be certain that we will take the same care and precise expertise in getting all pages updated as we do for all the services we offer.

New York Times technology scribe Nicholas Carr’s recent book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains has stoked the fires of this debate. I haven’t read the book, but evidently there is some strong scientific evidence that using the Internet is having significant effects on the way our brains work, some of it very negative.

The Internet is a venue that allows all kinds of crazy content to flourish and thrive that never would in other mediums, and allows an incredible flow of ideas, but I think it’s true, much of this content lacks depth. I read many blogs per day, (I even write them!) and for better or worse, brevity is a part of the culture. There’s so much information out there, you can’t expect your readers to hunker down and wade through 2,000 words before you hit your main point. When writing for the Internet, it’s important to be quick and direct. It’s a platform where innovative, original thoughts can ricochet around incredibly quickly, but also a place where the details tend to get swept to the side.

While great writing for the Internet cuts to the chase, sometimes at the expense of details, I think the lack of focus people bring to any one blog post or website gives content creators a dangerous license to include fluff. People aren’t reading with much depth, so it’s possible and all too common for content on the Internet to skate by rehashing other people’s ideas or relying on generalizations, especially since there there’s virtually no cost to publishing.  I urge you to take a hard look at whatever you’re writing, be it a blog post, landing page of a website or email newsletter and ask yourself, is this sentence really necessary? Great writing in every medium should usually be concise, but it’s especially important in the vast expanse that is the Internet.

As for the effects that our world of bite-sized bits of information is having on us, I’m not sure what the solution is. However,  I suspect carving out an hour ever once in a while to turn off your smartphone, shut off the laptop and really dig into one subject for an extended period of time is a good plan.

As far as I could tell, Nutella has done absolutely nothing to promote their Facebook fan page. After a bit of Googling, I discovered that I’m not the only who’s noticed this oddity. It turns out that a fan started the page, and Ferrero, the company that owns the Nutella brand, has indeed done nothing to grow the Nutella Facebook page or guide it in anyway.

So why is this significant? There are thousands of brands on Facebook attempting a vast array of strategies to try to grow their social media presence online. Everything from advertisements to access to exclusive content and deals. And here’s Nutella, gaining one of the largest followings of any brand on Facebook without a bit of effort.

Their page is peppered with upbeat posts from users all over the world. Just in the last hour (as I write this, duh) there are posts in Italian, English, German, French, and Spanish all proclaiming their love of Nutella.

I think this underscores how difficult it is to create a community online. Marketers can guide a community along and use advertising to jumpstart it, but in the end, online communities are autonomous entities to some degree. This is of course a massive topic that deserves many more blog posts. It’s not so surprising that a community would organically form around Nutella. It’s a product that’s a) nostalgic for many people, b) fairly unique, c) very popular. Still it shows how hard some brands need to try to create a community, and how easy it is for other brands.

So does this mean social media marketers like myself should pack up our tweets and go home? If online communities come about organically, why bother hiring us? Well, first of all, most brands don’t have that nostalgic charm and need a guiding hand to help them grow. But here’s the important bit: Nutella’s massive fan base is worth very little if they don’t do anything with it! It’s great to have a place where fans can congregate and share their enthusiasm for a product, but there’s no engagement from the brand, no efforts to promote news … nothing. Even if you’re one of the lucky few that can build it, and watch them come, your fans are only as valuable as you make them.

The Facebook Empire has seen a growth unmatched by any other human interaction or company in all of history. Facebook announced that this week it expects to reach the 500 million user milestone. That is half a billion users in the companies short life span of six years.

The Washington Post reports that “the population inhabiting Facebook now equals that of the United States, Japan and Germany combined. Or, two Mexicos and a Brazil.”

So does this secure Facebook’s place in the future of the internet and social networking world. Most of us remember the tragic fall of MySpace, but its failure became Facebook’s rise to power. Facebook has far surpassed anything that Myspace was ever able to accomplish. But the story does remind us that someone can come along with an idea as novel as tagging pictures, so that they are automatically found under your friends photos, and assume the facebook role from five years ago.

However the multi-billion dollar empire that Facebook is now may be insurmountable. Constantly updating in terms of form and function, Facebook is no idle domain. Facebook has adopted a role of utility. Its value lies solely in its users and their interactions.

For this reason, I pose that Facebook is not failsafe even today. Even though many people have photo journals of their entire lives stored of the Facebook servers, it only takes one developer with the ability to pull content from the facebook page and successfully drag this value away from the site.

Facebook is becoming almost too jumbled in its content. This is the reason the site has attempted to focus its news feed and provide even more direct targeting for advertising. Users have yet to realize it, but the content being thrown at them Is all too often irrelevant and not at all what they are seeking.

Facebook brought the “list” into the equation to try and focus news feed content. But for the most part lists are too much of a hassle to set up, and have been a lost cause for the most part. Don’t get me wrong, all the content is still there. However, it takes a relatively savvy facebook user to pull it up easily. So here in lies the most crucial aspect to Facebooks continued success, now that it trumps the United States in population. Facebook must prevent its growing population from muddling the value of user content.

In the end it is clear Facebook is here to stay, at least for now. The future of Facebook and the future of social networking is a mystery to everyone. Just consider for a second that six years ago the word facebook meant nothing. Five years ago it was operating out of a college dorm. This week it surpassed a half a billion users. It is amazing how fast things can change.



The Government has been reaching out to facebook users

Discussion forums have long been an important gathering place for netizens, and they still are. Whether they’re private or public, discussion forums are an efficient way of organizing information and creating prolonged group conversations. It’s amazing how influential they can be in certain segments. A link to a product can send up to hundreds and even thousands of high quality visits to a company’s site. Even more importantly, these amateur reviews often show up highly in search engine results and can have a big impact.

I’ve begun shopping for an entry-level road bike. Not knowing too much about the subject, I’ve of course turned to the Internet. Turns out, bike information resources on the web are mostly forums. Of the models I’m researching, I could only find one professional review. As a result, I spent a lot of time wading through forums posts looking for nuggets of useful information.

Anything read on a forum should be taken with a grain of salt. Posts are often short and lack nuance, and the experience/knowledge of the poster can be hard to gauge. Still, it was the only information source open to me, so I took some of it to heart, and other readers looking for the inside scoop on a product will do the same.

Astute bike companies must realize that discussion forums play such a large role online in their industry, and probably have relationships with these sites. Though they aren’t nearly as significant in other niches, companies shouldn’t forget about them. Your ability as a brand to respond to negative feedback on forums is limited, but there are some things you can do.

Depending on the rules of individual forums, a company representative can step in and address a post if someone made a comment that is blatantly untrue. As long the post remains clear and factual and lacks spin, this kind of intervention will be helpful. It’s of course also possible to use covert marketing techniques in a forum, and make posts using an alias. However, this is not advised. It’s disingenuous and the potential risks outweigh the gains.

In some circumstances, it can be beneficial for your business/brand to truly become a trusted member of a forum. For example, the website toytowngermany.com is a community of English speaking expats living in Germany. The site gets a considerable amount of traffic, mostly for its forums, which are very active. One of the most common topics of discussion is visas and German taxation laws for non-citizens. Savvy German accountants often weigh in on these threads, giving advice. They are transparent and openly acknowledge their profession. Most of the people reading and posting on these threads probably aren’t interested in the services of an accountant, but if they’re in the market for a nice, English-speaking accountant … they know right where to go.

Participation in discussions won’t make sense for every brand (or even most, really), but with the vibrant communities and high search relevance in many forums, it can potentially be an important component to an online marketing strategy.

The decline of Myspace is old news. The company has been hemorrhaging employees and traffic for quite some time now. It’s remaining island of relevance has been entertainment, particularly music, but that dominance is slipping.

However, I think we’re in the middle of an odd no-man’s-land for music and social media. Most of these artists don’t post to their Myspace page, but Myspace remains an important outpost for music on the social web. The vast majority of bands update tour dates on their Myspace pages and upload new songs to the page. Many tiny, unsigned acts are starting to have Facebook pages, but nearly all of them have a Myspace page.

Artists aren’t embracing Facebook’s potential. Take two young, media savvy New York City bands: Vampire Weekend and Grizzly Bear. Grizzly Bear has over 100,000 fans on their Facebook page. They have a music tab where people can stream their music for free (at higher quality than on Myspace) and a list of upcoming concerts is tucked away on the bottom left corner of their wall. However,  a Google search of “Grizzly Bear” reveals that their Myspace page is the second highest result (after their website) and “Two Weeks”, a new song, has 1.5 million plays, probably more than any song on their Facebook page. Vampire Weekend has nearly half a millions Facebook fans, yet there’s no music on their site. If you look long enough, you’ll find a list of upcoming concert, but next to that is a link to their website that invites you to check out a full list of tour dates.

It’s possible for Facebook to provide all the same functions as Myspace, but it’s being underutilized. Artists use it as a forum for discussion and to update news, but not as a full service media outlet. This is probably partly due to the fact that it’s a bit harder to set up music streaming functions etc. on Facebook than Myspace. While Facebook is of course infinitely cleaner and than Myspace, Myspace does have a consistent format for musicians. Fans know exactly where to look for the music, concerts, blog etc and it’s a bit harder for the artists to set that up in Facebook, and harder for the fans to find it.

Still, with Myspace continuing to suffer, and Facebook’s incredible growth showing no signs of slowing, it’s a bit odd that more artists don’t make sure they have a robust Facebook page and consolidate their efforts there. Especially since other alternatives such as Soundcloud, iLike, Last.fm, etc aren’t blowing up either, and Twitter just can’t provide the same functions as these other networks.

Maybe Myspace can hold it’s place at the default social network for musicians, but that’ll take a herculean effort on News Corporation’s part. Facebook has the potential to fill the hole in music social networking but if it doesn’t step to, I think there’s space for a savvy new comer to become the go-to destination for music on the web.

During the World Cup, Akamai’s Net Usage Index, which tracks visitors per minute on more than 100 of the major news sites in Akamai’s network.

In 2002 social media, compared to what we have now, was non-existent. Some would argue that the word “social media” had not yet been coined. In 2006, there was no such thing as Twitter. Now, another four years into the future and we are dominated by a world full of social media outlets. In 2002 Japan/Korea hosted the world cup and built websites for each participating team –with minimal success. In 2006, Germany hosted the cup. Nike created a social networking site for soccer fans. But still, only four years ago, Facebook was restricted to college and high school students, and Twitter was in the beta stages.

So what does it all mean? Perhaps it is just a shift in the way things are done. Or perhaps, it is prime example of how social media can capture the interest of entire continents. In my opinion it is the latter. Looking at this year’s world cup (still in progress) it is evident that this shift is more than just a mere alteration of past methods, but rather an evolution of our very lives.

Famous Brazilian soccer star, Kaka used twitter to communicate directly with his fans in between games. Just 4 years ago the thought of any form of remote connection to such a star was a fallacy. Today Sports Illustrated (SI) magazine is running profiles on the USA national team players in its latest issues. SI is also printing the players Twitter usernames. 10 of the 23 players that traveled to South Africa have Twitter accounts, which they regularly update.

It’s quite a fascinating thing, to be able to directly communicate in some fashion with these global mega stars. But are people actually doing it. More than anyone could have predicted. In the key matches during the world cup, Twitter was almost overloaded and in some cases the site crashed. The famed fail whale has been more active this month than anytime in the past year.

The dramatic ending to the World Cup match between the USA and Algeria and the first day of world cup action set the global web news consumption record at 12 million views per minute. Furthermore, this has translated into record-breaking attention, and viewership. A record number of Americans attended the event in South Africa supporting their team in a sport relatively unpopular in the USA. Regardless, this plethora of social media garnished tremendous support for the USA national team and put a lot of pressure on them and their endeavors to succeed.

At the same time, 1 in 5 South Africans watched the opening games (a new record) and South Africa is on pace to easily beat the past attendance and viewership records. Many believe that social media has served as the thread that ties together the several stadiums in South Africa which sit more than 1,000 miles apart.

So then, it seems clear that social media is streamlining the consumer’s ability to access and disperse information in which he or she finds value. The media middle man is being phased out and users are now able to access a direct link with the location or source of interest.