Will Facebook be the UK’s favourite website of 2007?

With so many social networking sites on offer just what is it about Facebook that is exciting internet users the world over?

Friday, 13 April 2007

Think back to your university days, come on, it wasn’t that long ago. Put yourself back in the mindset of your younger self. Ignore the bad hair, the ill-advised fashion choices and the posters of Che Guevara and the pope holding a suspicious looking cigarette. If someone were to ask you for the three most important things in your university life, what would you say? Beer and the latest portable music device would be a given; walkman, discman, mini-disc player or MP3 player depending on when you were there. What would the third be? According to a lifestyle-tracking survey conducted in US colleges last summer, along with beer and the ubiquitous iPod, social networking site Facebook was an essential student companion for 2006.

Internet time should be equated with dog years such is the speed that technology develops and catches on. In the 9 months since that survey was taken, Facebook’s influence has grown even greater and the word has spread across the Atlantic. Facebook has more than 19million users worldwide and according to comScore figures it is the sixth-most trafficked site in the United States. With 6million photographs uploaded daily, it beats even Flickr to the title of the number one site for photos.

In September 2006 the number of UK Facebook users was just 200,000. By March 2007 1.3million of us had signed up.

Nothing beats word of mouth

The regard that Facebook users have for this social networking site that is built around personal networks and their eagerness to eulogise its benefits to anyone in earshot will ensure the site’s popularity will grow even more rapidly throughout the year. Don’t be surprised if Facebook becomes the UK’s social networking site of choice for 2007.

In three years at the IAB I have had the privilege of writing about a number of ‘word of mouth phenomenons’, but for many of those the mouth in question was an industry publication and the words were those of expert technology writers. Since January of this year, however, I have lost count of the number of friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances who have sat me down to enthuse about Facebook. I have been warned that it’s addictive, that you can lose hours keeping track of the latest groups your friends had signed up to and have been regaled with the pleasures that a simple poke can provide on a slow Tuesday afternoon at work.

So what is Facebook and why do I keep hearing so much about it?

Facebook was founded as an online social directory by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. Like MySpace and Bebo, it enables internet users to list their personal details on the internet and communicate with other people through the site. Unlike other social networking sites, however, users’ profiles are not open to view from anyone outside your friends, their contacts and networks or groups you have joined.

Not surprisingly for a site that was initially intended as a ‘who’s who’ for university students, exclusivity is a key part of Facebook’s appeal. Not in a snobby, no grown-ups allowed fashion, but email domains determine whether you are able to join a specific educational or work network. As founder Mark Zuckerberg recently explained; “I wanted to create an environment where people could share whatever information they wanted, but also have control over whom they shared that information with. I think a lot of the success we've seen is because of these basic principles.”

All the major online success stories have flourished due to the simple fact that they facilitate a function that people didn’t necessarily know they needed, but quickly realised they couldn’t do without. Facebook provides a simple, unfussy way to make and keep in touch with friends and acquaintances.

Facebook is arguably better at relationship building than any of the other social networking sites, which is one of the main reasons it’s marking itself out to be a successful dating site. Facebook enables you to not only show your personality and current moods in a simple way, but you can also track down and join groups of like minded people. A neat feature enables you to make a statement about yourself at any given time, so on your profile it might read, “John is excited as he purchased Glastonbury tickets”, or “Jane is rounding the troops for a big Friday night.”

You can also create and join groups with similar interests, with titles ranging from “fans of Wayne Rooney” and “sunday cinema club” right through to “bug me during Grey's Anatomy and I'll insert this scalpel into your spleen” and “helping accountants nurture and develop social skills (HANDSS)”.

The addictive element of Facebook really kicks in when you log into your account to begin a session of social networking. Your landing page is a news feed that updates you to all the changes your friends have recently made. It alerts you to their changes in moods, the friends they have made, the groups they have joined and the TV programmes they have added to their favourites during the time you supposedly had something better to do than hang out online. This feature makes for immediate conversation starters. It is not advised to check these feeds at the beginning of the working day as you may find yourself still knee-deep in a literary conversation by lunchtime following someone adding Wuthering Heights to the list of their favourite books.

What next for Facebook?

Not surprisingly considering the numbers of users and the level of affection the site commands, Facebook has been turning a few heads in recent months. Following the high-profile deals between MySpace and NewsCorp and then Google and MySpace there were rumours that Zuckerberg had turned down in the region of $1billion from a leading media owner. For the moment at least, it would appear the man is not for flipping.

It would be fair to ask the question, is Facebook’s growing popularity because of what the site offers? Or are people merely flocking to the website in an effort to show they are using the latest social networking site du jour? The user statistics reveal that there is more than just keeping up with the cyber-Jones’ occurring. Half of the people with Facebook accounts come back daily and spend an average of 16 minutes per day sharing and gathering information (comScore figures).

Like MySpace, Bebo and YouTube, Facebook has become part of a large number of internet users’ daily routine, because it is offering something new. All the major online success stories have flourished due to the simple fact that they facilitate a function that people didn’t necessarily know they needed, but quickly realised they couldn’t do without. Google enabled people to find things on the web, with Amazon, shopping on the internet became a reality. YouTube offered a place to share entertaining videos and MySpace quickly became a musician’s best friend. Where Bebo is largely the home of young teenagers, Facebook thrived first amongst university students and then quickly amongst High School students and young professionals.

Potential employers have begun vetting job applicants using their Facebook profile and politicians have realised it’s an important tool to find the young, bright and politically motivated. Crucially, however, the internet audience is taking to Facebook, because it provides a simple, unfussy way to make and keep in touch with friends and acquaintances. In that sense Facebook serves as a tool akin to email, but with lots of exciting extras. So clear an afternoon and spend some time networking, in its truest form.

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