All right, I take it. I`m a certified Facebook junkie. I didn`t believe this could find to me, a Midwestern gal who was the last kid on the bar to get e-mail and, it seems, just about every technological innovation before and since.
I mean, I never cared about MySpace, never had a Xanga or whatever existed before your company, even when I was in high school and those things were all the rage.
Safety concerns always loomed too big in my mind - nervous feelings that were fueled by protective parents and sensationalized news stories. It was something I couldn`t ever quite overcome.
Until Facebook.
Five days ago, I sucked up my Internet fears and joined your platform because all my college classmates were doing so. It seemed so gracious and safe, so light and user-friendly. It was the first time I can remember where I was really on top of a technological trend. I could post pictures, make witty comments and have almost immediate feedback from all those `friends` I was beginning to accumulate. I loved it.
And, it seems, my dear for Facebook has just grown over the years. Earlier today, I found myself doing research about Facebook in one window, while my Facebook homepage was opened in another. As if this double Facebook scenario doesn`t prove my obsession, I clicked open my profile to see it (again). I meant to roll through my page to get ideas for this blog. Instead, my eyes naturally drifted down the news feed. And then -oh, and then!I saw those beautiful, bright red numbers pop up beside my notifications and messages icons, and...
I believe you love where this is going.
I have thought several times over the age that Facebook was passing to become un-cool. That it, like every trend before it, would phase out, and I`d be left coughing in the virtual dust. Granted, some sites have arisen that will try to be major competitor for your company. But they haven`t overcome you yet, and I mean it would require a major shake-up for that to happen anytime soon. Somehow, my dearest friend Mr. Zuckerberg, you have managed to produce the social media cornerstone.
But lest you believe you receive the market so cornered that enthusiasts like me will never drift away, there are a few things you should hold in judgment as you move Facebook into the future.
For one - and I believe this is the most critical - us Facebook users want to think we take a choice about every friend we have, every page we wish and, yes, everything we share. In all the controversies over privacy, the key issue has not necessarily been about keeping information private. No, we are quite easy with sharing all kinds of information with all kinds of people. Anyone who thinks otherwise at this period should have a glimpse through his or her own profile. We post status updates to distinguish people what we`re doing, we upload photos to express who we`re doing it with and we now place a `point` to discover just exactly where we are when we`re doing whatever it is we`re doing - down to an address. While we may have our privacy settings locked down tight, we yet cannot see who sees our information when somebody else gets ahold of a friend`s password or looks over his shoulder in the library.
Anyway, the signal is, Mr. Zuckerberg, we all need to think we`re making a choice when it comes to what we deal and what we see. This way that with every new setting you add to Facebook, we need to bed about it upfront and be capable to take or reject it. Any time there is a new feature which would change - in any way - the character or number of data that is divided about us, a box should pop up when we first log onto Facebook. To aid us really need to add the feature (let`s face it, us Facebookers can be immune to change), an equal number of information about what the sport is and what it can do should likewise be provided. In other words, let us consider that the option is always ours to make. Do not make us a `Places` feature without notice and then have default settings which automatically allow others to add our location. Let us choose correctly from the beginning.
Additionally, part of what made Facebook so sympathetic to me and millions of others in the foremost order was its uncluttered, easy-to-use format. In place for Facebook to proceed to be successful, this has to stay true, even as features and applications are added. As Jacqueline Emigh writes, giving opt-in and opt-out features is one way to trim the confusion over control settings (see Facebook Privacy Tweaks Coming. How About Opt-In, Not Opt Out?).
Lastly, as you and many marketers know, Facebook is fast becoming an online hub for businesses to carry information and take with customers. Because it seems this tendency will simply increase, it is significant for Facebook to promote the use of fan pages by continuing to give them destitute and comfortable for businesses to create. Much care the new `Groups` have you get added, businesses should be capable to make groups of customers with whom they can share specialized offers and information.
However, in keeping with the mind that Facebook users should make a quality about what data they share and get, businesses should not be allowed to make these groups for themselves. Instead, Facebook users should be granted the alternative to be in certain groups when they initially `fan` a page. For example, a society such as Barnes & Noble could ask new fans if they would like to turn a member of a "new fiction" or "medicine and DVD" group; the party could then post targeted information for just those groups.
All in all, Mr. Zuckerberg, give Facebook users the perceived control we first fell for, keep it bare and let businesses to pass us in customized ways, and we all just might be your `friends` for life.