Facebook - Can it survive another 10 years?

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

A decade ago, the word social media was almost non-existent. It certainly wasn’t a very common word. If you wanted to interact with friends online, it used to be through sites like Friends Reunited or through internet forums/chatrooms.

Nowadays, without social media – the majority of us would struggle to live without it in some form of capacity. There are so many things we can do with this power. We can upload videos in seconds and hope they become the next worldwide sensation. We can express our feelings in 140 characters and use the popular hashtag to see if it trends. We can keep in touch with friends and family, play addicting games and still have the ability to poke one another #notcoolanymore.

Facebook has reached 10 - but is under pressure to keep its audience

The facts are that without this communication, you would be lost in today’s technological planet. Recently, Facebook celebrated its 10^th anniversary. The question is, can it survive another decade?

Facebook’s early power

When Marc Zuckerberg launched Facebook in February 2004, it happened fairly quietly. In fact I don't even remember it. The background to it was documented in the lengthy and slightly tedious movie The Social Network.

It came at a time when Facebook could take supreme control of the social media audience. Its main rival at the time was MySpace and they simply couldn’t compete on the same level as what Zuckerberg could produce with his network. MySpace has since faded into complete obscurity and similar sites like Friends Reunited and Bebo have gone the same way.

I was invited and joined Facebook in July 2007, so that was three years after it was launched. The only use for it in its early days was to organise events and post the occasional status update. In fact when I went to Milton Keynes College after sixth form for two years, I was one of only three students on my media production course to have Facebook. Everyone before that connected and communicated on MySpace. I did have a MySpace profile shortly afterwards but it was so limited. While it wasn’t my ultimate mission to convert everyone, I knew Facebook was the social media channel to have and by the time I left in 2009 for University, all but two had switched platforms.

You could see Facebook’s persuasive power. Certain games have got people occasionally hooked. Others would rather just poke people. Seriously, one of the most annoying e-mail messages you can receive is ‘You have been poked’ on Facebook. I find that really irritating!

Facebook does have its downsides and I expressed some of my own personal problems with the site in a piece I did on social media in general last year.

However it did create a lot of early power and could get really addictive to use at the same time.

New threats

Zuckerberg might have made his money and has continued to evolve Facebook over the years. The simple early days of a News Feed and your Homepage have been replaced with expansive graphics. That sometimes hasn’t always worked and I know the current ‘Timeline’ concept wasn’t greeted with that much enthusiasm to begin with.

As it went through its own trough, the new threats began to arrive. Video calling technology from Skype started to develop. Facebook’s power though was soon about to be targeted by its biggest threat to date. The introduction of Twitter into our world in 2006 was again met with little in terms of immediate impact.

Slowly but surely, Twitter started to take on a vast audience as celebrities/famous people started to use it and get followed by fans or slightly obsessive normal members of the general public. If a famous face doesn’t have Twitter, it is quite surprising. I know the current motorsport king Sebastian Vettel doesn’t have Twitter, nor does the UK’s former PM Tony Blair but you would be hard pressed to find people who don’t have official feeds now.

Popstars, sports professionals, the leading journalists, club associations, actors and actresses; the list goes on. Twitter’s audience continues to grow and that has caused a serious threat and dent to Facebook’s popularity.

The days where Zuckerberg could control the social media audience reach are gone and he has had to adapt to the competition.

Personally, I prefer Twitter and made it into a professional account, moving Facebook into the personal spectrum. I joined Twitter in my first year at University in October 2009 – initially only as it was required for a journalism assignment. Over 3,300 tweets later and I use it now as a source to find out links to news stories as well as to comment on some of the main worldwide topics, especially in sport, television and occasionally political issues – despite not showing huge interest in this field.

Facebook’s power has been hurt also by the rise in private and free messaging tools on smartphones. Whilst the UK riots in the summer of 2011 brought BlackBerry virtually to its knees, the BBM service became a free and useful way to have a private conversation. It was just a shame that it soon became a tool to organise violence and hooliganism. Since then, other services such as WhatsApp Messenger and SnapChat (I only have the former) have taken over from BBM to provide stiff competition in the Instant Messaging market. Not forgetting Instagram, another application that has done very well in recent years to attract a global following.

With all that in mind, Facebook has done well to continue appealing to its market. It has had to adapt because if it hadn’t, it would have gone the way MySpace did - into oblivion.

The future

While Facebook has to be congratulated on reaching the 10^th anniversary of its launch, does it need to do more to keep its audience?

In my view, it does. New emotions and buttons for status updates can be added; security certainly could do with tightened reviews. The ‘Poke’ button needs to be removed and the News Feed could do with another revamp, perhaps in splitting it between your friends and family communication and the likes you have of hobbies/people/interests. For example if I want to see how my friends are doing, I don’t want my newsfeed clustered with updates from Walkers Crisps, The Chemical Brothers and UEFA.com.

While it is important to come up with radical and new ideas to keep the network afresh, Zuckerberg might need to incorporate some of Twitter’s successes to keep him active in a sector that continues to evolve.

I think Facebook will be around for another decade and probably longer than that. However it will need to continue to embrace change to stay fresh and different from its competition. A lack of change in this environment will see it start to struggle to stay near the forefront of social media interaction. 

Categories: BBM, Facebook, February, Internet, Marc Zuckerberg, MySpace, Skype, Social Media, Technology, Twitter

The dangers of social media

By Simon Wright

The good world of social media has made a massive impact on so many, if not all of our lives.  Does anyone remember the days before 2004, which was the year Facebook was launched by some guy called Mark Zuckerberg – have you heard of him…thought you might have.

Just over a decade ago, what was the best way to stay in touch with your loved ones, your close friends or even your work colleagues?  It would be through phoning them to arrange a time to see them, or a simple text message.  E-mail was also around, although not as easily accessible than it is nowadays.

The amount of social media choices we have today is endless

Now, whatever we do – social media seems to follow us.  Sending a tweet in 140 characters, plastering your wall with photos from a wild night out on Facebook, watching crazy or classic videos on YouTube, or keeping a professional database on LinkedIn.  

These are some of the main tools we use, and let’s not forget the impact of other sites or applications such as WhatsApp, Skype, Google Talk, Google+, MySpace, or BBM.  Yep, carry on listing these and I’ll sound like a broken old record.

There is a time and a place for social media, but just what are the dangers when it goes wrong?

Twitter – Professional or personal

When Twitter was launched in around 2007 or 2008, it was something I was absolutely not interested in.  In fact, I thought it was just a site where fans could just stalk the movements of everyday celebrities, from TV personalities and pop singers to Premier League football players. 

I first got Twitter at the start of my University degree in 2009, but still didn’t get into it until well into my second year at the University of Northampton.  Over 2,500 tweets later, it can get quite addicting, but where do you need to find the right balance?

Some will use Twitter for personal use and feelings.  That is all well and good for some, but don’t promote this as a professional account on a professional website.  You have to be very careful with what you tweet nowadays.  A lot of people have got into hot water with using Twitter.  Examples have stretched from the superinjunctions row in 2011 when celebrities were using gagging orders to stop the press getting their hands on a story that was quite revealing, to Lewis Hamilton’s major blunder of tweeting McLaren confidential race telemetry just hours before last season’s Belgian Grand Prix to his millions of followers.

There is a place and a time to use it.  It can be seen as peace of mind, but be mindful when tweeting of what might be seen as funny, or a joke, to when it becomes too personal or going as far as using words of a racial/discrimination nature. 

It is difficult finding a right balance at times.  I attempt to keep a fully professional approach, and use Twitter to promote my links for my websites, or retweet a friend who is doing well, as well as having the occasional opinion on modern life, or the general news.  For example, the Leveson press enquiry was a big thing to follow, and easy to have your own view. 

There are times where Twitter can get funny.  The RIM server crash in October 2011 allowed BlackBerry to be ridiculed with hilarious tweets such as ‘Dear Blackberry, HAHAHA! Sincerely Apple’ or the usual jokes about John Terry’s affairs off-the-field using the hashtag #JohnTerryExcuses.  

However, to be taken seriously in life – it is important to keep a balance between the funny, the opinionated and the totally offensive.  

Up and coming journalists especially like me must be extra careful, because nowadays, some prospective employers tend to search your name when applying for a job and check your Twitter activity.  

If they think you tweet inappropriately with examples such as ‘That party last night was totally dope….or ‘my dog just licked my friend’s face, was so funny LOL,’ then that employer will simply screw your application up and throw it in the bin. 

Facebook – Don’t let it get you down

It is quite incredible to think that Facebook has been around for almost 10 years, and has made a significant impact in the last six years.  I joined in July 2007, and used to use it excessively.  

Nowadays, I will only use it for an hour a week which was one of my New Year resolutions which is still going strongly into June.

Facebook’s impact on the world can’t be lost, and the background story is interesting, especially if anyone saw the movie ‘The Social Network’ three years ago.  It is probably the number one choice still for many when it comes to social media, and it annihilated its opposition like MySpace until Twitter came along to invade and take away some of its popularity.

What doesn’t help Facebook is the amount of times Zuckerberg and his team change the profile layout.  Since I’ve been on Twitter, I can only recall one major change to the website layout; Facebook is almost in double figures.  It is still the place to share video links, post photos and keep in contact with friends involving long messages that can’t be summed up in 140 characters.  However, don’t get too addicted to it.

I previously will happily admit that I used Facebook for at least one hour a day a few years ago, sometimes more than that.  That’s not as bad as people spending half their life on it, but it can turn into quite an unhealthy obsession.  Also, be aware of what you might be posting.  Don’t make Facebook public in your privacy settings if you want to keep your personal business away from those search engines. 

There have been a few times where I’ve been using Facebook, and it got me so down, I needed to take a clean break.  In late October 2011, things were not going well for me on a number of levels.  I wasn’t having a great stint in my part-time job at the time, my early third year work at University was simply not good enough, and I was being affected by some world events that were happening far too much.  Every time I went on the site, I felt like I was either taking things too personally, or felt in a negative mood afterwards.  At the start of November 2011, I banned myself from Facebook for 25 days to see if I could live without it.  I managed it very comfortably and have rarely slipped into old habits since. 

Facebook can be a great place to start a lengthy message conversation or keep in contact with those you may not see any more from college, Uni or sixth form.  It is great to arrange events, and share those great or sometimes more embarrassing photos the morning after a hectic night out on the dance floor, and it can be a good form for communication.  I know for sure it helped having a page for the UoN journalism group I graduated with, so if anything came out that was updated, or some information was required, it was handy to answer queries, or to express opinions or even calm situations down that looked like they might get out of control.

Facebook is a good tool to have in the modern world, but don’t take things too personally.  If you do, this social media alley is not for you.

Deciding what to have

I think my social media balance is very good, and I don’t think the use of it is out of control.  I have LinkedIn (professional), Twitter (professional and opinions) and Facebook (personal). 

However, the individual in themselves need to strike the right balance with social media.  

For example in my case, I deleted my MySpace in late 2009 when I realised I wasn’t using it anymore, and if I ever decided to go down the Google+ route, Facebook would have to go.

Make decisions and stick to them.  The most important ingredient about social media is enjoy using it in moderation, but don’t take it personally, don’t let it take over the whole of your life and know what is right and what is wrong when it comes to using these sites.

Here are just a few pointers of knowing what is right and what is wrong when it comes to using social media.

1. Only criticise when you feel it is worth it, or you feel you can do a better job.  Repetitive criticism gets boring, and if you’ve only got something nasty to say, keep it to yourself rather than tweet it to your number of followers, whether it’s 3, 33 or 3,333.  For example: Piers Morgan’s regular criticism of Arsenal is fun to start with, but can get pretty tedious after a while.

2. When you have photos you want to share, make sure that they are appropriate to use.  It can just take one person to make a suggestion or a comment and the whole thing could go viral.  When deciding what to put online, think long and hard about it before posting.

3. If you still decide to use Facebook to poke people, seriously get a life.  Why would you want to poke an individual?  The e-mail message from Facebook: ‘You have been poked,’ is the most pointless e-mail message you can receive – unless you get constant spam from medicine companies!

4. Think before your tweet or update a status.  This isn’t a problem if you’ve got good news to share such as passing a driving test, or celebrating your graduation.  We all like good news.  Even posting your heartbreak at losing a close individual is okay if you are looking for messages of symphony and thoughts.  Do not post anything that is going to be offensive in any way, or makes you sound angry about the entire planet everytime you go online.  Your followers count or friends count will drop if you do this. 

5. When in the job market for a new job, take extra care when using social media.  Companies will always want people who will respect their values and standards.  Those who go too personal can kiss goodbye to their dream job.  If you don’t want to be made searchable on search engines etc…check your privacy settings, as there will probably be a way to stop this coming up.

6. Those looking for news stories, take it with a pinch of salt.  For example, Twitter is very good as a starting reference point, but don’t forget that it will be the websites that report the full story, and that is a better guideline.  You never quite know what is factual and what isn’t on Twitter unless it looks obvious from the name of the account.

7. Be very careful of what personal information you post online.  Posting your date of birth is fine, but only put contact details down such as address and phone numbers if you feel comfortable with doing that.  You never know who might be looking at your profile.

8. Have fun using it and feel like you can express yourself, but be aware of the risks when it comes to using these sites.

Social media has had an impact, and for many, a positive impact on our lives.  However, there are dangers and consequences for misuse of information, so have knowledge of what’s right and what’s wrong before entering the social media pantheon.  

Categories: 2004, E-Mail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mark Zuckerberg, Skype, Social Media, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube