I haven't had a lot of time to post on my blog lately. Why? It's pretty simple actually- I have been all over facebook.com like white on rice.
I don't think that I have ever seen such a meteoric rise online since trademe hit it's tipping point here in New Zealand circa 2003. I had originally thought that I would make this post about why facebook.com has been able to achieve what they have in such a short time. I would have focused on new 2.0 style e-commerce tactics such as their gift giving feature which has a real second life feel about it, the whole "virtual assets" sort of thing.
However, I have decided to try and make the focus on this post more of an interactive discussion on why facebook has been so successful in hitting that magical tipping point that us marketers know is so important. How is it that my computer allergic friends who have never used the internet for social networking are all of a sudden vying for precious local bandwidth as they upload their weekend party images?
I have a few ideas. I personally think that the impact that facebook has made feels more intense here in New Zealand as they have timed their big push into the market with a similar push that broadband is making to penetrate locally in NZ at present. It's safe to say though, as with most global e-commerce sites, New Zealand is not top of mind when your nutting out your global strategy. In other words, I don't think facebook really care about taking advantage of broadband penetration in New Zealand. We just dont have the audience down here.
There also seems to be a general consensus that the recent mass homicide at Virginia Tech motivated a need for students and the public to communicate their feelings about this event and create a sort of support network. Apparently this generated a spike in the registrations and utilization of facebook.com as the social network site was the preference for a number of the unfortunate victims.
The later would certainly not pose as a great piece of history in the facebook.com "PR Story" file.
So what is behind facebook revolution? You tell me...
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