Has Facebook Peaked?
Facebook proclaims it has 400 million users (I’m one of them) and they’ve been adding 25 million users a month. Recently their growth appears to have slipped to a mere 13 million new users, according to Rocketboom.com. And what Facebook’s stats don’t show are the account deactivations, which could dilute any real net gain in users. Is Facebook about to get Myspaced? (Definition: abandoned for another platform.)
The recent changes in Facebook’s privacy guidelines has many people, including industry insiders nervous. Maybe you’ve read the headlines that Google’s Matt Cutts and Engadget’s co-founder Peter Rojas have both deactivated their Facebook accounts. (Well, that explains why they didn’t accept my invite to be friends!)
What’s all the fuss? Apparently Facebook is just too transparent for some people and I admit, it’s challenging managing the confusing privacy settings. Or maybe it’s symbolic of a platform that’s just too big and too crowded.
Does that mean you should abandon your social media plans? I don’t think so. As my trusted colleague Brian Haugen tells me about blogging and social media, “Keep the faith!”
If there’s one thing we’ve all learned from social media it is that it’s important to facilitate conversations with consumers. It doesn’t matter what platform you use, Facebook, Twitter or Facebook rival Disapora, the idea is the same – talk with customers, learn from their conversations and in the end you’ll build a better brand. Isn’t that what content marketing is all about? Creating great content, across multiple channels and building conversations around your content and brand.
What’s ironic in all of this is that most companies have Facebook guidelines for how to interact with users online. Maybe Facebook should come up with their own guidelines on how to interact with its 400 million users. I posted a comment on Facebook’s Facebook page (yes, they have one too with 9,000,000+ fans) and I’m still waiting for a reply. In the meantime, I’ll keep checking my Facebook page along with almost everyone else.
