Kent Newsome on technology, music and life

5/24/2007


Educating Kent: Facebook

I have a genuine question.

What is so much better about Facebook (and MySpace and other similar platforms) than an ordinary blog on a popular platform- say WordPress?

I would love it if someone could explain this to me.

To this point, I've always felt like the blogosphere is the only social network that matters, and that Facebook, etc. are the dilutive sandboxes of the new Geocities generation.  But I am obviously missing something.  Just look at tonight's Techmeme.

I understand how it's better for the owners of Facebook, because they can sell ads and leverage off of the content and traffic created by users.

But I don't get it at all from the user's perspective.

Can somebody help me with this?

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Posted by Kent @ 5/24/2007 10:26:00 PM | Permalink

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2 Comment(s):

It's all about the community. It makes it easy for people to find each other/message each other/post pictures, etc. Plus it is free and there is no maintenance needed. You just type up a profile and can start connecting with people instantly. All of the features work the same way for everybody.

The cool factor goes a long way, too. If all your friends are hanging out at the mall, you are not going to want to hang out at the shack you built in your back yard.

That's my guess anyway. I don't use them.

By Anonymous Mike, at 5/25/2007 8:10 AM  
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Hi Kent, I answered your question and others about the Facebook news in my latest entry, excerpted below:

"Kent is making the mistake of looking at services, not people. Social networking services like Facebook, and socially-enabled blogging services like MindSay, let people define a network through connections, not link-exchanges. Kent says he feels “like the blogosphere is the only social network that matters”, but how is the blogosphere a social network? Unless you’re an A-lister, it’s what your content is, not who you are, that matters. We browse the blogosphere because we’re looking for interesting ideas. But we use social networking services because we want to know what our friends think. Is blogging a way of doing that? Absolutely. But as Twitter has been showing us, less can be more too. Sharing on a social network where all your friends already are is still easier than maintaining a blog and keeping people coming to it."

Hope that helps!

Best,
Jay Neely, Social Strategist

By Blogger Jay, at 5/25/2007 9:02 PM  
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