The Facebook Culture
Fast Company has an interesting look inside the Facebook culture. I used to work at a social networking company also, and while it was a successful venture, the pace was more risk-mitigation vs innovation-driven. Some of the stuff in the article I can relate to – like workaround solutions from talented engineers and the ideas that 'bubble' up... however, Facebook has grown so fast because it thrives of churning out solution – even if some of them don't work.
Facebook is an interesting case study: how does it create value (what is the real value), and how does the culture affect its perceived success? An important question to ask is: where does hype end and real tech breakthroughs began?
As far as I know, it's a neat site to keep amused during the day, to look at photos of yourself and friends (mostly yourself), to pass the time by comments and to keep in touch with not-so-close friends. As with all social networking sites, I think the value is from the maintenance, no matter how tenuous, of connections. Different from professional networking sites like LinkedIn and Spoke, I would expect that Facebook rarely sees 2nd-to-1st degree connections migrations– the social focus thrives on narcissistic and self-congratulatory connections too much for that to occur.
That would be an interesting study in itself, to gauge the types of connections being made on the various social networking sites. Is there a way to measure connection strength besides degrees? And which sites have the best strength per user?
But who cares? Facebook's revenue model is like the baseball saying: build it and they will come. Facebook is a destination that keeps users interested -- it will be very valuable for search companies (Google-Myspace anyone?), content providers and advertisers to partner with the upstart soon enough.
One quote stuck out at me:
During the course of our several interviews, Zuckerberg talked early and often about the culture he is trying to build within Facebook. His stated goal is to create a system of openness that will foster a form of creative courage within the staffers. “Our company is full of really smart people – we emphasize intelligence over experience. We give people a lot of information, and give them a chance to contribute everywhere.” When things move fast, stuff goes wrong. The culture attempts to embrace that. “Our mantra is break things,” says Zuckerberg. “If things aren’t breaking, then you’re not moving fast enough. People learn by making mistakes.” And bottom line, “we just churn a lot of stuff out.”
Sounds like a great place to work.. as long as the hype holds up.
i don't consider facebook really 'social networking' because you're within your own network the whole time. it's very closed. i can't even view the friends of friends unless they go to my school. places like friendster and myspace where you can view the profiles of others not directly connected to you are were 'networking' really occur. after all, networking implies new connections being made, not constant reinforcement of existing ones.
look at all the impromptu communities that spring up on myspace among people who did know previously know each other.
-n
Posted by: nancy | April 11, 2007 at 12:28 PM
it's still social - within more strict filters: i.e. groups.
the social network phenomenon/trend is all about connecting to people based on some connection, whether its general (music/interests like Myspace) or specific (academic/school like Facebook) or strict (companies like LinkedIn or SelectMinds). You're right about Facebook though, which interests me because I'm curious about where it's going. FB has opened up to everyone.. so are they going to go the advertising route, the subscription model or something else for revenue?
That's also why I'm interested in the strength of connections as a possible determinant for revenue success...
Posted by: j.fisher | April 11, 2007 at 01:05 PM