After the explosion of Twitter, Facebook has been brought back down to earth a little from its craze in 2008/09. The simplicity of Twitter made for a quicker experience and therefore could be updated, maintained and utilised much more frequently – much like if FB removed everything except the status updates.
I was actually reluctant to join Facebook… I did so because it was the simplest way to keep in touch with friends from home, University and abroad where much of my family live. As soon as I got an iPhone my fb usage went from a couple of check-ups a day to actually being a part of my daily life. Since leaving Uni, my interest has gone down (since I’m no longer raving it up every night and then having to moderate the photos!) but I’m now actively using Twitter to network within my industry and to learn how the whole thing works from an SEOs perspective.
After the defacing of Facebook with all the crap applications that promise to tell me ‘what Disney character I am’ or ‘who is my celebrity lookalike’, it seems that they have taken note of Twitters rise and implemented some of the more useful features such as @reference to refer to anything or anyone.
I have a feeling this will spark an increase in shared links etc across fb and might well increase the marketing capabilities of the social media giant. For example, in my experience there has been a MASSIVE following from UK-based students. I know first-hand how much it’s used and it’s hours per day. Merge this addiction with Twitters @reference function and suddenly you have a lot of people talking and sharing.
For me, the biggest market to attack is the student market. These guys have time, money (although mostly loaned!) and a care-free attitude with it, especially in the upcoming weeks where freshers are starting their term. I must have spent £400+ in my first freshers week and I couldn’t tell you what I got from that apart from a lot of good memories. But, I do not regret spending lots of money in the situation – I’m meeting new friends, mingling with new people and climatising to a new place and a house full of people I barely know. It will be interesting to monitor how clubs/bars etc utilise the reference function (if at all) to spread the “pass-it-on” factor and chain their way to more business.
In my experience, there were three clubs all vying for position on the student nights. I know first-hand that facebook played a huge, HUGE part in dictating where people went. The social proof light flashes, people follow the crowd. Facebook was responsible for losing one of the bigger student nights in my University which demonstrated how powerful social media can be. Infact, a friend of mine who started the group was offered a job for his good work!
I am an SEO Specialist working at Urban Element in Oxfordshire, UK. This blog is a record of my working life, my thoughts on SEO, business, marketing and a whole load of other stuff. None of the views on here represent my employers opinions and are wholly my own thoughts.
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