Zuckerberg: Facebook is about a social mission

"Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected."

If it wasn't for an email from the global chairman of H+K Strategies, Jack Martin, I would not have thought to read Mark Zuckerberg's letter to accompany Facebook's Form S-1 Registration Statement for its IPO this week. (How many people read these SEC filings and prospectuses anyway?) But there's some great stuff in it that could almost comprise a manifesto for the social web. One idea in particular stands out:

Personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society. Relationships are how we discover new ideas, understand our world and ultimately derive long-term happiness . . . At Facebook, we build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people’s capacity to build and maintain relationships.

In other words, the social web is about the relationships it can intermediate. Anyone who has heard me speak about the social web will know that understanding this concept is critical to getting any social engagement strategy right, whether for a non-profit or for-profit enterprise. It's why I prefer the term 'social web' to 'social media', the latter implying as it does that social platforms exist for broadcast purposes.

I'm not naive enough to think that the letter's altruism drives every one of Facebook's business decisions. But this sense of a social purpose does peak through in the entrepreneurial spirit of social web inventors.

Facebook Users More Politically Active

More on linking social web engagement and activism . . .

In the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project's study called 'Social networking sites and our lives', the researchers found the following:

Compared with other internet users, and users of other SNS platforms, a Facebook user who uses the site multiple times per day was an additional two and half times more likely to attend a political rally or meeting, 57% more likely to persuade someone on their vote, and an additional 43% more likely to have said they would vote.

Rack another one up for those (okay me . . . but that lacks humility) who argue that the underlying dynamics of social networks are conducive to increased civic engagement rather than distractions from it.

Google+ is - Well - a Plus

Boy do social web natives draw the knives quickly when it comes to Google and Facebook. Google+ hasn't even launched yet but the judgments have come in short order. Right off the bat I want to ask the question Could we be sacrificing reflection, analysis and context simply for speed? But that's for another post.

Right now I think we should be willing to forget 'Wave' and 'Buzz' and give a little credit to Google for - perhaps - starting to get at least part of this social network thing right.   

Not having been invited into the Google+ corona I am for the moment on the outside looking in. But here's a few unbiased and admittedly speculative observations about Google+ based on a tour of the demo.

Google+ 'Circles' will allow you to share specific information with selected groups of people. For organizations which slice and dice their stakeholders into categories in order to tailor communications, this could be a way of structuring a social network to spark conversation and cement relationships. Natalie Bourre, founder of Marketing 4 Health Inc., points out that pharmaceutical companies for example, under the severest restrictions for direct to consumer and direct to patient, might create 'circles' of patients within closed networks. And, I would add, these social circles can take advantage of the user generation, visual, linking and speed elements not usually associated with online patient communities.

As I understand it from this Mashable article, Google+ 'Sparks' is "a recommendation engine for finding interesting content . . . a collection of articles, videos, photos and other content grouped by interest."  Whenever I hear the concept "recommendation engine" I think of promoted tweets and Facebook ads and their ability to target people and interests.

And then there is the group and video chat functions which could take the Facebook wall to a new level allowing people to self-organize online imaged group personal conversation. Companies could use the functions for stakeholder or community meetings, and activists for planning and organizing group education, proselytizing and action.

One final comment . . . sure, it will take a hell of lot to unseat Facebook as the king of social networks. But that doesn't mean that a new social platform from the mighty Google can't make a useful, important (and yes profitable) contribution to the socialization of relationships, marketing and group dynamics.

What a Social Web Week!

As a follow up to my post earlier this week about Twitter critical role in the Tunisian revolution, here are some links to other article posts, videos and articles looking closely at the social web's role in the Egyptian uprising.

Computerworld reports on efforts earlier this week by the Egyptian government to shutdown various social network platforms in particular Twitter. The lead to its story says it all:

The Egyptian government's decision to shut down access to Twitter appears to be an acknowledgement of just how potent social media tools can be amid the widening civilian unrest.

In a post called "Social Media at the front line in Egypt", CNN takes a look at the social web and its value to journalists in directing them to stories even if it means they have to sift through hundreds of rumours and panicky notes to find the "news". After all . . .

Despite attempts to block Twitter, Facebook and other sites (the government denies it was responsible), a Facebook page devoted to Friday's planned protests had more than 80,000 followers as of 2 p.m. ET Thursday, compared with some 20,000 the previous day.

Al Jazeera is also covering how online activism is fueling protests and helping organize anti-government demonstrations, commenting:

Activists spread the word online about Friday's protests, detailing the list of public squares where people should gather.

Calls for action circulated on Twitter and Facebook since early on Friday morning.

Twitter user rassdwda wrote: "#Egypt protests begin from mosques & churches, #Muslims #Christians 2gether#Jan25".

The Egyptian government itself recognized its inability to control the information flow when it ordered the shutdown of all international ISP connections. And thanks to The Huffington Post, here is a visual on how traffic declined as a result of the government's edict.

History being made . . .

The Revolution Will be Tweeted

The evidence continues to stack up that the social web can be the midwife of political change.

The dissident blogger Slim Amamou is now tweeting from inside the Tunisian cabinet. Having played a major role in the 'revolution' itself, he is using Twitter to post comments on progress to word greater freedom in the country and urging continued vigilance by Tunisians.

Blogger Assaad Thebian reports in EMAJ Magazine ("an intercultural magazine, made by a network of young journalists from the Middle East, North Africa and the EU") that:

In May 2010, a huge campaign called “Free From 404” (Internet language for file not found) was carried out in Tunisia. Twitter hashtags, Facebook profile pictures, articles and videos were created to demonstrate the activists’ refusal of censorship . . .

Later in the same post:

Activists have also been uploading videos of demonstrations to YouTube using the hashtag #sidibouzid (the province where the demonstrations first began last month). Facebook pages such as: “Tunisian News Agency” were the main sources of minute by minute news with live coverage by photos and videos, with thousands joining.

And here is what Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor at The Atlantic, had to say today about Facebook's role both in preventing Tunisian hackers (from Ammar, the nickname given to the secret police censoring the country's Internet) and serving as staging ground for Tunisian opposition:

There has been a lot of debate about whether Twitter helped unleash the massive changes that led Ben Ali to leave office on January 14, but Facebook appears to have played a more important role in spreading dissent. 

'I think Facebook played a bigger role in this case,' said Jillian York of the Berkman Center for the Internet and Society, who has been tracking the Tunisian situation closely. 'There are a lot more Facebook users than Twitter users. Facebook allows for strong ties in a way that Twitter doesn't. You're not just conversing.'

I will keep a record on this blog of these examples of successful social web activism given the rush among some public intellectuals to dismiss online advocacy with the same condescension they once discarded the social web as a "waste of time".