Seven years ago, Facebook didn’t exist…

Yes, though it’s hard to imagine, there was once a dark and disconnected time that we now refer to as ‘Life Before Facebook’ or 2004 B.F.

Today, the social utility (a word insisted upon by our friend, Zuck) is a behemoth website, fully ingrained in public consciousness, and doubling in size nearly every 6 months. Whether you love or hate Facebook, there is no denying that it has dramatically changed the landscape of the social web and has become the pack leader in driving social media innovation in its brief, seven year lifespan.

But can Facebook sustain this exponential growth long term? What is the future of the social networking giant?

I recently stumbled upon the proposed research project, The Future of Facebook, on Kickstarter (a funding platform for creative projects of all kinds). The project aims to investigate the social implications of Facebook’s tremendous growth spurt, its impending challenges and opportunities, and the increasingly important role the it plays in our daily lives through a 6 part video series.

The Future of Facebook project will tackle ambitious questions such as:

Will life on Facebook be linked more closely to ‘real’ life?

Looking at the web connectivity landscape over the last year, we’ve seen the Facebook Connect takeover, geo-location based platforms exploding, the tablet computing boom, QR codes entering mainstream marketing and international marketers dabbling with Near Field Communications (NFC).

Information will continue to flow from online to offline and vice versa in an increasingly fluid, seamless way. Will the Facebook team continue to drive this next phase of social (web) evolution?

David Armano, SVP of Edelman Digital, says:

Facebook came onto the scene and very quickly disrupted digital by harnessing and organizing the social graph… Just like Google indexed the open web, Facebook harnessed and organized the social graph in a way that was really compelling and addictive, and useful.

Unless you’re Malcolm Gladwell (in which case none of your Facebook relationships are ‘real’ anyway), you likely understand the power that lies in Facebook’s open graph. As the social graph becomes increasingly mobile-accessible, and location based apps continue to tap into the vein of social behavior offline, how will Facebook fight to remain relevant?

Will Facebook become an important part of the global economy?

Rita King, Innovator in Residence for IBM Analytics Virtual Center speculates:

Facebook’s role in the global economy will be contingent on how Facebook Credits shake out and whether Facebook is able to find a way to take a cut of every piece of currency that passes through the system.

The impending IPO, micro-payments, projected ad growth and movie rental announcements have everyone wondering – what is Facebook’s monetization plan anyway?

Are there any major threats to Facebook’s future?

In the preview video, Doc Searls, author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, speculates as to the threats to Facebook’s existence:

Here’s the future of Facebook – there is no Facebook. There is: everybody has their own book, their own face and they have their own control over their own data, and they can move that data in and out of Facebook and similar services as much and freely as they want. They are in full control. That is the future that we need to be heading toward, whether we’re heading there right now or not.

What are your thoughts on the future of Facebook? Will the giant survive or be eclipsed by an unknown competitor, only to join Myspace en route to the social graveyard?

To date, The Future of Facebook project has raised $4,581 of its $5,000 goal. (Because it sparked my interest, I made a small donation to the project as well). With Kickstarter, it’s all or nothing, so check it out and if you feel compelled, please give.

The idea of ‘hijacking’ a conversation – whether it be through hashtag, press conference, or other more unscrupulous means – is nothing new to marketers.  But hijacking the conversation about a violent, historical revolution happening in Egypt in order to sell some designer pants?  Probably not such a smart move for Kenneth Cole.

Earlier today, the company Twitter account posted the following tweet: “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at [url] – KC.” This ‘signed’ tweet quickly caused an uproar on Twitter and sent the company into a PR crisis tailspin.

In the rambunctious, satirical spirit of the Interwebs, it didn’t take too long for parody account, @KennethColePR, to crop up on Twitter, in similar fashion to the @BPGlobalPR account that received so much attention last Spring during the Deepwater Horizon events.

The company quickly removed the tweet, fired the “intern” who wrote it and issued an apology on Twitter.  Kenneth Cole also posted the following to the company Facebook fan page:

“I apologize to everyone who as offended by my insensitive tweet about the situation in Egypt. I’ve dedicated my life to raising awareness about serious social issues, and in hindsight my attempt at humor regarding a nation liberating themselves against oppression was poorly timed and absolutely inappropriate.

Kenneth Cole, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer.”

My question to you is this – if you were a PR or social media consultant working with Kenneth Cole, what would you advise? Is there a way for the company to temper the backlash and repair the reputation damage caused by this one, very poorly vetted tweet?

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In private beta the site grew to list 72 user-submitted companies (31 agencies, 17 vendors, 24 consultants); 18% of which are located outside the U.S. Today, Invest in Social touts some impressive growth stats, adding 45 new companies in a matter of a few hours and totaling 122 companies listed as of this post. [Some notables include: Edelman Digital, Porter Novelli, Radian6, Klout, and Argyle Social].

Some of the site’s coolest functionality is in its bookmarking feature – users can create a set of personalized bookmark folders to store company information for later retrieval.

Invest in Social also utilizes Facebook’s ‘Open Graph’ (a.k.a. ‘like’ functionality), which adds an interesting new layer. Currently, a company can boost its site rankings by completing its profile to the fullest. However, with Facebook functionality enabled, companies may soon begin ranking based on the number of ‘likes’ they have received. Invest in Social is in a unique position to harness this type of dynamic, decision-based ranking system to personalize each user’s experience based on his or her social graph, while adding an implicit recommendation layer to the B2B shopping process (i.e. I see which vendors my friends have ‘liked’ or recommended). While this functionality is not without its challenges – such as preventing users from ‘gaming the system’ – I am especially curious to see what the next few iterations of Invest in Social have to offer.

Other features that I anticipate seeing added are ‘click to call’ or ‘click to email’ functionality on a company’s ‘contact us’ page, and the ability to annotate saved bookmarks with notes about companies.

With its easy to spot search box and clean user interface, the site renders fairly well on a mobile device (or, on the iPhone at least), but I’d speculate that the braintrust behind Social Fresh already have a mobile app in the works. Either way, this is going to be one to watch, as I imagine that the features on Invest In Social will only become more ‘social’ over time.

What do you think of Invest in Social so far? Are there any other related needs a site like this could help to address? Any enhanced functionality you’d like to see?

Unless you’ve been hiding under unearthed Paleozoic rock for the last several weeks, you’ve likely heard the growing buzz around social media’s newest darling, Quora.

Quora is a few months fresh on the post-beta scene and growing exponentially. And with all the hype, you might be tempted to jump in and start firing away with the Q&A. Freeze! Before you start, take a moment and answer a few quick questions:

1. Why should I join Quora?

This question might seem obvious enough to overlook, but let me be explicit: Quora is not the new Twitter. (All you hipsters in search of New Twitter, feel free to head over to Myspace – there’s a party over there like you wouldn’t believe).

Blindly jumping in to yet another social media platform because it’s ‘all the buzz’ is not only short sighted, but pretty damn exhausting to maintain. We get it, you’re an early adopter, but ask yourself why you want to be involved in this community. What are you hoping to learn? What expertise can you provide? Knowing why you’re on the site will help you get the most out of your experience.

2. Who should I follow?

Quora is not the new Twitter. (Wait, did I say that already?) Remember the initial conversations about Twitter where the ‘experts’ told you to follow back everyone who followed you because it was the polite, ‘social’ thing to do? If you tried that approach you probably noticed that as your number of followers started to scale, the value you derived from the platform declined sharply.

The good news is that those rules don’t apply to Quora. Don’t follow someone just to be nice.

Twitter is a free-flowing, transient conversation. You can miss big chunks of that conversation and jump back in upstream. It was designed to handle the rapid influx of real-time data without overwhelming users. (Hence the restriction to 140 characters).

Quora is a crowdsourced information repository. Assuming that the forthcoming spam attacks don’t suck all of the value from the site in the near future, its value will continue to grow steadily over time as questions are asked, answered, curated and edited. Ask yourself: do I want to follow my friends? Industry experts? Keep in mind that if it becomes too difficult to distinguish signal from noise, you’ll be more likely to bail within a few months.

3. Which questions should I ask and answer?

One of the things that is so uniquely wonderful about Quora as a social information site is its insistence on transparency – when answering questions, your own name and avatar, along with a short title, are included alongside your post. You can ask about nearly any topic, but it’s best to be intentional in questioning and thoughtful in answering.

4.  How much time can I commit to maintaining my presence on this site?

If you’re like me, you’re in upside down and over your ankles with the number of social media applications you manage on a daily basis. The last thing either of us need is to keep up a presence on another ancillary site. But if Quora grows to the scale of Twitter, it will likely be the early adopters who reap much of the reward, having already developed a strong presence.

Come up with a plan of attack – maybe a 10 minute scan daily, 1 hour response weekly schedule and commit. Set reminders in your calendar to dive in during that time. Obviously, rigidity and social media aren’t typically the best of friends; the point is to be consistent and disciplined in your approach. If Quora fades in only a few short months (all signs pointing to the contrary), you’ll have gotten what you could out of the experience without creating yet another online time suck.

5. What are my long term goals?

This question might seem a little out of place. In the era of ‘flash in the pan’ web assets, longevity ranks low on most users’ lists. And if you’re simply using the site for information related to a personal interest or hobby, it may not apply.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking to derive professional value from Quora, but you have no goals and no idea what you hope to achieve, it might be best to avoid jumping in altogether.

Of course how you choose to establish your online credibility and gauge the long term value of that investment is completely up to you.  The best decision will always be to stick with sites that provide the most return on your time and effort, and those to which you can realistically commit.

BONUS: How will Quora will affect my Klout score?

Okay, just kidding. To hell with this question. The point is that Quora is becoming a good way to establish your expertise in an area, help others and have intelligent, on-topic conversations with some of the leading voices in your industry (primarily if you’re in tech). Proceed with caution, but don’t miss an opportunity to become influential in the areas that you are knowledgeable and passionate about.

You should also know that the conversation about online influence is still in its infancy and Klout isn’t the only player here. Quora is currently working to develop an algorithm to determine user quality. If the reports are true, this move would be a significant development in the online influence conversation. (Cue Google acquisition).

The next step…

At this point, you’re ready to answer these questions or you may have determined this Quora thing is just not for you. If you’re still on the fence and want to do a little more digging, here are two more great posts to help you decide:

• Welcome to Quora. Do Yourself a Favor & Slow Down via Lucretia M. Pruitt, The Social Joint
• 5 Questions to Ask Before Jumping Into Quora via SearchEngineLand.com

Now it’s up to you, what are your answers to the questions above? What are the next 5 questions that users should ask themselves before diving in?

Welcome to the first installation of The Green Room!  Since this is the first episode, let me explain how it works.  The Green Room tag is how I’ll label conversations with local media makers – journalists, bloggers, photographers, TV and radio hosts, etc. – about their work.  Through these conversations, we’ll explore how social media influence the way that we connect, engage, and do business online, and how traditional media models are evolving to accommodate this change.

For the first episode, I had the privilege of chatting with Armando Bellmas, professional photographer in Charlotte, NC.  Armando is a skilled captor of moments and author of the Please Be Still blog (a title so clever that I wish I’d thought of it first).

Our conversation touched on the following topics:

• His start in photography.
• Creative Commons, copyright, and shifting perceptions of “public content.”
• Demand Media (the content factory that aims to churn out 1 million pieces of content per month).
• The impact of social media tools like Tumblr and Flickr on online photo sharing.

Over the past two years, Jason Dominy, Director of Training and Knowledge/Store Development for Dilworth Coffee, a local specialty coffee roaster, has helped to build a vibrant community of coffee lovers around his company brand and personal passion.

Jason and I have been friends for a while, so when I heard that he would soon be leaving Charlotte for a new gig in Atlanta, my first thought was this – I have to interview him!  Partly because it was Jason who introduced me to Twitter and social marketing in the first place.  And partly because I’ve watched his talent and passion at work in the Dilworth Coffee community, and I knew that his story was worth sharing.

Here is my interview with Jason about the triumphs and tribulations of community building.

1. How did Dilworth Coffee begin using social media?

Initially, we set up the Arabica Labrica Facebook group to tell our story and to encourage people to get to know Dilworth Coffee as a business.  Our Facebook fans engage with us through photos, videos, and comments; and we can respond to their content.  We also started to use Twitter.  The @DilworthCoffee account is more of a straight marketing channel, which we use to inform customers about roastery events, what we’re brewing in the shops, etc.  I use my personal Twitter account, @jasondominy, to interact with customers because it is transparent and helps to put a face to the business.

2.  Who makes up the Dilworth Coffee community?

Our community is made up of three groups – current customers who are actively engaged, new customers who have just found us or been introduced by friends, and our staff of baristas.  My job is to help engage all three.

3.  How did you approach building Dilworth Coffee’s community?

Like an entrepreneur.  Most entrepreneurs don’t start a business because they think “I’m going to open this business and instantly, I will make a lot of money.”  Instead, they start a business because they want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.  We approached our social marketing strategy the same way.

Dilworth Coffee is about educating people about how good specialty coffee can be in a local environment.  I made this my personal quest, so I started there.  Instead of viewing our community as potential buyers of our product, I view them as participants in our journey.  They will always be more apt to sign up for that.

4.  Once people find out about your community, how do you encourage them to become involved?

The best way to do that is to help your customer understand that they are a partner in what you do.  It’s not just a business transaction.  The whole experience becomes a thing that they are involved in, which requires their input and feedback.  People love to be a part of something that makes them feel good.  The more you can create something valuable that people want to share with you and with their friends, the better off your business will be as a result.

5.  What are some challenges that you’ve faced along the way?

One of the toughest challenges in community building is to keep people actively engaged in the conversation.  It’s easy to start a conversation with social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.  The challenge comes once you begin engaging – to keep them motivated to continue talking to you.  You always have to be providing something of value.  You always have to be thinking of ways to keep that conversation current and vibrant.

6.  Once the engagement starts, how do you maintain customer interest?

We focus on taking the conversation from online to offline by creating events where those real conversations can take place.  We’ve had classes, tastings, barista competitions – things that offer something of value to our community members.

I know that if I engage with someone on the web, they may share my message with their friends.  But if I can get them into the building, then I can build a customer for life.  The more real life engagement, the better the outcome.

7.  How to do measure the impact of your efforts?

A lot of our measurement is centered around events and participation.  That is the easiest way to get hard numbers.  For example, with what Amelie’s French Bakery did with their Facebook Friday giveaway, they could measure how many people came in as a direct result of Facebook and how much their fan base grew as a result of the event.  When friends introduce friends to your company, sales grow exponentially because of that connection.

8.  What advice do you have for someone who is starting to build their community (business, individual, etc.)?

First look to see what other people are doing and how they’re using it.  Spend some time listening.  I noticed early on that other people were becoming successful in social networking just by being authentic and putting their ideas out there.  Be real about who you are and what you’re passionate about.

Don’t get discouraged.  Even though you won’t always see the support for the things that you do, there are a lot of people out there who will see what you’re doing and will support you, even if they don’t ever engage with you directly.

Finally, keep in mind that quality is a better measurement than quantity.  I judge how effective my social media efforts are by how strong the relationships that I’ve built have become.  I know that I’m a part of a revolution of communication and technology merging into one big cloud – this thing is bigger than I am.  That’s why it’s so exciting.

[For more on Jason Dominy, check out Crystal Dempsey's post Authentic: Jason Dominy and Jason's blog Musings of a Coffee Ragamuffin]

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