JP Rangaswami on Why Facebook Is Different

JP has started a several day series on why Facebook is different from other social networks, specifically Linkedin and Xing:

[from Some Friday evening ruminations around Facebook et al | confused of calcutta]

[…]

Why is Facebook different? I don’t quite know, but it is. Stuff like MySpace and Bebo are overtly narcissistic, it’s all about how you express yourself. Facebook, on the other hand, is about relationships and conversations. I guess you can say that about LinkedIn as well, but it’s not the same thing. LinkedIn is a very narrow one-dimensional conversation. If you’re not looking to hire or be hired, it’s not a place to go. I may have a few hundred connections on LinkedIn, but the reality is that it becomes a useful virtual address book for me, one that gets kept up to date by the person who owns the address.

So that’s my guess, that Facebook is a multidimensional conversation. Why is that important to the enterprise? Why is it important to work-life balance? These are questions I will seek to answer over the next two days. If you’re interested, keep an eye out.

I will be watching.

I also have discovered that Facebook is different, on many levels. A year ago, I was involved in a experiential marketing project for Xing — then called OpenBC — and the notion was that I would try to generate some consulting in Europe by using the network. I tried every trick in the OpenBC playbook and got zero leads. Literally: zero. Not a single nibble over a three month period. As a lark, I created a group in Facebook on Social Tools, and I got three leads in the first few days. The Social Tools group has now grown to over 3000 people, without any real work.

There is some dynamic at play in Facebook that has more juice than what is going on at Xing and LinkedIn. I will be interested in hearing JP’s thoughts on where it is going for business.