I’ve only had a Facebook account since May, but not for lack of interest. A long- time web rat, I knew it would be intriguing. I just wasn’t sure I wanted yet another content outlet in my life. I’m an avid blogger and blog troller and was already tangled in a sea of Plaxos and LinkedIns and private communities. Even so, I’m glad I signed up.
Of course, the first perk was to have all the high school and college kids I know say “YOU have a Facebook account?” Really. That was cool. The second perk was playing Scrabulous with sons in two cities and the fiancé of one of them in a third. Beyond that, I’m in touch with a crew of friends, colleagues and neighbors (past and present) whose ideas and quests I’d never hear about if I weren’t in the “neighborhood.”
All that’s great. More important though is the information – on tone, content, emotion, ideology, taste, humor and dreams – that emerges from even the most cursory Facebook visit.
Just recently, Facebook friends have joined groups ranging from an international NGO bringing citizen leaders from the southern hemisphere to the US for a year to an advocacy group to get Congress to legislate reduction of the cost of birth control to groups urging Facebook to ban pro-anorexia sites and to stop banning breast feeding photos to “Can We Find 1 MILLION People That DON'T Want Smoking Back In Pubs?”
A journey outside my immediate Facebook family reveals large groups ranging from 1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T Colbert to I Bet I Can Find 1,000,000 People Who Just Want Peace to A Little Piece of Me Died with Severus Snape.
There’s nothing that isn’t on Facebook, as far as I can tell. And that means it is a great tool to scope out the relative importance of things to those savvy enough to be wandering around there in the first place. A long time ago, John Sears, one of the architects of the “resurrection” of Richard Nixon – helping to elect him president after his ignominious defeat by John Kennedy - told me that he could tell where the country was politically by what they laughed at on the Johnny Carson Show. Today’s equivalents, David Letterman and Jay Leno, as well as the more sophisticated Daily Show, may take us part of the way. But to scope out post-Tonight Show generation politics, from Obama to Clinton to McCain, pro or anti choice, pro or anti Patriot Act, Spitzer to Craig, feminist to gun owner, Facebook is the place to go. Group members by number and quality are just one reason why.
Beyond that, just poking around on the pages of “friends,” groups, and even strangers can be enormously educational. Try this. Pick a name – a pretty common one. Search it and check out maybe five of those who come up. Pick a couple who are disparate in age and, if possible, ethnicity, and explore their pages. Do the same for a couple of groups in areas that you’re hoping to reach.
Check out, for example, the reduction of the cost of birth control group. Visit it and you’ll see its size, a bit of its leadership, three discussion boards and several “all” posts by individual women and men who feel strongly about the issue.
The bottom line: Facebook aggregates engaged people, reveals their interests and helps us to understand the “tribes” with which they associate themselves. Whether for direct research or a deep dive into the zeitgeist of younger influencers, it’s an untapped and exciting resource.
[note that you must be logged into Facebook for many of the links in this post to work]
