Ok so on Twitter, of course I'm following more strangers than I'm following friends. Maybe because some of my friends aren't on Twitter. Maybe because I don't want to follow friends on Twitter, I want to follow others who will become friends. But Twitter seems to think that instead of following strangers, people will find tweeting more fun if they can find their friends on Twitter. So they added a Find Friends feature which allows you to find Facebook and LinkedIn friends to Twitter.

You can find which of your friends are on Twitter using the Twitter Facebook. You can follow them instantly or add them to a list. Of course you can also post tweets directly to Facebook's pages when posting to your Twitter profile.

Twitter LinkedIn shows you which of your Linkedin connections are on Twitter. You can follow them and also post tweets on Linkedin.

Ok so! If you are my friend, now I can be your friend also on Facebook, and connect on LinkedIn, AND follow you on Twitter.

Uh but why do I NEED to connect with my same friend everywhere???

Since Google Buzz's launch a few days ago, most people opined that Google's newest plan to engage in the social networking arena was to give Facebook and Twitter a run for their money. But Google VP of product management, Bradley Horowitz, assured critics & others that that was not their plan. Hmmmm…..

He said that Google's Buzz is focusing on creating "conversation" which is missing in most other social networks.

Double hmmm!
 
Horowitz emphasized that for Google's  Buzz conversation and engagement was the focus and it wasn't just about checking or updating status like people do on Facebook or Twitter. Google also plans to create services around that engagement and interaction.
 
OKAY! So the Buzz is different according to Google. But I just don't see the difference yet; at least not from the standpoint of engagement. I engage with people on Twitter. I do a lot more engagement with people on Facebook than I do on Twitter. I've checked out Google's Buzz and I see the same kind of opportunity to engage. Except now I can stay on the Buzz and also email people.

Anyone want to enlighten me as to what I'm missing that's so special about the Buzz that it fills a "market need"?

So Facebook was a bit unaccessible yesterday. I read people complaining on Twitter and other sites about how frustrated they were that Facebook wasn't loading or had a lot of errors.

Hello!!! People! What's wrong with this picture?

Social networks are there to help us have fun and connect and interact so that we have fun in our lives. But our life should not become so dependent on social networks that their unavailability makes us frustrated and angry. I personally find it quite funny that people were complaining about their time being wasted because they couldn't get on Facebook and someone actually threatened to cancel their account if Facebook didn't get their act together.

If Facebook's down, pick up the phone and call your friends and family. spend some time with a family member. Aren't we missing the point here if our life is going to get stressed out over online networking?

If you have a Facebook account, you know how fun it is to get connected to friends and family, how easy it is to share information and photos, and essentially stay connected to others, right?

Well, all this "sharing" is making Facebook a huge traffic source for information. Compete Inc, which is a web measurement firm reports that Facebook has bypassed Google to become the top source for traffic. I don't know about Facebook bypassing Google but it certainly appears to be a site from which I personally click on a lot of links to go find information. When a friend posts something on Facebook that is interesting, and it contains a link, how often do you click on that link? I know that I do and I also share it with my friends when it is especially interesting.

So is Facebook now the new "search engine"? Well if others do what I do and if people are indeed going from Facebook to other sites, the I can see how Facebook can become the new version of an informational search engine. So instead of just being a portal to connect friends and businesses, Facebook is perhaps a great information source too.

On a closing note, did you know that recently Facebook reported that it has 400 million active members!  If you are a business NOT yet on Facebook, can you calculate the lost opportunity cost?
 

Let's do the math:

• Approximately 400 million users on Facebook – most are active users
• Approximately 75 million Twitter users of which about 15 million are active Twitter users
• Approximately 60 million LinkedIn users

(Note: I didn't do the research to come up with the statistics. These came from smarter people who love digging into data)

So why are you NOT on social networks?
 
Are these your reasons?

"Ah, our industry doesn't have too many computer savvy people"

"Advertising provides us really good ROI, no point in changing what works"

"No one searches on Facebook, isn't that just for family stuff?"

"We spend about $60K in trade shows and industry publication and it works".

"No time."

"Can't afford it"
 
Let me summarize the lost opportunity cost as follows:

• If your competition is on Facebook and you aren't, guess who'll get the inquiry when a need arises?
   
• If you aren't found on the first page of Google, Yahoo or Bing but your competition is, no question about who'll snag that client.
   
• If you aren't engaging with your constituents, guess who'll get the edge? Yep, your competitor who is engaging.
   
• If you aren't listening to conversations about your company's products, calculate how much you will be spending on damage control.

Get online. Get engaged. Listen to conversations about your brand.