Straight talk on social media
If you've been told to Twitter or flirted with Facebook for business but haven't quite signed on, consider this:
"The globe’s largest online social network boasts over 350m users which, were it a nation, would make Facebook the world’s third most populous after China and India."
That's more people signed on with Facebook than are alive and breathing in the United States.
With such data in hand, The Economist devotes nearly 20 pages in its January 30th issue to exploring, with sober restraint, the promise and potential of the most disruptive technology to emerge in the new millennium.
If you're a social media acolyte, be warned, The Economist hypes the industry more sparingly than most, issuing a stern call for results:
"Social networks have also generated great expectations along the way on which they must now deliver. They need to prove to the world that they are here to stay. They must demonstrate that they are capable of generating the returns that justify the lofty valuations investors have given them."
If you're the cautious type who's avoided social media articles saturated like baklava with sticky sweet promise, then this is the series for you. It's relatively restrained and numbers-minded. Yes, it's doe-eyed and hopeful (on behalf of the market) but focused on measurable results.
A World of Connections: A special report on social networking
January 30, 2010
Included in this special report are the following articles:
- Global swap shops: Why social networks have grown so fast and how Facebook has become so dominant.
- Twitter’s transmitters: The magic of 140 characters.
- Profitting from friendship: Social networks have a better chance of making money than their critics think.
- A peach of an opportunity: Small businesses are using networks to become bigger.
- Yammering away at the office: A distraction or a bonus?
- Social contracts: The smart way to hire workers.
- Privacy 2.0: Give a little, take a little.
- Towards a socialised state: The joy of unlimited communications
