Facebook Workshop on August 29, 2011 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Frankfurt

60 participants divided into two groups of 30

The participants came from companies like Robert Bosch AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Süddeutsche Zeitung, DeTEMedien GmbH, B&L Mediengesellschaft mbH&Co.KG, Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr AöR, Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main GmbH& Co.KG, The Swatch Group, comdirekt Bank AG, Hermes&Friends, Hugendubel GmbH and Flughafen München GmbH to name but a few.

Examples of well-designed company FB pages: Telekom erleben, L'Oréal Deutschland and mobilcom-debitel.de.

We are on the verge of major social change: “Fundamental cultural shifts in what we find to be normal or acceptable to be private.” Private is a thing of the past. Today, “public is the new private”, at least according to Facebook. “Social media is here to stay and we are going to have to learn to deal with it,” – this could be the headline of this workshop. And social media is not something that can be dealt with as a matter of secondary importance.

After its launch in 2004, Facebook is already the second largest site after YouTube. Industry insiders are talking about Facebook as the second internet. It is estimated that there are an unverified 687 million users worldwide. There are around 150 million in the USA alone, 40 million in Indonesia, 34 million in India, 30 million in the UK, 25 million in Brazil, 16 million in Canada and around 20 million users in Germany. The figures fluctuate as people register for Facebook every minute.

This rapid boom is continuing and is not only explained by people’s desire for communication and exchange with their community but also by the need to “do something good” and to discuss it. Facebook acts as an amplifier with a high-power technical range: “Unique active users generate viral effects,” as a dynamic network of relationships is created.

The young Berlin artist and chart topper Tim Bendzko describes our accelerated information and communication behavior in his song “Nur noch kurz die Welt retten”. Technology enables us to be omnipresent and to participate and comment on everything, which is how we already describe networking on our latest censhare website. There is so much happening in the world - we share our “intellectual property”, we indicate our “likes”, “join up”‚ “comment” ‚”create”‚ “message”‚ “get involved”, “learn”, “tag”, “watch” “play games” and “network” for all we’re worth and Google absorbs the data we churn out on Facebook, for example, in order to evaluate, sort, analyze and archive it.

But malinformation and even criminal activity are also revealed and denounced by users on Facebook . The platform serves as a new means for media services, marketing firms and companies to obtain profile information. Even police forces use Facebook for investigations. In this respect, a police magazine describes Facebook as a “real treasure trove.”

The average age of users is just under 45, which suggests that it is not just the “digital natives” who are found here, especially since 45% of new users registering in recent months were aged over 50. A third of women aged between 18 and 34 who use the site check their Facebook messages in the morning before going into the bathroom.

Companies which position themselves on Facebook should consider that their employees as well as their target groups can act as potential advocates of the company. This would suggest that the business model should be based on potential fans and less on customers who subsequently act like partners.

The company Disney, for example, has over 26.6 million fans thanks to Facebook, a figure which is rising. And the Coca Cola brand has already broken the 30-million fan barrier. The development of an increasing fan community is of course dependent on the fact that we can connect with the entire world population who use such sites. The company itself enters into dynamic, real-time dialogue with its fans through the new media and can initiate authentic exchanges on relevant topics and continue them on an ongoing basis. The response of the target group is a key factor. What do they want? Companies should set up monitoring based on feedback and learn to integrate the messages into their processes to generate a value-creation chain. A company’s fan community can be constantly increased through initiatives, campaigns and incentives for sharing information.

But one thing we should bear in mind with FB is that the web does not forget – all information and content posted are collected in a database. Online content is not conveyed like TV. Content should therefore be selected with care. And you should be aware, for example, that using the “like” button with articles, videos or products is providing personal data. Facebook therefore faces constant public criticism because of these data protection practices.

I have personally used Facebook since 2009 and read my community’s posted links and information like a daily newspaper. At the same time, there are opinions on the content from all over the world. This ensures lively, productive dialogue with a pool of inexhaustible resources continuously feeding in. Friendships emerge based on common interests which inevitably also lead to activities outside of the web.

And the best thing is that, thanks to Facebook, nobody forgets my birthday so easily anymore!

Information: New Facebook timeline

Ursula Rinke

Ursula Alma Rinke was producer of TV shows like „Wetten, dass...?“, editor of the lifestyle magazine „Leute heute" at ZDF and also author of a live TV show at Bayrisches Fernsehen for many years. She is currently working as a free-lance journalist for print magazines, for WDR, HR and ZDF. She supports censhare with the set-up of a WebVideo section. For more than 15 years, she has been consultant to various NGO’s such as UNHCR.

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