Overview
Facebook (www.facebook.com) is the leading social networking site on the internet with more than 350 million unique registered users, 120 million monthly unique visitors, and globally the second most visited site on the web (www.google.com is number 1). Facebook provides a web utility that allows users to connect to friends, family, coworkers, acquaintances, and groups by sharing notes, status posts, links, photos, and videos.
Strengths
Facebook provides a free means to rapidly identify, recruit, and communicate with many individuals simultaneously. Status updates (the most common form of communication on Facebook) are typically simple text strings limited to a few lines or less. Status updates on Facebook and other social networks are a form of micro-blog. Photos, videos, links, and events may also be added. Friend requests are sent via individual users to other persons as well as private groups and events to obtain their approval prior to providing access to content. Public groups and events do not require similar confirmation.
Weaknesses
Facebook is blocked by many organizations and agencies due its extraordinary ability and potential to drain productivity, limiting its utility in some professional settings. Also, personal and professional friends can not be partitioned, potentially leading to inappropriate contexts for specific content. Documents (e.g., .doc, .pdf, .ppt, .xls) cannot be uploaded and shared directly via Facebook (although FTP and links to webpages are possible). The popularity of Facebook may also dilute the power of individual messages because many messages come across a Facebook page on a daily basis. Therefore, constant review is often needed or many messages can be missed or disregarded.
Examples
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintains a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/US-Fish-and-Wildlife-Service/28248315774), which it uses to provide small news items and links to larger stories regarding conservation of federal trust resource species. Tennessee’s Watchable Wildlife page provides information on birds and sites to bird watch in Tennessee (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tennessees-Watchable-Wildlife/189817486433). The Nature Conservancy similarly maintains a Facebook fan page; however, this organization has also developed cause-related marketing application that allows people to immediately contribute ($342,000 to date; http://apps.facebook.com/causes/2979). Additionally, The Nature Conservancy has partnered with the (Lil) Green Patch application (one of many applications available on Facebook) which raises money through advertisers as users send virtual plants to one another. To date, $210,000 has been donated to The Nature Conservancy’s Adopt-an-Acre program. Potential exists to develop professional networks on Facebook for many conservation partnerships.
Further reading
A tour of Facebook and a help forum is available here: http://www.facebook.com/help/
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