provider perspective Another Way to Look at Facebook The Facebook social networking model is already working for many businesses. Perhaps it can work for private cable operators as well. We can set up our own site, or … use Facebook itself! By Bryan Rader ■ Bandwidth Consulting LLC I have finally joined the Facebook craze! Everybody you meet these days seems to be joining Facebook, the largest social networking site with about 200 million active users – and about a million new ones added every day. It’s a great way to reconnect with old friends, stay in touch with current ones and share personal thoughts, pictures and messages. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 while he was a student at Harvard. He initially envisioned it to be a social networking tool for Harvard students, but it quickly expanded to other East Coast colleges, then Stanford and other schools, and was eventually opened to anyone with an e-mail address in 2006. According to comScore, Facebook had 132 million unique visitors in June 2008, surpassing MySpace significantly, and is 7th in terms of worldwide traffic. So, what’s the appeal? When new users register, they can upload pictures of themselves, including family, friends and even pets. They include information about the schools they attended (high school and college), graduation year, birthday, and relationship status. And once you register, people from your past and present start to find you, sending you electronic requests to be added as your “Friend.” Over time, you will have a long list of Friends, with access to all of their photos and information on their Profile page. You will be more connected than ever with updates about their lives. Many people say Facebook can be addicting, and that you can spend a couple of hours a night reconnecting with your friends. PCO-Book There is so much to like about Facebook. I even think it could be used by private cable operators as a great social networking tool. Better yet, it could be a business development tool. Each PCO could build its own personal company profile, complete with status updates and key information. Many companies, even local retailers, have been doing just that. True, they have found that Facebook works well for communicating with end users. But some use it for business-tobusiness networking as well. Here’s how it might work: PCOs would set up a Profile page on PCO Facebook that includes key personal data such as Networks (what markets you serve), Schools (what products you offer), and Relationship Status (what your strategy for growth is, what markets you are entering or exiting). Then you would become a registered user. Each PCO could load all sorts of pictures on its Profile page. Rather than funny party pics from Aunt Mary’s wedding, PCOs would include pictures of every property they serve across their portfolio. Just as Facebook users scroll through their friends’ sites to view family photos, we would do the same to see the types of properties each PCO serves. (And of course, we would “tag” each photo so we know what market the property is in.) Each PCO would then build a network of Friends, just as they do on Facebook. Except in this case, the objective would be to reconnect with new and old property owner clients across the country. This way, PCOs could build their own databases of property owners, and periodically provide them with important updates about their company. Sure, one of the challenges of Facebook is that you can see everyone else’s Friends network. But this could only help PCOs expand their opportunities with prospective clients who enjoy doing business with non-franchise cable operators. One of the great features of Facebook is that it sends you people that it thinks you might know. This is based on your school, graduation year, or place of employment. It really helps users grow their personal network. And this concept would also help PCOs grow their Friends network. It might look for predictive features such as markets served, products offered, or common friends. What a great way to get introduced to more prospective real estate clients! Facebook allows you to provide status updates on your profile each day too. PCOs could do this as well. We might be able to send a status update to all of our Friends (actually clients and prospects) that “we just launched a property with a new digital voice provider” or “we have expanded into Texas.” This allows everyone to be updated immediately on what you are doing. And it’s better than a press release! There is also a space on every Facebook user’s page that allows Friends to post messages on their Wall for users to see. I love this idea for PCOs. We can use the Wall to receive testimonials from our real estate clients about their experience with our company and our service. How exciting! BBP About the Author Bryan J. Rader, former CEO of Media- Works before selling the company in 2006, has recently founded a new firm, Bandwidth Consulting LLC, to advise operators and providers in the MDU market segment. Contact Bryan at bryanjrader@ yahoo.com or at 636-536-0011. Learn more at www.bandwidthconsultingllc.com. 8 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | April 2009
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