2 key points to note, succinctly put in the Forrester Blogs (this one by Sean Corcoran)
Facebook continues to be the centre of earned media – it’s reached the 750million mark as of today.
It’s already the number one place for online word-of-mouth and, according to today’s announcement, 4 billion things are shared every day – a rate that has doubled in the past year alone. And with Open Graph and Facebook Connect, Facebook not only has a walled garden destination, but now lives nearly everywhere across the web collecting data on millions if not billions of earned media (both word-of mouth conversations and shared branded content). This makes Facebook, even in the wake of the new shiny object of Google+, still very relevant for marketers.
New partnerships could have greater impact. While the Skype partnership in itself may not have significant impact for marketers, the fact that Facebook is more open to partners building on their platform could. For instance, Facebook already has partnerships with Bing (another Microsoft product) and EA, and many speculate a deeper Netflix integration could be on the way. These deals could lead to more opportunities for marketers to leverage Facebook’s massive network through video, search, gaming, commerce, and more.
Conclusions – Facebook shows no sign of going away and Google+ is looking for the fight – so it’s clear that both these Colossus’ stand astride the digital market place in the clear knowledge that is where the people are. If your business needs people as customers, how are you gearing up your marketing plans to include the amazing possibilities on offer?