We won't need Facebook to be social

Charlene Li on social media's effect on society, and why the meaning of 'friend' needs to change

Several years from now, we won't need Facebook to be social or connected, predicted Charlene Li, founder of digital strategies consulting firm Altimeter, and host of VatorNews' show Socialize This. That's a pretty strong statement about the world's biggest social network, with over 200 million members.

In this interview, Li talks to me about the evolution of social media. 

BF: How is society being shaped by the ability for anyone to contribute to this global dialogue? 

CL: It’s something that’s been slowly evolving. The World Wide Web is 20 years old this year. The evolution was first about getting information at your fingertips, and then it was  about buying and selling anything. The sense of power now that you have as an individual has been slowly increasing. Now I have the ability to say anything I want, by doing something as easy as filling out a form. And, this whole act of sharing, the generosity of sharing  - sharing thoughts, reviews - is bringing people closer. If you think about what makes us human is the ability to communicate and create relationships. Now, these social technologies to create relationships across cultures and languages is really powerful.

BF: You’ve talked about this idea of de-friending. I do think the word “friend” has lost its meaning. How many followers and friends do you need? This term needs to change.

CL: It does. The idea of friend needs to change. I have over 2,000 of people who are friends on Facebook. I have this friend-management problem on Facebook. There are people who are friends of mine, and there are friends from college who I’m not invested in their life. Then there’s the professional friends. I end up accepting everyone as friends because I don’t have time to mange friends. The same with followers; my strategy on Twitter is to get the most followers. But I’m not aggressively counting the followers. Everyone has a different personal strategy. I think people are defriending now because they feel they have had the wrong strategy about relatinships.

BF: Is it about cutting down your friends on Facebook? Or why not just go to another niche community to make those closer bonds and connections?

CL: I think it’s about going to specialty sites. But it’s hard for friends and network to get them on different sites. I would like to broadcast personal things to my friends on Facebook. But I can’t do that now. So friend management of not only who they are, but what they see.

BF: How do teenagers interact with social networks vs. adults?

CL: For teenagers, it’s a way of life for them. For adults, it’s a destination. For anyone under 25 years old, they’re constantly connected. Don’t try to cut off their Facebook page. It’s on their phone. Email really isn’t a place for them but it’s a way for them to connect with people who aren’t on social networks. As for adults, our way of connecting is through email and Facebook is an adjunct thing. It’s the 80/20 principle. For teenagers, about 80% of the time they’re on social networks, 20% of the time, they’re on other services.

BF: Facebook Connect and Open ID – they’re both trying to make it easy for people to move from one network to another.

CL: Facebook Connect is very well developed, and completely integrated and it’s easy. Open Social, Open ID, they’re part of the open stack – there’s six to seven different protocols and standards that are cobbled together. It’s powerful because it’s everyone else outside of Facebook.  Facebook is trying to work with Open ID. I think in three to four years, Facebook Connect and Open ID will be tied together. Use Facebook Connect.

BF: How will social media evolve in two years?

CL: Social networks will be like air. They’ll be anywhere you want them to be. Think about the shopping experience. It’s a lonely experience. You have ratings and reviews. Wouldn’t it be beter to see reviews from someone you know. That’s dispersed across the Internet in little silos. And, I think in five years we’ll look back and think it’s odd that you have to go to Facebook to be social.