Facebook: Keeping Two Steps Behind

June 22 2009, 10:45am

Facebook announced on its blog last Thursday that it was going to redesign the inbox.

Streamlining the Inbox - Posted June 18th on the Facebook Blog

While this may have excited a couple of tweens who are on Facebook 24-7, the majority of the response so far has been more apathetic: “So what?” Most users receive email alerts when they have a new message and, aside from spam and interest groups, many simply call or use the direct email address since Facebook is about “real friends,” not just “followers.” The only party benefiting from Facebook messages is Facebook: a user must visit the Facebook site, increasing page views, in order to respond to a message through its app.

Last Friday, Facebook made another big announcement: Facebook in Persian in response to the Iran Election.

Launching Facebook in Persian - Posted June 19th on the Facebook Blog

The translation of the site into the Persian language came nearly one week after the Major News Outlets versus Twitter scandal in which Twitter was able to report, react, and discuss the Iran Election faster and more effectively than Major News Networks, specifically CNN.

While I understand there is time needed to revise a website for a new market and even more time for a new language, this along with the inbox redesign begs the question: is Facebook two steps behind the market?

When Facebook first opened its network to everyone, MySpace found it difficult to keep up with the simplicity and ubiquity of Facebook’s functionality. Some would even consider MySpace dead (the extensive layoffs are not helping MySpace’s outlook). Now with Twitter booming and becoming the first stop for news and networking, it seems Facebook is having trouble keeping pace with Twitter.

No matter your business, it is important to: Listen to customers’ needs: survey customers to understand how they use the product and what features they would like the product to add or enhance. Watch the market: stay on top of trends and react quickly to the market; always have a few aces up your sleeve.

Listen to customers’ needs: It is important to touch base with customers, and even former customers, to learn how they use the product, what features are most important to them as well as least important, and what they would like the product to do in the future. There is no point spending time and resources adding or enhancing a feature that is not within the customers’ wish lists.

Now, I am not saying that Facebook did not do their research. they may have had multiple focus groups and email survey campaigns. However, based on its history for making a major change with customer backlash/boycotting, it would not surprise me if its focus group included only the marketing and development team. Whether you are B2C or B2B, it is important to look outside of your team to customers using your product.

Watch the market: In order to compete in today’s real-time global economy, you must stay on top of marketing trends large and small and react quickly to trends. I say stay on top of even small trends because you never know when a small trend will explode (after all, Twitter was a minor social network until 6 months ago when it started becoming the communications tool). By preparing for any small trend to explode, planning contingencies for those trends, you can react faster to the ever changing marketplace (I’m also talking about you, CNN…)

Facebook’s Persian language support is almost irrelevant: yes, it is great to have support for that language, but with even the White House supporting Twitter for Iran Election coverage and free speech, Facebook feels more like a copycat than a trend setter. In early 2008, Facebook started rolling out international language support and within 6 months, Facebook was in 55 different launguages through its translation app. While Persian is not in the top 20 worldwide launguages, there are 60-80 million worldwide native speakers. In addition, the region has been politically active and on the US News radar since the beginning of the Iraq war. With less government censorship than China (already on Facebook), Facebook should have been ready to deploy in Persian at a moment’s notice. With a higher barrier to entry for customers than Twitter, Facebook should have been ready before the Irani elections, regardless of the outcome.

It can seem overwhelming for some startups to do customer research, but a simple phone call or personal email can make the process easy. There will always be customers who want to share their opinion, the good and the bad, so just spend a few minutes asking customers. Or create a customer advisory board of key customers to periodically survey and test regarding new features.

Staying on top of trends is easy using social networks. By using a desktop Twitter client like Tweetdeck or Seesmic, you can set up search alerts and easily follow customers, competitors, and potential leads. You can also set up Google alerts or use a content aggregation service (like OneSpot) to stay on top of your industry.

By listening to customers and anticipating market trends, it is easy to stay relevant in a real-time global economy. While Facebook has many more issues to work out than just releasing extraneous revisions or arriving late to a market need, this past week’s updates have been a great learning lesson for any business participating online. Related articles by Zemanta Google and Facebook jump on bloodstained Iran wagon (theregister.co.uk) Tech giants rush Farsi versions (news.bbc.co.uk) In Its Rush To Offer A Persian Version, Did Facebook Violate Its Terms Of Service? (techcrunch.com) Twitter on the Barricades in Iran: Six Lessons Learned (nytimes.com) Google And Facebook Respond To Turmoil In Iran With New Services (mediabistro.com)