Is Facebook Bottle-Necked?

Facebook was growing fast, looking like the next big thing, able to leap past Google and other large internet information and social exchanges, but now it seems nearly dead in its tracks!  What’s going on with this and why may it not work out after all?

Yes, Facebook has found a niche with social networking but it leaves some important things on the table which other platforms still outperform.  There has been a lot of speculation about where our internet experience is headed in the future, and yes, Facebook looked great, about a year ago.  Maybe it will go the way of Super 8 film, Betamax and other failed fads or technologies which are still with us, like the yo-yo, but not quite getting the long-term burn or taking over the world.  So what’s really missing?

Business!  Facebook does have social network pages but they have not grown into the real opportunity that it showed previously.  It lacks a real effort in advertising and is currently too difficult to build out into a meaningful business page which could lead people to the overall objective of placing an order.  Yes, you can get people to “like” the page and say they “like” the product but there is no real opportunity for visitors to learn, be enticed, or make any decision at all.  It seems that really “liking” a product or service is still contingent upon word of mouth.  The lack of expansive capability to truly link up a business page on Facebook and show product or service in a meaningful way causes it to completely lack the feel and effect of a verbally communicated “hey, look what I bought” or “check this out”. 

I really believe something much better than Facebook must be on the horizon and it won’t be long until looking at faces is about all people really do with the current platform, along with some chit-chat.  We may have reached our capacity on Facebook already.  If not, they better roll out a new platform very quickly!  The last 2 updates have added little.