AttentionMax

Now that Facebook is open to everyone — not just people with a .edu email address — what will happen to the core, once-exclusive network? In my latest MediaPost column, yet another blatant regurgitation of myself from a few days ago, Annie Heckenberger from GPTMC said in the comments:

I’ve noticed a surge…and consequently a mass exodus of their core users. My 20-yr intern summed it up best: when I asked her why she deleted her facebook profile/account this week, she said, “My 6th grade cousin tried to friend me on facebook and that was it. Facebook’s over.”

I don’t think Facebook is over, but a great point has been made: it’s now something very different from what originally appealed to the core users. On one hand, people and networks must change and evolve. On another, I wonder if Facebook is making any special efforts to recognize the loyalty and contributions of its original network of users — the ones which made Facebook possible in the first place.