Friday, September 24, 2010

The Week Mark Zuckerberg Becomes a Household Name

A few days before a new movie about web phenom Facebook and it's founder Mark Zuckerberg is set to debut, the social network did a little double damage control.

Numerous publications have portrayed Zuckerberg's 100 million dollar donation to the Newark NJ school system as a preemptive strike against any negative light he may be portrayed in, in the movie.

Next chapter :  On Thursday, Facebook faced their longest outage in 4 years followed quickly by an apology to users.

The social network that rocketed to fame continues that trend unabated despite numerous privacy advocacy groups protesting new 'open' policies and literally forcing the company to change many user options .... more than once.

In the meantime, the 'average Facebook user' might be found checking out their friends' latest status message on their iPhone or Droid X.

This piece is about two simple FACTS.

1) The 'average' user has no clue about the numerous changes to Facebook.  Most could actually care less.  Factually, businesses worldwide continue to embrace Facebook as a significant part of their marketing programs at an incredible pace.

The Facebook express continues to roll and embrace more users ... home, mobile and business,  perhaps eclipsing the unprecedented growth of Google as well as striking a challenge to the search giant's primary income source ... web advertising.  More importantly, unlike other popular advertisers' favorites like Twitter, Facebook is already making money .....

2) Despite the fact that it would be more than difficult to currently define what an 'average Facebook user' is, one thing is certain.  Pretty much everyone that you know knows what Facebook is, and most of them probably have an account.  Considering Facebook's timeline, that alone is HUGE.

As for Zuckerberg, like it or not, this is his big week. 

Ask your buddies (preferably non-techies) who he is.  The reality is that very few people will recognize his name.

Simply because 'the movie' is all about Facebook, this is the week that Mark Zuckerberg will become a household name.

Yes, the 26 year old that was just named to the Forbes 400 wealthiest list this past week above Steve Jobs, joins Jobs, Bill Gates and others in the tech gallery of this generation's most recognized names.

Ask your pals in a couple of weeks if they know who Zuckerberg is.  It's a safe bet they will.  As for Zuckerberg, it's a pretty safe bet he'll be doing a few more interviews than he has in the past.

Want to know more about 'the real' Mark Zuckerberg.  You can follow him on Facebook here.

Links, content updated Sept 24 2010 2:39 AM ET

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