When Tyra Banks’ produces several episodes of her talk show devoted to Facebook, you know that the craze is about to end. After all, how much longer can we collectively go on poking one another, playing Farmville, and designing our own flare? Apparently, forever. Social networking cynics expected Facebook to have a Myspace-like descent into humility when the nation momentarily went Tweet crazy. After all, this seems to be the Internets version of natural selection: the weak get swallowed up or become extinct while the strong continue to evolve. Facebook falls into the latter catagory much to the delight of folks like Tyra Banks, Time magazine, and every reporter in the country. In fact, stories about how Facebook can effect a legal verdict, fuel a feud between coach and athlete, and help the US Embassy connect with Iraquis all surfaced within the last week. Even moviegoers won’t be able to avoid the “F” word when the film The Social Network, which chronicles the lives of Facebook’s founders, heads into theaters this October. While many of us are experiencing a FB OD (Facebook overdose), there is still no reason not to use the social networking giant’s never ending publicity to our own advantage.
Stories and press releases related to Facebook are still hot to get picked up by wire services and online publications. Therefore, each time your business updates their fan page, adds new deals available to Facebook friends, or posts recent videos is potentially the opportunity to generate free publicity based on the public’s hunger for all things Facebook. Granted, the stories and press releases should be newsworthy and unique. Or, at the very least, the stories should be fun like Pringles.  Pringles, the purveyor of salty snacks has generated press for using their fan page as a virtual screening room for original videos all based on the universal love of the crispy little chip-like things that come from a red can. Thousands of Pringles fans click onto the frequently updated page to watch the latest in snack food cinema. Brands like Red Bull and Addidas also making headlines with their Facebook page innovations. Celebrities, politicians, and non-profit organizations continue to piggyback on Facebook’s omnipresence in the media.
So why don’t you too? Even if you’re a reluctant and somewhat closeted Facebook user (like yours truly), the PR benefits are undeniable. Facebook and other social media sites are fantastic avenues to speak directly to your clients, vendors, and fans. Morever, great Facebook stories mean great coverage.
I would venture to guess that it’s Twitter, not Facebook, that will begin to decline. Not because people don’t like to “tweet,” but because the platform is relatively easy to emulate. It seems to me that Facebook could become a competitor of Twitter a lot easier than Twitter could become a competitor of Facebook.