Two questions for my Facebook friends

I just posted the following on Facebook, and I'm sharing it here to enhance (I hope) the likelihood of getting responses:

Hi everyone - just curious... 

I created my Facebook account a couple of years ago because it was one of the hot new things that journalists were being encouraged to use (the other one was Twitter). I'm still here because so many other people are here, so it seems like it should be an effective way to share information.

But I don't like it.

I'm not saying that I hate it, although I might have said that at one time. Just that I don't like it. When I log in to Facebook, it is because it seems necessary, not because I enjoy it.

But the way that Facebook keeps growing tells me that I must be missing something. Maybe it's just the way that I use it that prevents me from enjoying it the way others do. Maybe other people see something - or lots of somethings - that I don't.

I'm willing to learn, so I'm asking:

What do you LIKE most about Facebook?
What do you DISLIKE most about Facebook?

 Thanks for any and all responses!

Part of my issue may be that I don't use Facebook the way some people (lots of people, apparently) do. At PsychCentral.com, senior news editor Rick Nauert writes about a study by Kevin Wise, an assistant professor of strategic communication at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, of "How People Use Facebook.":

Wise categorized participants’ actions into two different groups: social browsing and social searching. (italics mine)

He defines social browsing as navigating the site without a targeted goal in mind. Wise says people use social browsing when they survey the general landscape, such as their newsfeed or wall, without looking for specific information. 

Wise defines social searching as searching the social networking site with the goal of finding certain information about a specific person, group, or event.

Wow. I don't think I've ever used Facebook to find information, other than using it to find out whether or not someone is on Facebook. Otherwise, the idea of using Facebook to find information strikes me as bizarre.

Wise found that participants tended to spend much more time on social searching than social browsing. Not only did participants spend more time on social searching, but they seemed to enjoy it more as well.

“We found a more positive response from participants during social searching, or when they had homed in on a particular target,” Wise said.

“Ultimately, it appears that Facebook use is largely a series of transitions between browsing the environment, then focusing in on something interesting or relevant.”

So, maybe I will find Facebook more interesting if I learn to use it as a source - like the 48 percent of young Americans who find out about news through Facebook.

Meanwhile, I need to explore more of Facebook's features. Two features that I do not expect to find would make Facebook much more appealing to me.

1. I wish Facebook had chatrooms. I miss the dynamic of sharing a screen with a dozen or more people, friends and strangers alike, who share an interest in a given topic. I developed friendships with people that way. I just learned that Facebook has the ability to create chatrooms, through groups. Gotta try that out. 
2. I wish I could filter my feed(s) by topic. When I go online, I am generally not looking to see what people I know are doing; I am generally looking for topic-related information.

Maybe I'll drop a bug in Mark Zuckerberg's ear about those ideas. Does the Hacker Way include paying close attention to user feedback?

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 3

Just got back from a trip to Chesapeake, Virginia. On Friday, I joined a bunch of other kinfolk in attending the change of command ceremony in which our nephew, Vernon H. Stanfield, assumed command of his first ship, the USS Whidbey Island.

On Sunday, J. and I celebrated my 60th birthday with dinner and a movie ("The Artist").

Yesterday, while I wasn't looking, Instagram announced that it is being acquired by Facebook.

The price? $1 BILLION.

Again, remember what Instagram is - a company with one product that does one thing, and which has zero revenues (what have co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger lived on til now?).

And now Mark Zuckerberg says, "I want it. Here's $1 billion."

Of course, it's not an all-cash deal: Instagram's owners will get a combo of cash and Facebook stock. Still, the deal is a staggeringly powerful reminder that going public is not the only way to establish a company's value. Another is selling off pieces to private equity. And a third is by selling it to another company.

The tricky thing about the third way is that the price being paid may bear no resemblance to what the company would fetch on the open market. I doubt that if Instagram had done an IPO now, it would have weighed in at $1 billion.

But that is neither here nor there. When a single buyer makes and offer, however cockeyed, that buyer IS the market.

My #1 takeaway? Not only is it possible to build a billion-dollar enterprise in five years, it is possible to do it IN 18 MONTHS (Systrom and Krieger launched Instagram in October, 2010).

Meanwhile, another news item invites a contrast-and-compare exercise: Tumi Holdings, Inc., which makes high-end travel bags, is planning an IPO to raise up to $319.3 million. At the high end of the proposed price range of $15-17, the company would be valued at $1.15 billion, just a sliver more than Instagram.

Tumi has been in business for 25 years.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 2 - Creating a corporate culture

I recently came across a blog post by Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup," about The Hacker Way as the heart of Facebook's culture.

The post reminds me of something I began to believe a couple of years ago: that a founding CEO's primary job is to create a corporate culture. Indeed, that is something a founding CEO does whether they intend to or not. So, it behooves a founder to do it with deep intention.

Apparently, Mark Zuckerberg did it with deep intention at Facebook, and he continues to do so. Reis quotes from Zuckerberg's letter accompanying Facebook's filing for an IPO:

The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it - often in the face of people who say it's impossible or are content with the status quo.

Zuckerberg says that at Facebook, The Hacker Way is expressed in five core values: 

• focus on impact
• move fast
• be bold
• be open
• build social value.

I find all of that gratifying because I was already trying to incorporate the hacker ethos into my life, and I can buy into all of those values. So by living more fully what is already in my head, I may be able to produce results similar to Zuckerberg's.

Do I need to hack Homewood Nation? Do I need to get some people to help me hack Homewood Nation? What would doing that look like, and how might that affect the culture of Luminaria Productions?

********************

Wow, I wish I had a light bulb icon, because something just came on...I have viewed problems as annoying because I have not learned to regard problem-solving as fun, the way hackers do. One reason (not the only) is that I have not seen people having fun solving problems. I tend to be around people who deal with problems that seem inherently depressing, if not tragic. Not to mention intractable.

But my own response to problems is not entirely a result of what I see in other people. How can I learn to view problems as fun, rather than as merely annoying?

Part of the answer, I think, is to develop greater confidence that I can solve them. Which may best happen by consciously getting better at solving them. There are problem-solving strategies and approaches out there, available for the reading. Read. Think. Do. Learn.

Meanwhile, thinking about corporate cultures revives my fantasy of going to Pixar and saying, "I'd like to work here. I'll do anything. For free. Just let me learn how you guys do things."

I developed that fantasy before Disney gobbled Pixar, but Disney's another case to learn from. Walt Disney's been dead nearly 50 years, but Disney marches on. Without having read Walt Disney's life story, my first guess is that that's because he established a durable culture.

I must create a culture within Luminaria Productions within which people have fun solving problems. Which begins with me learning to have fun solving problems.

Now, THAT - should be....