There were a couple of interesting social networking milestones that were just passed (as of this writing). Facebook and Twitter just accumulated their 500 millionth and 100 millionth accounts, respectively. To put that into perspective, if they were nations instead of online communities, Facebook would be the third largest country on the planet, behind China and India but ahead of every other country. If each account on Facebook is one person, that means nearly one out of every eleven people on the planet are on Facebook (which is remarkable considering that more than a fifth of the planet – China -- can’t even get to Facebook). Twitter, in comparison, would be the 12th largest country (not counting Facebook) with a population just larger than the Philippines and just smaller than Mexico. Granted neither Facebook nor Twitter accounts map one-to-one with people, and not all of those accounts are active, but numbers that large are still remarkable.
Which begs the question in my mind: what is that size “community” good for besides marketing? Marketing opportunities can be lucrative to be sure, and are certainly responsible for keeping the lights on. But increasingly social media is about doing something other than accumulating a large and colorful variety of cute farm animals: getting a political candidate elected (or booted out of office); raising funds for a good cause (Haitian earthquake victims, for instance); righting social wrongs (exposing corrupt police or politicians).
Nations (when properly motivated) can accomplish great things that individuals and even communities cannot. What great things will Twitternation and Facebooknation do? Time will tell.
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