Acclaimed author, blogger and analyst, Brian Solis, has dismissed research forecasting the impending death of Facebook.
The research, published last week by Princeton, predicted that Facebook would lose 80% of its user base within the next three years. Princeton's researchers arrived at this figure by comparing the growth curves of epidemics to those of social networks.
Speaking earlier this week at an exclusive webinar for SmartFocus clients, Solis described the research model as 'broken'.
'Facebook has a simple purpose - to change and improve how the world connects and communicates. Facebook has 1.2 billion users, email has 3.3 billion. We keep talking about networks that we say are going to die, yet they keep getting bigger and bigger. It's not going anywhere.'
Solis also gave his perspective on claims that Facebook is doomed to follow the path of MySpace, Bebo and other once-huge networks that eventually fizzled out.
'You know, everybody expects Facebook to be the next MySpace. But what we all seem to forget is that MySpace died because it was a horrible experience. It evolved into the ghetto of social media.'
However, he also urged marketers not to rely solely on Facebook, warning them against a single-channel social policy.
'It's not the only strategy in order to engage people. You have to recognise that there are many networks which your customers may or may not use - and how they use them might be different to how your competitors or their customers use these networks.'
Solis recommended that marketers interested in a 'more social science approach to marketing' download his Conversation Prism - a visual map of the social media landscape that tracks dominant and promising social networks and organises them by how they are used in everyday life.
To learn more about Brian Solis' views on Facebook, the social media landscape and the future of marketing, watch the on-demand webinar. To download a free copy of his Conversation Prism, visit conversationprism.com. The new Brian Solis book, What's the Future of Business: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences' is available now.