Where are the Jones? just tipped (or Facebook did)

I know this because 6 largely unconnected friends of mine on Facebook all just joined the Where are the Jones? group. It's been criticised thus for only attracting a daily audience of about 500 at YouTube, most of whom must be journalists, marketing strategists, media watchers or bloggers. Come to think of it most of my friends on FB are... Oh anyway it just tipped, Facebook is the ultimate cultural divining rod, right? And with the numbers so low you have a really good chance of getting your script made, assuming there are less writers than viewers. I like the episode where he says he is getting out of the car for a stretch and then farts repeatedly. It's certainly a new tone of voice for Ford advertising. :J



The other thing that's doing the rounds like wildfire is the idea that people's blogging reading and writing time is now FB time. If that's true no-one is reading this, so I might stick a note on my FB page just in case. I couldnt help noticing that Facebook in London appeasrs to be growing quite fast; it was 510,000 four weeks ago tonight its 790,000. In the introduction to Michael Birch's (Bebo founder) brilliant talk the other day at Glasshouse, Michael Smith (Firebox & Mind Candy founder) joked that its was "brilliant that so many people had taken time away from their Facebook - I mean Bebo - pages to come out tonight."

What Michael Birch predicted among other things was that the next phase of social networks - with the incorporation of video - could see them become like giant reality TV shows. That obviously links to their own rather more hyped kate modern. This programming strand from the makers of Lonely Girl 15 also features user generated suggestions in scripts. Plus Bebo have their new talent contest style partnership with Current TV. link

Bebo are also doing a lot with "music discovery"; Bebo bands. This being based on the insight that you often discover music through friends. He also thought location based mobile social nertworks would kick off, as your virtual life and your real life collide (how many friends are within 500m now...?). It's certainly true that when people meet today they seem to use Facebook as a social alternative to biz cards. He also said that the new wave were all about real friends/conversations rather than MySpace style friends collecting which seems to be true.

Fascinating times we live in, as we say every year.