The other day I saw the Facebook film about Mark Zuckerberg “The Social Network” based on Ben Mezrich‘s 2009 nonfiction book The Accidental Billionaires. Fact or fiction, the film paints a very human portrait of seemingly insensitive Mark Zuckerberg.
The film could have easily had a different name such as “Good Artists Borrow. Great Artists Steal,” Misunderstood“ or even the old quote “Heavy is the head that wears the crown.”
The film was written by Aaron Sorkin. None of the Facebook staff, including founder Mark Zuckerberg, will be involved with the project. Eduardo Saverin, was a consultant for Mezrich’s book.
My question is how can someone, fifteen days younger than me, accused of calling his users “dumb *****” and making business cards that read “I’m CEO…B*tch,” still be the youngest billionaire in history?
I’ve been a Facebook user through its many iterations. Facebook and I have had our own tumultuous relationship. I have dumped Facebook–I have crept back in the middle of the night to my patiently waiting lap-top to undelete my profile. I then had the mixed feeling of relief and nervousness to find all of my information perfectly in tact.
To answer my own question above, the reason Mark Zuckerberg can get away with acting belligerent, is there is only one Facebook. His product, while flawed and not ideal for business use, speaks for itself. It truly is addicting.
What was interesting in seeing the reactions to the film about The Facebook was something in the paper. The Guardian:
Mark Zuckerberg is portrayed in the film [The Social Network] as a highly intelligent, socially awkward young man driven by the ultimate goal of making the world more connected – ironically at the cost of his own friendships.
CRM & Social Media: Relationship Status? “Undecided”
Social media has gone mainstream.Maybe it’s the fact that my local greasy spoon restaurant is on Facebook. I remember five years ago, like Mark, using Livejournal. We have come a long way.
But now there is another shift going on. More related to something more serious than blogging on Livejournal.
For one a mini war in the blogosphere and on Twitter. Many of you have vocalized your annoyance to me regarding the social media vs. CRM war. I agree-I’m not a fan of public lashings—it’s just unnecessary. When was the last time you had a Director of Marketing or CMO contact you after reading a comment publicly disciplining another blogger?
Yah me neither.
Serious Business for Serious People
The discussions about the validity of Facebook for business bring up a bigger issue. The folks who are on “the business side” (whatever that means) position the social media marketers and PR people as fluffy. Social media=not serious business.
I’m tired of reading that the social media world is full of ego-stroking and wasted budgets. That “real business people” don’t exist within social media. Social media is here. It’s mainstream.
Arguably Social CRM will be mainstream soon as well.
The Business Side of Creativity
Facebook was originally built to solve a problem-according to “The Social Network” the problem was he couldn’t get girls. Mark Zuckerberg spent hours and hours and hours programming. That was what he was good at. Translating ideas into code and making them appear as user friendly tools for his peers to connect. He turned that loneliness or feelings of social inadequacy into a brilliant product. So far no one can touch him.
Mark Zuckerberg might be some kind of mad artist. I should know because I grew up around them. My mother is an artist.
Her friends tell me artists and business people are the same. They are problem solvers. Problem solving and creation of art both stem from creativity. Kathy Herrmann once commented on my old blog. She wrote something I’ll never forget:
There are two ways to express power: as control or creativity. Control is a destructive force that drives people apart. Creativity brings forth something new and life-giving.
And here’s the thing about control versus creativity. They’re opposing ends of the same continuum.
You can’t do both at the same time.
So are you creating or controlling?
