Ding...Ding...Facebook Hits 800,000 in Toronto, Where To From Here?

Hurray, Facebook has now become part of 800,000 Torontonian lives (or about 1 in 6 Hogtowners)! Boo, London just leapfrogged over our Facebook leadership and is about to hit 1,000,000.

Here's what I find what's interesting between the numbers:

1) even my tech troglodyte friends have a latent need to understand what's going on out here...kind of like suburban married folk who really want to know how single urbanites live.
As the picture denotes, we've at a tipping point, anybody that was an early adopter are members already (with the possible exception of people who have an austere view to personal privacy) - the masses, based out of fear of being left out, are likely about to jump onboard soon - it wouldn't surprise me if 2,000,000 becomes our Toronto saturation number  at some point next year

2) with the exception of CBC, I haven't seen a lot of  marketers advertising their presence on Facebook within traditional media - maybe reasonable given  the notion of "why drive traffic to one media to another" - but still I believe there is a bit of  first mover currency for those who do advertise their presence

3) myself and some colleagues tumbled through the numbers last week, we know Canadian Facebookers may in fact be younger than our US counterparts --- we just don't know how much younger - disparities in official figures are too wide across geographies to credibly present them (anywhere from 11% to 40% of people on Facebook are 35 years or older). Anybody with some real authority please let us know.

4) I am always astonished to see people in my business (communications/marketing/media) proudly claim they aren't on Facebook as if they've joined some cool non-joiner club that smokes in the digital alleyways and are tough enough not to join the "cult". So what you're saying is that because of pride, ego or fear, you're not at least going to sample a cultural phenomenon that takes up an inordinate amount of your consumer/viewer/user's time, enthusiasm, insight and a great part of marketing's future. Foolhardy. It's the same people I met years ago that bought and purchased media yet never watched TV.

5) this is a new medium with new rules. We're so excited by its prospects that our company is setting up a part of our business dedicated to building Facebook group pages (the right way), sponsored groups and applications, auditing Facebook content, providing collective group pages and providing general consultancy on Facebook.   

6) from a word of mouth standpoint, it is incredibly powerful. People don't hide behind fake profiles (My Space), people are so well connected that it functions as a surrogate form of email (unlike LinkedIn), acquiring networks of like-minded friends is easy (unlike building a slow and steady readership through blogging). It is a perfect storm of buzz ready to happen for clients who are willing to cede a little bit of control, join the conversation and provide stuff that is useful not just self-serving.

7) predictions for the future:
- better RSS feeds to ensure people understand the importance stuff that gets updated, particularly within groups
- better integration with other networks - smart niche networks will start  using Facebook as their social
portal
- better integration of video - we are quickly becoming a dynamic communications society and marketplace - static pictures are ceding to
- better sponsored groups - Facebook, for its own survival, needs to find a better way to embed branded content that people will find useful, brands find valuable and their investors find financially viable - with the exception of Red Bull, I haven't seen that much success within sponsored groups but there has been a tonne of FREE success in applications
- community support - both official heavy user, open source developer, user generated content and brand ambassador groups and forums
- e-commerce - one of Facebook's last frontiers - if anybody is looking like an eBay competitor , it might be Facebook
- a bricks version of Facebook - what would a Facebook meetup lounge look like - unless Starbucks does a JV, expect live coffee shops, bars and lounges and office networks to set up around  Facebook, accelerating the connected workplace.

Now the big question is : Facebook is steaming hot now (you should be here), inevitable bigger later (you should be planning for this)...what does it look like in 2010 and will we still be talking about it?