What Zuckerberg Could have Done To Make Yesterday’s Event A Success
By: Hillel Fuld
As you might have heard, Facebook held an event yesterday, which it prepped the press for by saying it was going to announce an “Awesome product”. Mistake number one among many.
Zuckerberg had everyone’s attention yesterday and like many times before, he fumbled the ball and managed to bore everyone. I truly believe the man, as brilliant as he might be, has no clue how to excite the crowd and pull off even a little bit of what other CEOs like Jobs are so famous for.
The following are a few things that could have made all the difference and turned yesterday’s announcement into an unprecedented success:
Get with the Times
As I watched the event, I felt like jumping into my screen and yelling at Zuck something along the lines of “Helloo, this is 2011, no one cares about Web, we want mobile video chat“. If only the man had announced that the new Skype Facebook integration was available for download with a new updated Facebook app, well that would have made a huge impact on the crowd.
But he didn’t. He didn’t even seem to care about mobile when the question was asked. He simply said “No, the video chat is not yet available on mobile devices”. I think Facebook has to take a good look at the stats of just how many people are updating their Facebook profile from a mobile phone and like many other companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Skype, put mobile on the top of its priorities. I mean, Web video chatting? Really?
iPad App
While I am not the biggest fan of Zuckerberg or Facebook as a company, I truly believed that they would be smart enough to realize the potential of the tablet device and specifically the iPad. 97% market share! But, sadly, there was no mention of the iPad and Mark seems to have remained aligned with the previous event he held in which he said the iPad is not a mobile device so there is no room to talk about it at a mobile event.
Now, will there be an iPad Facebook app eventually? Yes, absolutely. The thing is, yesterday would have been the perfect time to announce it. I mean the invitation said “An awesome product” and as fun as the ability to video chat with my non-techie mom might be, I don’t think anyone can call that awesome. The iPad, on the other hand, THAT is an awesome device.
Group Video Chat
Oh, Mark Mark… I don’t know if you have noticed but you don’t operate in a vacuum. Yes, you might have the crown now with a whopping 750 million users but just as easily as you built that, it can be taken away from you. Guess what? At this rate, Google+ is well on its way. How is it that in the week that everyone who is anyone in tech is raving about Google and its new Hangouts feature that enables users to group video chat, you have the nerve to announce a regular plain old one on one video chat feature?
Seriously, did you not think you should offer an alternative that matches the times and not something Google Talk offered three years ago? If Facebook would support video calling on the level that the new Facebook Skype integration works (for the record, the quality is fantastic), that would be something to write home about. But group chat, video calling, and a new sidebar? Yea, that is not exciting in the least bit… Ball dropped, Zuckerberg, ball dropped.
Generally speaking, I think the guy should have someone else on stage at these events as Mark spent the first twenty minutes boring the crowd with figures, charts, and a whole lot of “Ums”. He is awkward and that is part of the package that makes him so brilliant. Finally one more thing Facebook can learn from other companies such as let’s say Apple, is not to raise expectations as high as possible, which only leaves room for disappointment. Next time, don’t promise us an “Awesome product” unless you are darn sure it is going to be just that. This wasn’t, it was far from it.
