Have you heard yet?
I left two sick kids at home to arrive in Austin and hear all about the flirty woman fawning over Mark Zuckerberg at SXSW. Then I got to stand next to Robert Scoble as he was shown what Sarah Lacy was saying on Twitter, after what he said on Twitter, and it was all Melrose Place from then on out.
I missed the keynote, but from the clips I’ve seen the interview was pretty fluffy. Not Katie Couric/Colin Farrell Fluffy, but close. Was it appropriate for SXSW? Probably. Was it advisable for SXSW or Facebook? Yeah…that’s where I have issues.
For many, many months the rumblings have grown and now it’s common knowledge that Facebook sucks. IT SUCKS.
We all either just use it for Scrabulous or we are on it because we can’t figure out how to delete our accounts. I mean, I’m already a hottie over there and on a wagon train in the Oregon Trail, what more could I possibly use it for?
Point is, everyone complains out it all the time. Beacon is slammed repeatedly and mocked, everyone is sick of Zombies.
It might be popular as hell with my high school cousin and students, but I’m not a student. I don’t see too many high schoolers here at SXSW.
So why in the hell would SXSW book- and would Mark Zuckerberg accept- to sit in front of a bunch of geeks (that’s me too) and yap about the thing they love to RIP the most? Throw in a ‘soft’ interview and the recipe for disaster is huge.
Remember when Microsoft brought the Be Jane women out to BlogHer ’06? Yeah, this was worse. Imagine that level of tense and uncomfy with heckling. As people were walking out they were heckling, as people walked into a common area on the 3rd floor they were still heckling and totally mocking.
But let’s be clear, I’m not mad I missed the hair tossing and ‘in my new book’ references on stage. I’m pissed because I was under the impression that I’d be able to stand in line and ask Mr. Facebook a question.
I broke laws getting from the airport to the convention center so I could have a nice chat with Mark about breastfeeding.
Instead I walked into the convention center and heard nothing but “dude that sucked” and “is she dating him?” and “that was some lame ass shit man.” And what is worse, Facebook- a bonafide social media monster, has a CEO that doesn’t engage with his audience. A CEO that doesn’t listen to the MOMS pissed off about pro anorexia groups being allowed to remain while women posting a pic of their child eating is removed. Who doesn’t hear why Beacon was so widely panned. Or why some people might be offended and deserve a response to the hate groups seething on the site.
So forgive me if I’m not shocked this was a huge mess.
Here I flew 4 hours and raced because I thought this was my chance to ‘join the discussion’ with a man responsible for a big brush up in my little mom-o-sphere. In my social media life. And assumed since this was social media we all might get a chance to say…talk.
Huh.
Guess not.
On a much happier note, I got to bowl with a pink ball. I mean, come on…that totally makes up for not being able to yell at Facebook boy.
Thanks for the impassioned commentary, I was trying to figure out why anyone was even surprised that Mark was a poor interview subject on stage when he has a rather extraordinary track record of same, and now I can see why it was particularly annoying to the SXSW crowd.
Nice bowling ball too. 🙂
I would have raced there too for the chance to ask him a few questions. Hell, I would have brought the kids just to ask him while breastfeeding. Humph!
Facebook still sucks, MySpace isn’t any better. Blah.
Maybe Facebook does suck, but Sarah Lacey was god awful. I like the way the crowd rose up and got some good questions directed to Zuckerberg.
Sounds like the CEO’s mental age is right there with the college kids sucking down funnels of beer and holding wet tee shirt contests. Honestly, how could you expect anything more? Hell, if anyone should have come to SXSW it should be My Space, at least they sort of cater to musicians. FB at SXSW? I just don’t see the link.
I had no idea that’s why you were there. Wow.
i really like you and your loud mouth. if i ever win the lottery i promise to finance your presidential campaign – after all, winning is only about having enough money, right?
Unbelievable. He brings his pocket reporter and they both fall flat. It won’t be long til the big tank now.
I love the idea of b/feeding while actually asking the question – be great to see him squirm 🙂 I got some great double-takes feeding my son on the Universal Studios tour ride a couple of yrs ago.
The best use I found for the Face was to be friends with my 16yo daughter so I could keep an eye on her and her friends – but now she’s even bored with it and has deleted her account. Doh!
I wonder if Zucker’s big mistake was to assume that all those net-addicted tweens and social phobes who are loving Facebook are the kinds of people who’d turn up and see him speak. Like in *person*.
Also – I miss bowling.
Erin, as usual, you give great commentary. So will deleting your Facebook account (if you can really do that) be seen as a political act? Hmmmmmmm….
(And lamer than the Be Janes? I’m totally blown away.)
I’m ashamed to say…I like Facebook.
Maybe it’s different here in Chicago. Maybe not. I ignore requests for hugs, the Oregon Trail, and haven’t found anyone to play Scrabulous with.
I’m connected to Facebook through people I network with in person. So I get updates about local events, local causes, and things that local people are doing.
Since my “thing” is networking I find that knowing who is doing what where is pretty important to me.
I follow where Tech Cocktail is happening next, and hope that soon someone will put a Twitter Meetup event page up so I can figure out where the cool kids are meeting downtown.
I don’t know if facebook sucks or not yet. I am still gathering info. But I do know it doesn’t come close to the usefulness of Twitter for me at this point.
To answer your question why would he be at SxSW?
Because he is a 23 year old geek worth over one billion dollars on paper. SxSW was best described to me as spring break for geeks. And geeks love nothing more than a fellow geek who has hit the big time.
They even love to hate him, insisting they can write better code and if he is worth a billion then they must be worth a zillion.
Did you notice all the camera flashes at the start of the keynote?
It easily surpassed any retiring sports hero press conference, and probably equaled what you would see at a major peace treaty signing. Although we haven’t had any of those in quite some time so my memory may be off.
It certainly far surpassed the flashing at Elliot Spitzer’s fiasco press conference.
Oh and another thing, the VC’s that go to SxSW love geeks like Zuckerberg too. At least that is they love the dollars he represents.
Put those two crowds together and Zuckerberg was the perfect keynoter. In fact he gave the perfect disastrous keynote that gave all the geeks something to tweet and blog about for a week.
If you are tired of facebook but want a way to connect with artists and musicians then you should check out http://www.putiton.com
If you are tired of facebook but still want to connect with your friends then pick up the phone…