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Facebook’s Announcements Confirm The Future of the Social Web Isn’t a Single Destination

Today has been a big day for Facebook.  In the last few hours we’ve learned that Facebook will open up its news feed stream so 3rd parties can integrate reading and writing content from Facebook directly into 3rd party applications.  We’ve also learned that Facebook will begin accepting OpenID log-in; soon you will be able to log-in to Facebook with your AIM or Yahoo ID info (for example).  Shortly after Facebook’s news, 3rd party developers such as Seesmic and Xobni made announcements that they will integrate the Facebook stream into their desktop applications.   All of this means users will now be able to fulfill many of their Facebook cravings without actually going to Facebook.com.  Along with Facebook Connect, we can see a clear vision of the social web being architected by Facebook, one that fully embraces decentralization and lets us exist as social entities with our Facebook identities as we live out across the web digital ecosystem.

Think about this for a second.  When Facebook started, it was an exclusive property that required a college email address to join as a member.  To know what was happening with your friends, you had to visit the site.  To post a link or update your status, you had to visit the site.  Now with Seesmic you will be able to read all of the news your friends are generating and post anything you want to your news feed straight from your desktop.  With Xobni you’ll be able to view all of your contact’s information as you are reading an email the contact wrote you, right in outlook.  With Facebook connect you can interact with your friends as you watch the live video broadcasts on the web, right on CNN.  Or you can read an article on Techcrunch, see which of your other friends have read it, and comment both on Techcrunch and Facebook, right from where you are.  All of this without ever going to Facebook.com.

All of this of course will have huge implications for marketers.  Gone are the days where a social media plan could simply be advertising on MySpace (if that ever worked).  Today social media strategy requires understanding the social media is pervasive.   Marketers need to learn to engage their consumers through social media, rather than just advertising in social media.  It will be about enabling and being a part of the conversation about your brand wherever it’s taking place, because we soon won’t be able to pinpoint any specific places.  Today Facebook showed us that social media (potentially branded with a Facebook logo) will exist everywhere.

For further reading, check out today’s news:

• Facebook Open Stream API: The Next Huge Platform? (Mashable)
• Seesmic Desktop: An Early Look at the Future of Facebook Apps (Mashable)
• Feed Me: Xobni Going Live With Full Facebook Stream Tonight (TechCrunch)
• Facebook First Big Site To Really Embrace OpenID (TechCrunch)
• The Future of the Social Web: In Five Eras (Jeremiah Owyang)