4iP Blog

Before America’s latest hero gets eclipsed by another today, I wanted to show the power behind Facebook groups in gathering voices around a cause. In this case, it’s Captain C B Sully Sullenberger who successfully brought down his plane in the Hudson last week.
Mike‘s already shown how Twitter, the Teasmade of Technology, broke the story to the world. However, through interactions of my American friends on Twitter I’ve spotted the huge growth in supporters of Captain Sully on his fan page. Today it stands close to half a million fans, growing about 40,000 members every day and posting messages, videos and pics.

The importance of this is partly to show the litmus test that is Facebook groups and fansites. If you’re thinking of creating a service, content or platform, it’s always a good idea to run a few searches through Facebook and see if the area you’re thinking of cracking has been cracked with any success. If people are talking about it a lot in Facebook, then this could indeed be the first place you start to attract your future audiences and participants. The next question, how you retain them, is for another day…

Cross-posted at 38minutes