Owing to the power of Facebook, namely its status wall and like buttons, we have entered a new era in interpersonal socialisation: the Age of Reveal. Acting true to our nature as social animals, most of us have earnestly embraced the newly created social media.

As a result we have endorsed this primitive desire of ours that, until now, cultural pressures prevented us from expressing. It’s the desire to shamelessly connect ourselves with groups and let the whole world know. We don’t express ourselves as openly in real life the same way we do on Facebook for a simple reason: there are simply too many unwritten rules when it comes to socialising. In every occasion of personal interaction, we have to be constrained by various conventions, either culturally or timely. The probability of inciting an instant, unpleasant feedback from saying the wrong things is another significant barrier towards how much we allow ourselves to express before others. Finally, when the time factor comes into play, the urgency to reply is there, and this also downplays our ability to say what we really meant to say at any given time.

You might adore Holden pictures or be looking for Holden parts, and only find out if I post a link to my Facebook page. If I ‘like’ them, that’s an endorsement; if I’ve experienced poor customer service I can post this on my wall. businesses should be aware of just how many people can now be exposed to negative publicity like this.

A website that allows you to literally read all the status updates from every active Facebook user is Openbook. By using Openbook, anyone can get a good insight into what a typical Facebook user feel like exposing to the world. These range from the mundane (“homework sucks”) to the intriguing (“Had my Red Bull laced with cocaine”). The general impression is that much of what people publish on their Facebook walls, are not what they would typically disclose in their day-to-day conversation.

Then there is also the Like button, which has become the labels we attach to ourselves in hopes people will understand us better. We can speculate that whenever a user chooses to click that Like button it is done out of genuine affection given that there is almost never any monetary incentives for them to do so.

Each instance of “Like” that is added to a user’s profile is viewed as an idea, character, product or organisation that the user would prefer us to associate them with.

Ultimately, the population’s psychological requirement to be heard can be used to help spread the word about new businesses, reinforce the brand of existing businesses, pass around special offers and deals, and engage people more deeply with the brand values. Facebook should not be underestimated in its power in today’s marketing environment.

To see two examples of Facebook fan pages that are successfully interacting with their users, visit NZV8 or Drift Legends.