“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be” – Lao Tzu

Live for those moments that you can’t put into words. Until you take flight you really don’t know how far you can go.  To succeed all you need is for something to hold onto and to remember that there are no shortcuts to a place worth going.  When you  are on the road of Destiny you will discover that there are no complications because what is meant to be always finds the way.

According to Compete.com Facebook is the leading social media site in the world boasting over 400 Million active Facebook users. That’s a lot of friend-sharing and even more importantly, demonstrates an already established (and growing) base of engaged users. Apart from connecting and keeping in touch Facebook users actively share over 25 Billion pieces of content – including links, news, blog posts, images, etc. – with their friends every month.

During Facebook’s 2010 F8 developer conference last Wednesday in San Francisco, many updates were launched and the big underlying message was that Facebook is on a mission to be the social hub of the web with veins into all the sites and networks we actively use. Facebook calls this the Open Graph.

“It’s the most transformative thing we’ve ever done for the Web,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO and co-founder during the F8 conference.

To give you an example of the power behind Open Graph, let’s say that a Facebook user hits the newly implemented “Like” button (similar to a Digg) on a specific IMDb movie page (owned by Amazon and one of Facebook’s Open Graph third party partners). That movie would then automatically be added to the “Favourite Movies” section of that Facebook user’s profile for – and here’s the important part – “everyone to see”.

Open Graph brings “Sharing” to a whole new level. This is good news for businesses and advertisers but but not for those concerned with privacy issues. Suddenly the connection goes much deeper than sharing your likes and dislikes with your friends. Millions of users now have access to your hometown, where you went to school, where you work . . . essentially everything you’ve listed on your Facebook profile. Open Graph takes your Facebook profile information and virtually shares it across the world wide web.

Facebook’s solution for opting out of “Instant Personalization” does stop applications and other websites from using your information but doesn’t stop your friends and connections from sharing things about you. To stop all potential sharing, Facebook users would need to block each application individually (a tedious task).

From a business stand-point, getting to know your customers and potential customers is now easier than ever. Likes, dislikes and buying habits are now public information and this provides advertising opportunities like never before.

Social Media Marketing all begins with Facebook. In 2008 the social media site had 80 Million users. Comparing this to the 400 Million users of today, the term “strength in numbers” now defines an unlimited opportunity to connect through the simple act of sharing. This bold new step takes us to a new level of engagement and social media commerce is now a measurable reality.

Sebastien Samson

Sebastien was from Quebec City. We bonded with him in an instant. He was part of our eclectic after work group who regularly gather to share the news of the working day (which is either good, bad, or ugly). At 36 years, he was the Operations Manager of the GFS plant responsible for over a hundred employees. Self-taught Seb was brilliant, particularly in the area of human resources. I remember how he encouraged me to cut loose my Ontario sales VP who, after three months was not producing. The next day I was back. “Well, how did it go?” he asked. “Well, she was in a cast when I got there. She had broken her leg in three places”. (My human resource issues were never easy and Seb understood). One time he asked the bartender to bring me a candle, which he lit. “Liz, make a wish”.

Seb loved to laugh at the bad jokes the other guys told. They in turn loved to retell the same joke just to hear him laugh again – which he always did.

We will miss you Seb. You still had so much to share. I am sorry the black cloud got you. If we had only known maybe we could have helped ward it off a while.