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.