First things first. I dislike MySpace immensely. Not the concept, but the site. I survived there for a grand total of two weeks and then canceled my account. Facebook on the other hand is a different matter. I signed up to Facebook quite serendipitously at the same time that the company opened up the platform. Since then I have become somewhat addicted to the site and exploring the fascinating opportunities it brings, both to small companies looking to piggyback onto the reach of Facebook and marketers.

For startups

What can Facebook do for a startup? For starters, reach and visibility. How do you grow your company? How do you get your product out in front of an audience willing to try out new stuff. Put it on Facebook. If it catches on and sticks, you might just have to borrow some hardware just to keep up with the traffic. If not for Facebook, I would not have discovered Picnick and would not be using Jaxtr or Dopplr. There is the challenge of translating your Facebook success to a larger, more general audience, but if you can capture significant eyeballs on Facebook, that’s a good start. I do think that at some point, Facebook should consider revenue sharing opportunities. That will keep the developers interested, and also make Facebook a rich platform to deploy products and develop a decent revenue stream. We’ve already started seeing acquisitions of Facebook-only applications

For marketers

Where do I start. Facebook is a marketers dream. Want to use it to get people interested in a product, develop it for Facebook. Want to champion a cause, put it on Facebook. Want lots of eyeballs, buy advertising. I am sure as time goes on and Facebook evolves, more interesting marketing opportunities will come up and the Facebook folk will learn to take advantage and bring marketers into the fold. This will all have to be done without compromising on the Facebook look and feel and keeping all advertising and promotion as non-intrusive as possible. Michael Arrington has previously noted the potential of the Facebook Polls application.

It is still early days for the “new” Facebook. The Facebook that is very likely to go for an IPO sometime this year, unless someone makes them an offer they cannot refuse (and I don’t believe that is likely). How developers and marketers leverage Facebook over the next few months will be a trend worth watching.