Book Review of The Facebook Effect (The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World) by David Kirkpatrick

I just finished reading The Facebook Effect by longtime technology reporter for Fortune magazine, David Kirkpatrick.  Reading this book was like watching a great movie that I didn't want to end. An amazing read.  I loved this book.

A remarkably detailed history of a very unique company.  If you know anything about Facebook and are curious about how internet technology is changing the world, you won't want to put this book down.  As a full time internet marketer and entrepreneur, I felt reading this was was very valuable.  I highly encourage everyone who has an interest in in social media and online marketing to get this book. 

David Kirkpatrick, invested considerable time over several years to interview founder Mark Zuckerberg and a great many of his closest friends and collaborators.

The Facebook Effect is a straightforward story about one of the most astonishing success stories in the history of business on planet Earth.  

It includes the story behind the scenes and all the drama of how Facebook grew from start up to one of the most successful businesses ever.  It has all of the incredible details that you will never see anywhere else.  It was fascinating to read how Facebook started in Zurkerberg's Harvard dorm room while he was going to school full time.

Kirkpatrick, was encouraged to write the book by Facebook's founder Mark Zukerberg.  It is a detailed play-by-play account of how Facebook amassed a half a billion users in just six years.

If you're an American and you have a connection to the Internet, there's roughly a one-in-three chance you have a Facebook page. If you're Canadian, the chances are nearly one in two. Worldwide, the number of Facebook members is fast approaching ten percent of the global population. Clearly, these numbers justify the need for an in-depth book about the evolution of  Facebook…….an intimate account based on exhaustive research, including lengthy interviews with all the principals. 

Kirkpatrick emphasizes some of the most familiar aspects of the Facebook story. That Zuckerberg was 19 years old in 2004 when he started the service as a Harvard undergraduate.  And that he almost dresses in T-shirts and flip-flops. Yet throughout The Facebook Effect, Kirkpatrick treats us to scene after scene in which Zuckerberg transcends his age by decades, displaying a depth of understanding, a mastery of strategy, and a steadiness of purpose worthy of the most seasoned CEO.

The book's title is a version of the well-known "network effect," familiar to the increasing numbers of us who are actively awareof the networked world in which we live and work.  The principle is simple; the bigger the network, the more interconnections among it's nodes (members), and thus the more powerful it becomes.

As Facebook is already the largest human network on Earth, we can only begin to speculate what might become of it if and when it grows to the one billion or two billion members that Zurkerberg envisions.  

Unlike many other books about Facebook, Zurkerberg is not painted as the villain, but instead you get a sense of the tremendous responsibility this 26 year old has not only to his company, but to the entire world.

Get The Facebook Effect, you won't be disappointed.