I was having lunch with Adriel Hampton today (who many of you know as the first person to declare candidacy for Congress via Twitter), and the subject turned to Facebook. We’re both overwhelmed by Facebook’s popularity, and subsequent deluge of data. Everyone’s seemingly got a friend they recommend you add, a group they recommend you join, and an event they recommend you attend.

(My personal time management system is to spend 10 seconds per day saying “yes” to every friend request, “maybe” to every event request, and “no” to every group/fan request…which is a Facebook “fail” in itself – where are the useful filters? I’m in DC, why do I have to respond to a request about an event tonight in CA? – but that’s not the topic of this post.)

Perhaps the most overwhelming feature of Facebook is its email. I get tons of email about everything because that is the primary information distribution mechanism for friends, fans, groups, events, causes, and everything else. It’s not efficient.

Adriel and I compared it a bit to RSS, which also has become overwhelming. There’s a big bold number at the top like *56* that’s the number of unread blog posts you have. That’s how I feel about Facebook – what’s the most efficient way to clear the decks and get to the fabled “inbox zero”?

Usually, I do this in a quick, elegant two-step process. One, I “select all.” Two, I click “mark as read.” Easy, right?

The reality is that I almost never read all the stuff everyone is sending me. About the only exception is someone I recently met who doesn’t have my email or phone number, and is initially reaching out to me. I see the name, recognize, and reply.

But here’s where it gets really interesting, and why Facebook email is a Facebook e-fail. Often one of the first things I tell someone connecting with me for the first time, whom I want to talk to more, is something like, “Why don’t you write me at xxxxx@gmail.com and we’ll continue this discussion there?” Why not, right? Gmail is my “real” email.

But that’s exactly the *opposite* of what Facebook wants. They should want us using their system for email for all sorts of reasons. But we don’t. There’s no reason in particular Icouldnt do the opposite, right? Meaning, tell people contacting me through email via my business card to friend me on Facebook and contact me through my Facebook email, since that’s where I’m most engaged.

Has *anyone* ever done this?? I doubt it very seriously.

Email – whether it’s Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, or corporate mail – is still the preferred social network of choice (which reminds me of a blog post by Jeremiah Owyang a while back…)

People find Facebook useful for all sorts of reasons. I get a lot of mileage out of posting things like this on my personal Facebook wall, for example. But when you look at what is and is not successful on Facebook, I wonder how the platform will mature over the next few years. What do you think?

Posted via email from Mark’s Cheeky Posterous