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Wesley E. Sturdivant knows the Lanham security and protection services company he co-founded is not the ideal business to use Facebook to promote itself because it doesn't have a product to brand, such as the Discovery Channel or Honest Tea.

But Sturdivant, executive vice president of Eagle Technologies, was among the roughly 200 business leaders listening Wednesday to Facebook co-founder and 26-year-old tech wunderkind Chris Hughes talk about how the site can help his business. Hughes' talk kicked off the Tech Council of Maryland's new executive speaker series.

"It was very good information," said Sturdivant, following the session at the Montgomery County Conference Center in North Bethesda. "I need to learn how Facebook and similar sites can help our business."

Hughes — who left Facebook in 2007 to become the Obama presidential campaign's online organizer and is now entrepreneur-in-residence at General Catalyst Partners, a venture capital firm in Cambridge, Mass. — dispensed as much wisdom as a youthful executive who doesn't look like he shaves can.

A central theme was one that many in the audience have already embraced: Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are changing how people interact.

"Technology is not just for geeks," said Hughes, who co-founded Facebook in 2004 with Harvard University roommates Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz two years before he graduated with degrees in history and literature. The value of privately held Facebook's common stock, based on exchanges for private companies, was recently estimated at $9.5 billion.

Networking sites should help get people together face-to-face, not just computer-to-computer, Hughes said. The Obama campaign, for instance, used the Web to organize meetings with supporters and motivate them to work on the campaign, he said.

"We wanted people to meet face-to-face and build relationships," said Hughes, developer of My.BarackObama.com.

In the same vein, businesspeople can use social networking sites to meet prospective clients and colleagues, as well as monitor customer's views, he said. Branding a product and building credibility are other uses for such sites.

Among Maryland companies, Silver Spring's Discovery Communications has had more success than most in attracting "fans" — Facebook members who want to keep up with company messages. With a global presence, the Discovery Channel has more than 200,000 Facebook fans, more than twice the number each attracted by Baltimore athletic gear company Under Armour, the Baltimore Ravens and the Baltimore Orioles.

It's important to remember that anyone who comments on a company's product is helping to build the brand, Hughes said. "Sites like Twitter and Facebook put more pressure on companies to improve their products," he said.

People are overwhelmed by information in the Internet age and seek filters they can trust, Hughes said. Whereas the main filter used to be major media outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, sites such as Facebook are being increasingly used as information filters, he said.

Eagle Technologies has had success with its Web site in helping gain government contracts, as potential and current clients scan the site to learn more about the company, Sturdivant said. So it makes sense to try to expand the company's use of Internet tools, he said.

The Tech Council has had a site on Facebook since June and has seen its number of followers grow, said Todd Hayes, the organization's membership relations manager. The organization also has a presence on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The council has about the same number of Facebook fans as the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. Both groups use the site to promote events and communicate with members.

"We're trying to do more on a daily basis," Hayes said.

Firms with fans, friends

Some Maryland businesses on Facebook, with number of fans, friends or members, as of Wednesday:

Discovery Channel, 216,423

Under Armour, 106,852

Baltimore Orioles, 78,711

Baltimore Ravens, 59,223

Animal Planet, 37,727

Johns Hopkins University, 5,596

Honest Tea, 5,215

Lockheed Martin, 4,705

Giant Food, 301

JoS. A. Bank Clothiers, 268

Maryland Chamber of Commerce, 116