27
2007
Facebook’s Lost Way
Facebook has lost its way. The open network that everyone loved to play in has become the latest social media experiment for Madison Ave. And the end result? Angry community members who have found their privacy violated over and over again by Facebook’s new Beacon application.
In addition to the much talked about Beacon nightmare, Facebook is now telling community members which news sources to read (thanks to Jeremy Pepper for sharing this link). I wonder how much ABC paid for this right?
You wake up, check in, and see an ABC ad like this in your feed:
Note the difference between Jesse Thomas’s consumer generated referral for a laptop and the unsolicited spam Facebook and ABC has created. I may click through to see what kind of computer Jesse and Scott are talking about, but I’ll be damned if I’m clicking on the ABC ad.
The message Facebook has sent to us all: “We value revenue over community.”
This is a horrific error.
Community First
Facebook was exciting from a social media standpoint because it allowed us to interact and play with each other. From family and friends to colleagues and consumer groups. But it was driven by we, the people, not they, the advertisers. And as Todd Defren duly noted yesterday, Facebook may lose a lot of traction on this one.
Late last week I did an unrelated interview for the Bulgarian blog Rich&Forts. In it we discussed creating sales-oriented social media campaigns:
If the outcome is sales, then the program must be engineered to generate sales… Now if a program is engineered to build excitement with an obvious call to action, and nothing happens than there are several issues that could be in play. The most obvious is the company or organization placed too much emphasis on the sale and too little on creating value for the community through the social media or [word of mouth (WOM)] effort. In the end, creating value drives consumer interest in WOM campaigns and this can never be supplanted by the actual desired outcome.
When you sacrifice community for dollars, you lose both. No community equals no transactions.
Marketers and companies must understand it’s a fractured media environment and that consumers have Millions of Choices. How long until consumers think that another media form is more interesting than Facebook?
Organizations who use social media for WOM campaigns, or hope to generate revenue through this dynamic two-way medium must serve their communities! Participation is marketing! Attraction has supplanted promotion: Never forget it, or you will lose your way.
I made a joke in an interview that Google was kind of like the CIA, less intelligent than everyone thinks. All jokes aside, you have to think Google outsmarted Microsoft again when it opted to promote OpenSocial in favor of investing in Facebook.
Lewis Green Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Geoff,
Using sites such as Facebook can be tricky. As you know I started a Lead With Your Heart group. It wasn’t for the purpose of selling books but to start a grassroots groundswell that would bring a new way of doing business center on people and community. But I often wonder if those who see the book cover or the discount offer to group members think the site is about selling product. My hope is that your interview with me yesterday, which I posted on Facebook, will make the groups intent clearer.
Ann Handley Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 10:47 am
I’m with you on this one, Geoff. Facebook users are increasingly feeling they’ve been sold out… for the reason you state, FB values “revenue over community.” The feeling with only grow stronger and the backlash inevitable as more ABC-ish ads pop up.
Which is not to say that I’m anti-advertising on FB. I’m not. But as you suggest, the balance between creating sales v. creating community value is out of whack. Unfortunately.
David Ambrose Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 10:54 am
hey geoff,
first time posting on a fellow hoya’s blog.
i think you’re right that fb has lost its traditional way and means from the hook-up-centric network built in a dorm during 2004. i know you graduated from the hilltop a bit earlier than me, but fb started to gain enormous amounts of traction when i was a sophomore (2004). it was amazing to see the amount of chatter on the campus, whether you lived in village a or new south…everyone was talking about “thefacebook” to check out hot girls and guys, etc. no one thought about the monetization of the application. we all freaked out when the newsfeed was released because we felt zuck and his henchmen were acting like SNS detectives…browsing our interests, photos, notes, wall posts, whatever it was and presenting it in a stream of information. it’s the same deal all over again with beacon. we are in week 3 of the service and just like the newsfeed, fb will undoubtedly come out and explain (in more detail) what exactly beacon is and what beacon isn’t. techmeme is still aggregating redundant information about privacy concerns and fb…i think we’ll move on from it very soon.
as for politics on fb, the abc affliation is fine in my book as long as i’m not spammed with ridiculous amounts of information about candidates. to this day, zuck and co. have done a great job at making the site relatively spam-free.
Jonathan Trenn Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Geoff
But it isn’t just about community. It is about direct relationships. Facebook and the participating vendors are attempting to change the entire paradigm of customer relations. And the entire experience of just simply buying something.
The normal way of buying something is that one goes into a store and buys something. Or they order it online. Sure, the data on the transaction may be sold, but it still is not made public.
Now, with Beacon, the retailer and Facebook have decided that Facebook is now involved in the relationship between the retailer and the consumer - meaning you and me. Without our prior permission. We don’t have a say in this from the foundation of this new paradigm. Only later, can we object to certain actions by Facebook. But the new paradigm tells us - without our input - that Facebook is now involved.
Whatever happened to the customer being in control? Whatever happened to permission marketing?
scottwitter Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Hi,
First time here, i like the space you’ve created. Jim Long sent me here from twitter and here i be, reading away.
Presidential folkiness aside now, I agree that people have the power to move away very quickly or disengage, and quite frankly i believe they should. I have long said that i do not enjoy facebooks appearance, layout, klunky boxy design, generally just how it looks on my MacBook, Yikes! a PC! … nor have i ever been a fan of flashing ads for SchoolFinder on the sides hiding application options. The more they flash the more i ignore, It’s a mess IMO. It is the first but, there are many other wanna be facebook platforms to come that will offer people what they want in smarter slicker presentations. As people become more communication savvy the power for peeps to move away and adopt new platforms rapidly also grows. The more we are connected the more we can move like bees towards the flowers, and rapidly away from the stinky horse poop. Did i just say that in a blog comment?
If facebook is so smart then why do Canadian Facebookers get plenty of american only oriented advertising ?
It is also noteable that i can delete everthing from my wall but this advertising.
Geoff Livingston Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
@Lewis I think individual communities like yours are fine. If Facebook is not the right place for you, you’ll know. Participation (or lack thereof) by the community says it all.
@Ann Agreed. It’ll be interesting to see if Facebook is intelligent enough to find a happy medium.
@david Yes, I imagine the university constituency has to be sick and tired of Facebook. They have been left behind.
@jonathan I think we’re saying the same thing. Communities consist of people who talk to one another. Good points, and this is beyond no permission marketing. It’s violation marketing.
@scott Welcome to the party. I hope Canada gets its own massive social network. It makes sense from a community standpoint, and why should you have to suffer from our culture?
RichardatDELL Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
we will all be back to blogs and simple rss feeds, as implied in Blogging is in the dip some time ago.
It's Not a Lecture: et tu, YouTube? Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Jesse Thomas Says:
November 28th, 2007 at 2:26 am
imagine if facebook offered a premium offering that didnt include the ads?
The Ongoing Battle: MySpace and Facebook » The Buzz Bin Says:
November 28th, 2007 at 9:14 am
[...] It seems that MySpace has been struggling to catch up to the features that Facebook has. While at the same time, Facebook has opened itself up to more customization, and also some negative decisions. [...]
Rodger Says:
November 28th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I must have missed the ABC advertisement. Shows you how much I pay attention to that. Or, maybe, how important ABC really is to me.
Nonetheless, you make a valid point. One I preach myself. “It’s about the community, stupid.” In fact, this is nothing new. Without going into hairy detail, a businessman in the wee-early 20th century used community building to sell the furniture his factory produced and the books his printing press created. His was a successful, well-know and well-respected business of its time.
Geez! How little we learn…
CustomScoop's PR Blog Jots: Brevity is the Soul of Wit (and Other PR Blog Jots) Says:
November 28th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Facebook Beacon Says:
November 29th, 2007 at 9:45 am
[...] I’m just catching up on all the Facebook Beacon talk that is ongoing. I had originally read Geoff Livingston’s post, but spent last night reading what had to be said by many of the other social media folks. This is [...]
The MySpacing of Facebook - The Viral Garden Says:
November 29th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
John Says:
November 30th, 2007 at 11:44 am
sort of agree, has deceminated into a mangle of new ‘apps’ and unconnected stream of event.
shame!
» The effectiveness and limitations of blogs and mainstream media Marketing Conversation - New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
[...] behind the program here, here, and here. Marketing bloggers wondered if it was good strategy here, here, and here. All excellent posts. All made sense. All contributed to the [...]
Leave a Reply
Categories
Recent Comments
Ducati Streetfighter: The Social Media Campaign That Never Was:
25 Signs You've Got a Strong SM Consultant or Agency:
State of the Twittersphere Report:
Top 25 Ways to Tell if Your Social Media Expert Is a Carpetbagger:
Will the Economic Crisis Change Gen Y?:
Recent Posts
Resources
Archives
About this Blog
The Buzz Bin offers readers musings and analysis on marketing, buzz, PR and Washington, DC from the team at Livingston Communications.Read more about us ...
» buy the book
A primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs.
Copyright © 2009 The Buzz Bin, Livingston Communications
Site by Viget Labs