Is Facebook a predator’s nirvana?
Disclaimer: I love Facebook! I’m obsessed by fb. So much so I’ll check my updates every few minutes to see who’s doing what.
When David Lewis sends me an invite for yet another ridiculous app i clap! I toss sheep Passionately and giggle when a cow is flung my way!
I dish scotch out to everyone (OK that one mirrors real life).
point is…..I’m engaged with my community of friends and I LOVE it!
Like any idyllic-scene disaster movie beginning you know that something is about to go horribly wrong. The protagonist is going to have to endure a plot change and his world is about to come crashing down.
My first WARNING was the news this week that Google will be able to search and crawl profiles. No more safe walled garden. No more idyllic playground safe for us to share without thought of consequence.
Can you hear the ominous music slowly building in the background?
It’s the cue for the circling Facebook predators to make their entrance……. (to be continued).
Update Disclaimer: I’m also a marketer and think this move has enormous potential for brands, affiliates and companies to engage with their consumers on a very direct and personal way.
But to coin a phrase “don’t be evil”. How evil is marketing really if it uses contextual targeting when people have placed all this personal information about themselves on Facebook for friends to see. Will consumers revolt if they have the perception that the information now gets used “against” them?
What’s your opinion?
September 7th, 2007 at 6:46 am
It was just a matter of time vs. numbers :- )
Your point about ‘evil’ relates to one of my favorite pet peeves - when people go all blindley-gobly-gook-eyed paranoid whenever the word tracking or profiling is mentioned - especially in the context of marketing.
The reality is the better marketing systems get to know me the less likely they are to present me silly irrelevant offers (I’ll refrain from citing embarasing examples). In a sense privacy has been a figment of the imagination for a while, and I don’t see this changing, we might as well try and get it to work in our favor.
But I’ll admit I like the creepy soundtrack
September 9th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Thanks for answering my question!
You’ve got it. Marketing is not evil if it answers my needs and provides me with ads that are relevant to me.
If my browsing behaviour or profile has been interpreted and using the alogrithms the profiling engine has selected those offers that are most likely to be of interest to me - surely I would not be offended?
As a Marketer I would not. As a Consumer “I” would not. I wonder however whether millions of relatively naive consumers that willingly gave thier profiles so their friends could learn more about them understood the consequences of the information they were sharing.
Personally, if it helps us sell more Surfwear for BeckerSurf, help singles Date with lavalife.com, or sign up female home shoppers in aged 25 - 55 in Milwaukeland then I’m a VERY happy marketer.
As a facebook user - I have a nagging thought. Should I not be on http://www.quechup.com? It seems to be the new facebook and all the cool kids are there