Watching the Money Programme talking about Facebook and the huge amounts of data they are collecting and able to use for marketing purposes; I was rather puzzled how they seem to completely miss the point of how to make these things work.People go to Facebook because it doesn't shove ads in your face all the time. Yet all their plans (from what I've read) seem to involve doing just that. The pressure of those sky high valuations appears to be clouding their judgement.
Have they not seen what has happened to Myspace? The decline of Myspace as 'the place to be' is almost directly proportional to the increasing amount of overt advertising and Fox promotional links that have appeared since Rupert Murdoch took it over.
Have they not worked out that THE reason for Google making so much money so quickly was that it found a way to display high-income ads without disrupting the user experience.
The only advertisers that have really worked on Myspace and Facebook are those that embrace the community instead of standing there with Golf Sale signs in front of their way. We can do that in the outside world, but these are places people come to get away from that...
Thoughts anyone?
Also: Though the different gadgets and tools you can get on Facebook massively enhance it, they are also quickly increasing the thing that is now choking myspace. Namely "Forward this or you crush will hate you", "Pass this to twenty friends and something cool will happen", "This picture says I am your friend please pass it on". Argh! People who come up with these things deserve to be rounded up and chucked off a bridge...
4 comments:
The 'funwall' and 'super wall' are the most inappropriately named parts of facebook, as they are neither super nor fun, so I have disabled them. So far the advertising I've seen on FB has been extremely relevant (apart from one advertising a gay dating site).
Myspace has to be one of the worst cases of introducing adverts I have ever seen.
Not only is it all in your face, but they've put so many in that half the time the website doesn't even load because of all the adverts bugging it up.
Also, my personal approach to chain mail is to reply to them with a new chain mail saying:
'The ghost of a small boy who died in a tragic Pringle eating contest will kill you if you send on any chain mail this week'
You've just gotta make the decision for them. Suddenly finding their true love seems less important...
I said this in an article recently and was shocked and saddened to read a load of ad people slagging me off the next week.
When will they realise people only are interested in what interests them - so when some brand comes along and spouts self important rubbish - it does more to alienate the masses than attract.
It's so simple and yet so many just don't understand.
Nick - Superwall is an improvement in functionality but unfortunately that lets people do these stupid chain and junk posts more easily.
The ads are relevant... but its because of the huge amount of data they take about you. People don't like Facebook having that much information about them (even though other places have it).
David - Indeed. It's what happens when someone who doesn't understand social networking takes over a social networking site.
Rob C - Absolutely. Only a tiny tiny fraction of brands can remain anywhere near their high horse. Everyone else has to learn.
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