Facebook has officially unveiled its much anticipated marketing plan, and, naturally, it must be nitpicked.
Keeping in step with the sociability makes the world go 'round theme, a big part of Facebook's brannew marketing initiative is "Social Advertising." With this system, Facebook members who purchase or recommend items on participating sites, such as Blockbuster.com, or join a brand's Facebook fan club, will have the option to have their photos plastered next to advertisements from those sites. The ads will consequentially be sent to the endorser's Facebook friends whether those friends like it or not. (Not, I'm guessing...)
With the birth of the Facebook newsfeed, we became the privileged recipients of updates anytime a Facebook friend decided to add a friend, end a relationship, listen to a song, or take a virtual crap. Now, with social ads, Facebookers will receive updates when someone in their network endorses a product online and agrees to have the details of his/her life publicly exposed in an advertisement. According to the Facebook blog, "Instead of random messages from advertisers, we've launched Social Ads... Behind the scenes, we've instituted a system that tailors ads to you and your interests, which should make ads more appealing." Yes, it should, if my interests fall completely in line with the 7 trillion friends in my network. But, alas, I am my own person, so tailoring my ads to their interests does very little for me. Thanks for playing.
Three Flaws With Facebook's Social Ads
Where's my money? Since the Paleolithic era, celebrities and regular cats alike have been endorsing products and getting compensated for it through money and lifetime supplies of triple-quilted paper towels. Fast-forward to Web 2.0: Everything gets interactive, everyone is a celebrity, and we find the best endorsements come from our friends. Facebook's plan to mooch off our endorsements is all well and good -- for Facebook -- but where are my paper towels? Why should I scratch your back if you're throwing itching powder on mine? As we get turned into marketing monkeys, we should get compensated somehow. And if there is little demand for this from our side, well, then we're just falling into a trap of stupidity.
If it's optional, why should I? This system's success relies on user compliance. For those of us who are neurotic and insecure (I am not referring to myself, per se... I have this friend, see?), a product endorsement with our picture on it could mean subjection to judgment by our peers. "Umm... Did you see that Nicole bought the 'Shari Lewis Memoirs' on Amazon.com? What an incredible weirdo!" If I'm not making any cash money off of the deal, and I'm risking becoming socially shunned by the anti-Shari Lewis congregation, why would I comply?
I don't have to take this! I can go somewhere else! As Facebook becomes a storefront for marketing activity, will it lose its appeal and, in turn, its network of users? Maybe not. Facebook has promised (Scout's honor) that this new system will not produce any more ads than usual. And all successful social networking sites will, at some point, have to sell advertisements or succumb to homelessness. So, the spiteful shift to a new network may be pointless.
As someone who is constantly berating his friends to buy the same products as me, I for one am thrilled by the new opportunites this opens up.
This just reminds me of the kid I saw last week dressed up as a Nascar driver. If his Halloween costume can be sponsored by Valvoline, why shouldn't his Facebook page be brought to you by Mattel?
People will do it. It's appealing to the same Navin Johnson mentality that drew them to Facebook in the first place: "The new phonebooks are here! The new phonebooks are here!" Now I can BE somebody!
As for demanding recompense: Better to be a whore than a slut? Maybe.
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