Trouble for Facebook? I think not!
Facebook in trouble?
This post inspired by Businessweek Online article linked above
Sticking to the theme of virtual communities, the Facebook community is one that I, and many others, are a part of. This community website brings people of certain academic “networks” together, whether it be of college or high school affiliation. This community of students, communicating in one location, is centered around socializing and passing along information. Information can vary from comparing different academic institution to students' opinions about certain social causes to converging about recent class discussion and what social events may be taking place. Yet, the main advantage that marketers of various enterprises see is a prime market that they would love to infiltrate and, if given the right tactics and opportunities, profit from. Facebook is one of many virtual communities that exist today but it has been the most successful one of pulling in such a strong and concentrated youth market. The main goal of a typical virtual community would be to guide potential users to its site print advertising or word of mouth (WOM). The latter being the best kind of advertising around. A virtual community such as Facebook would want to create a simulation in its interactive site that engages the users in a way that they would want to keep returning, therefore becoming what we in the marketing world call “repeat users”. Facebook recently attempted to stay ahead in their interaction initiatives but is now dealing with strong backlash from its users for its hasty efforts. An article written by BusinessWeek Online expands with the following:
Facebook made an impulsive move in changing its extremely interactive site. It created a mini feed similar to a news feed that you would find on many news sites. The idea behind this move was to have information that users tend to search for on their friends’ profiles (i.e. a user goes on to see what changes a friend has made on his or her "recently updated" profile) and bring all the recent information to each friend's homepage. In the eyes of Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, it was a way to save users time when browsing through this ever expanding site.
Yet, such a drastic change to the method a user would obtain his or her listed friends' information was administered onto the site with no focus group test studies preformed beforehand. The sudden change did not boil over well with avid users of the site. Groups formed calling for the termination of the “new” Facebook and a change back to the “old” Facebook. The article states that due to the reaction Facebook received for its implemented changes, it may have lost some of its members to rival virtual communities with similar student appeal. Such sites include MySpace, Friendster, and CollegeHotList.
While I find this story interesting, it is what I saw by reading “between the lines” that really got my attention. In my eyes, this article gives insight to how committed users can be to a virtual community. These constant users of Facebook would not have taken on such time-consuming actions (i.e. coordinating a boycott or starting petitions) if the site was not an important part of their identity with their college/school life. If anything, this article showed the power Facebook holds in getting under "peoples' skin". Facebook redeemed itself quickly by sending out a letter to members addressing the issue. The quick response from the Facebook CEO himself promised to heighten security measures on the mini feed so that users would not feel the “invasion of privacy” that they had talked about in their emails.
So, how does Facebook turn out after all this drama? Is its reputation in danger? Well, from the outlook now it seems that publicity has been the one major result from the controversy. Businesses always love free publicity. There may have been some users who discontinued their account but the people who make up that group are very small in number when compared to the total number of members. So, Facebook continues to be a gold mine for marketers that are hungry to give college students information about various products and services. It should also be mentioned that the quick response CEO, Mark Zukerman, gave to his users was a great maneuver since it cleared up any gossip that may have been circulating. Therefore, I am sure that companies are still knocking on Mark Zukerman’s door; hoping to get “in” with this exclusive niche of money-spending consumers.
The Ruminator
posted by The Ruminator at 5:27:00 PM
1 Comments:
I am well aware of the new “mini feed”, now referred to as “stalker feed”, that Facebook has recently incorporated into their network. Initially, I did not understand why it had gained so much controversy. The mini feed is just a basic summary that serves to highlight the recent actions occurring in any user’s network. While it does seem rather intrusive, the mini feed is just providing all of the information users typically search for up front, similar to cutting out the middle man. However, once I considered how this feature could be manipulated by marketers, I no longer felt as content. I realize that Facebook, along with many other network communities, have become extensive and lucrative channels for targeting consumers. Not only do companies have access to the inner community of target markets, but they also have the necessary information to divide and segment users, allowing companies to customize advertisements in accordance with the distinguishing attributes of specific individuals. Nevertheless, I feel that allowing marketers the option to analyze the daily activities of network participants is too interfering. Brands should continue to have advertising restrictions for this site, in other words, no permitted access to the profiles of the users. As long as these limitations remain in place, I have no problem with the addition of the mini feed.
12:43 AM
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