Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Social Networking and Advertisements
I just now read this article at the New York Times. It is rather unnerving (but not surprising) that Facebook would sell itself and its users' profile information to third-party advertisers. This led me to wonder what each of you think about this maneuver. How much is too much? When will you begin to second-guess your continued participation in such an advertising-centric social network that publicly sells your profile information to third parties for the sake of targeted advertisement? Or will you continue to support and participate with such a social network?
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3 comments:
This definitely was an interesting article. I'm not sure how I feel about third-party advertisers being allowed access to news feeds. Especially since news feeds alone already cause a debate over if I really want to be updated on every aspect of a person's life. Now on top of that you are going to tell me what brands they like and support. I feel like if Facebook keeps on this path people will start to see them as an advertising-based community rather than a social connections community which might result in people being turned off. From the advertising perspective, I understand the desire to be apart of such a huge network and the information you can obtain from it is priceless but Facebook really needs to consider the negative effects this might have on the way people perceive the network. The more advertisers they put on there the more I'm going to feel like Facebook is selling out just to make some extra money!
I am kind of on the fence with this issue. On the one hand, I personally am not a fan of the news feed because it provides me with a lot of information that I really have no interest in with most of my friends. So, adding advertisments are just more unnecessary information that I could do without. However, for those that do enjoy the newsfeed, I see this new advertisement as simply an extension of social relationships by providing users with even more information about their friends likes and dislikes. Although the essential purpose is to advertise, facebook users can benefit from the recommendations of other friends. It seems like an example of social capital, because it provides the four things that make social capital work.
For a while now, advertisers have been creeping into different areas of facebook - whether it's free "branded" gifts (for a limited time give your friend some new berry starbursts!) or in conjunction with contests and social causes (even today there was a news item asking me to join Pantene in finding a cure for cancer). Finding out that someone is a "fan of Prius" is not that different than the SuperPoke application telling me I can now give my friend a Mrs. Fields cookie.
I think most people ignore these ads, and -- similar to the targeted ads that show up in your gmail account -- don't think about the fact that their information is being used to market to them. They won't really change their use habits unless something happens to smack them in the face, ala the newsfeed incident.
As for the advertisers, it reminds me of the rush to jump into Second Life and build their branded islands. That no one goes to. Or better yet, that users adopt for their own means that have nothing to do with the brand.
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