The devil, however, is in the details (about which little has so far been revealed). Specifically:
- Will advertisers pay people to recommend their products to friends? How much?
- Will there be no money involved? In which case, people are just going to recommend businesses and brands because they feel like it? (Honest, but probably not a particularly popular activity, and certainly nothing that an advertiser is going to pay Facebook for).
- If people are paid, will they be paid once, or will they get ongoing payments for downstream referrals and ongoing business? (You recommend your Morgan Stanley broker to a friend. The friend uses the broker and racks up huge commissions and recommends the broker to three other friends. Do you get compensated for this?)
- Will “friends” reveal that they are being paid? That they are effectively part-time buzz marketing agents and sales reps–or, as with some cases of physical world “buzz marketing,” will friends just appear to be raving about a particular product because…they love it?…
and
The press release outlined the concept, but it did not address any of this:
Advertising messages will gain distribution through what Facebook has termed the “social graph,” the network of real connections through which people communicate and share information…Users can become a fan of a business and can share information about that business with their friends and act as a trusted referral.
How? Any money involved? Just doing favors for friends? If so, why will advertisers pay Facebook for this?
Facebook users can interact directly with the business through its Facebook Page by adding reviews, writing on that business’ Wall, uploading photos and in any other ways that a business may want to enable.
And people will do this because?
These actions could appear in users’ Mini-Feed and News Feed, Facebook’s popular products that allow users to share information more efficiently with their friends.
Will I be paid to put commercial items in feeds? Will it be clear that I am getting paid?
Facebook’s ad system serves Social Ads that combine social actions from your friends – such as a purchase of a product or review of a restaurant – with an advertiser’s message. This enables advertisers to deliver more tailored and relevant ads to Facebook users that now include information from their friends so they can make more informed decisions. No personally identifiable information is shared with an advertiser in creating a Social Ad.
This could easily get ugly, too. Devil in details.
Social Ads can appear either within a user’s News Feed as sponsored content or in the ad space along the left side of the site.
Again, compensation involved? Favors? What’s in it for the “friend” who is bombarding “friends” with an advertising feed? Discounts on future products? Great table next time you visit? Is all this disclosed? Will other friends enjoy it?
As you see early assesment of Facebook as a multi level marketing platform (initially for apps) is justified. As Umair says FB is deeply cynical (and evil).
And more:
And, as anyone who is familiar with the game theory in behavioural economics will tell you, once we suspect we are being played for a sucker / taken advantage of, we will take revenge – even to our own detriment. The backlash on this, since it has been done so crassly, is going to push Planet Advertising back far further than it need be.
Simple, heh… Where does this leave clueless FB users (or should I say members, “fansumers “???). Sadly, they will be reclyled… once again. Result – time wasted (for them) and some cash maid for Consumerberg.
… this is exactly what has to happen once you start to mess up with a very fine fabric of social trust. Enginnered (read-algorithm bases) approach is trust (value) destroyer, not creator. I am glad it has turned out that way. You are not gonna outsmart us, Mark.
In fact, I like Nick’s take on this dynamics much better: the medium is the message from our sponsor. The irony is so deep it’s subterranean.
