Over the last 16 hours or so, there has been much hue and cry over Facebook’s new ad platform. Many commentators cry “I won’t shill for Coke” or “Don’t tell me what me Facebook so-called-friends are reading”. Fine. I won’t tell you about this excellent band I just found. Do you care if I don’t tell you?
Like it or not, our real friends are our second biggest influencers, and I would not have heard about many excellent books if it wasn’t for my close friends. I appreciate these recommendations, and try to return the favour, which I also know is appreciated. If a friend fills out a widget on Blockbuster.com recommending a movie, I will pay attention.
What Facebook misses is the idea of what a friend is. Facebook gives equal weight to our close family, our closest friends (our “inner circle of advisors”), our work acquaintances and the guy with whom we were college roommates for three months. Even among our wider net of associates, certain people have different weights of authority in different areas. If I had Rob Hyndman among my friends (I don’t know him, but I like his commentary on the tech world), I would take his recommendations on books, but probably not air conditioners. And, with apologies, I really don’t care what you drink.
Facebook, I need to categorize my friends. Inner circle, friends, superficial acquaintances (you don’t need to use this terminology). If you would also give me tools so that I can specify the types of recommendations I get from my friends, I would greatly appreciate that. For example, I will take book and music recommendations from Tad, but not from my cousin. If Steve (the snappy dresser) reviews a shirt, I’m listening. Mike: tell me about the skis you are buying this year, but I don’t care for your taste in beverages.
If Facebook wants to make this “a strong trusted referral for your brand”, then I want recommendations from people I trust in certain areas, not my “Facebook friends”.
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November 7th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Surely this is possible … and it is surprising that Facebook hasn’t already done this (?). Part of the reason why I have not become more attached to Facebook is precisely because of all the noise!
(Flickr allows you to separate your contacts into family, friends, and contacts, and then restrict access to photographs on that basis. Perhaps there’s a model there.)
November 7th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Not being able to categorize your friends is a common complaint; I’m not sure why Facebook doesn’t do it. I really like Flickr’s approach - very sensible.
I think the ad program would have a lot more buy-in if there were a few more controls, privacy, categorization and otherwise. I’m underwhelmed.
November 11th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
[…] Facebook’s ad weakness: our “friends” are not our friends by Dave Walker Over the last 16 hours or so, there has been much hue and cry over Facebook’s new ad platform. Many commentators cry “I won’t shill for Coke” or “Don’t tell me what me Facebook so-called-friends are reading”. Fine. I won’t tell you about this excellent band I just found. Do you care if I don’t tell you? […]
November 13th, 2007 at 2:45 am
[…] Facebook’s ad weakness: our “friends” are not our friends by Dave Walker […]
November 25th, 2007 at 7:13 am
[…] Facebook’s ad weakness: our “friends” are not our friends by Dave Walker Over the last 16 hours or so, there has been much hue and cry over Facebook’s new ad platform. Many commentators cry “I won’t shill for Coke” or “Don’t tell me what me Facebook so-called-friends are reading”. Fine. I won’t tell you about this excellent band I just found. Do you care if I don’t tell you? […]
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Your weblog looks cool. What theme have you been using?