With this adaptation, Facebook flies in the face of Alan Wolk's claim that your brand is not my friend. Now your brand can post links and pictures to my news feed, just like my friends...your brand's wall looks more like my friends' walls...soon will your brand write on my wall in return?
Is this a reaction to the one-to-one communication on Twitter or to marketers pushing for more interaction? Facebook users hate change; will this be a minor rustle like the last layout change or a major upheaval like Beacon and the TOS?
The TOS scandal was a wake-up call to a lot of Facebook users that maybe it's Facebook who isn't your friend. They're out to make money by capitalizing on your private information. And while getting relevant information that I subscribe to in a centralized place is great, Mr. Wolk has a point--is having a brand literally write on my wall (note: I don't know if this is actually a feature, but that seems like where it's headed) going to cross a sacred invisible line? Will it encourage a more human interaction like Twitter has? Or will it just pare down a brand's fans to its absolute zealots?
It opens up a huge opportunity for brands to do things wrong. Like Wolk said, if brands start using social networks to push out irrelevant product information and humanless hard-sells, users will drop them like they're hot. I love crappetizers from Applebee's, but if random pictures of their mozzarella sticks and buffalo wings start showing up in my newsfeed, I will X out of that shit immediately.
This isn't as much of a hazard on Twitter because brands start with zero followers; those who use it wrong simply won't attract a crowd of loyalists. But many Facebook pages already have hundreds of thousands of fans and plenty of room for missteps. So I'm viewing this as a great opportunity for PR agencies, digital strategists, and media professionals to guide big brands to play nice and act, well, friendly. How about writing on my wall when a new Applebee's opens in my zip code? It's all about providing value.
Thoughts and predictions welcome!
5 comments:
I wonder if this will cause people to inadvertently change their opinions about brands. Many fan pages are actually fan created with no brand involvement. What happens when these pages get all up in my shit and I start to have different feelings towards a brand even though the brand did no wrong? Then what, Zuck?
Also, currently, it's easy to become a fan and forget. On Twitter, not so much. So It will be really interesting to see which FB brand pages actually survive when they are put out in the open.
i like it when you guys use curse words in your posts ;)
right. i follow just a handful of brands (e.g. @RockDaMullet and @PacSun) on the twitter. the ones that i find most interesting are the ones that actually engage in relevant convo/sharing of content when it's timely and appropriate (i.e. time of day, day of week). and when they do engage, they're speaking to me like a human and not some carefully scripted press release or revision 7 of a copy deck. i really get the feeling that there's a real person on the other end of the interwebs. tracking w/me?
so, yes, brands on the FB: share and contribute something of value, when it's appropriate and do it in a way that is more personable.
BTW, @RockDaMullet is the vp of marketing for Wahoo's Fish Tacos (small restaurant chain out here in SoCal).
I definitely see the potential for endless amounts of "spam" content filtering through from pages, but I think if done properly with both parties (sending and receiving) filtering info properly, this could really increase the connectivity on Facebook and also the power to find information quickly and easily.
I agree with Erin, and definitely feel this upgrade is a huge boost to brands making them more sticky and relevant on Facebook.
First off, thanks for the shout-out.
Second, I agree, there is much chance for serious abuse. RIght now, it's easy to "become a fan of" a brand because that's about the end of it - you give props for liking them and they leave you alone.
Definitely suspect that there will be some major f-ups by brands spamming and bugging people and otherwise abusing trust.
And agree that FB needs to do something to show all the newbies (who are completely change-phobic and will likely freak the first week or two) how to set their privacy setting, create groups, etc. Right now you really need a handbook to figure that stuff out- it's not intuitive.
@Erin: That's very true: I have found many FB sites are created by zealous fans. Fortunately (for brands) they can usually be bought off with some swag and praise and recognition (such is the nature of zealots) but that won't always be the case.
@Nguyen - Loved Wahoo tacos the one time I had them (East Coast guy) so nice to see they are taking initiative on Twitter.
I couldn't agree more. I like that fan pages will be more interactive, but if brands are given the freedom to post on their fans walls they will have to be very very careful.
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