Has Facebook gone too far with their last Innovation of Ad strategy?  What is the problem with Facebook Beacon?

Facebook has launched a new advertising strategy called Facebook Beacon.  It is a spin-off program that takes advantage of its Word of Mouth (WOM) networking to beef up advertising revenues. 

If you’ve been reading any SEM industry news, you know that Social Media forums have been proving searchers are more likely to purchase products or services online after reading reviews on those products online, whether they are friends with the person that reviewed the product or not.  Take that effective Word of Mouth marketing and apply it to a new platform, Facebook Beacon.  So what does FaceBook Beacon do?  It uses javascript embedded on participating external websites to track a Facebook user’s online purchases from those external websites. Facebook receives that information and then posts that purchase in the form of a story, or endorsement in an RSS feed within Facebook, for that user’s friends to see.  It appears to be a voluntary product endorsement. 

So what is the problem?  Well, there could be several.  First, in some states, if you haven’t solicited to have your name appear as an endorsement for commercial advertising, that could be considered illegal.  Second, let’s say you go online and make a purchase in part to keep your confidentiality.  More specifically, you didn’t go to a store and buy the product, instead you opt to purchase it online in order to keep your anonymity.  If that is the case, you may have just waived for your anonymity without knowing it. 

Facebook counters the problem by providing privacy controls. Facebook states that the users of Facebook can opt out from allowing their story to be posted for their friends to see.  However each user has to voluntarily choose to opt out.  Therefore, if that user doesn’t opt out, Facebook maintains the control in posting that information anyway.  Why can’t it be an opt-in program? Why not allow the user to choose to have their story posted?  Another issue that arises is clearly addressed by Om Malik, “If you [opt out], your friends won’t see the information, but apparently Facebook still receives it. This means that if you are a Facebook member, Facebook will know what you are doing on each of their partner sites.”  This may be yet another privacy violation. 

So, the debate comes down to this… as we evolve into a more virtual social era, the users are already knowingly posting private information about themselves for the world to view.  They are already waiving their privacy rights, however, those users are maintaining personal control over the information they release.  If users allow themselves to be involved in social media forums, what level of control should those users have over the information flowing over the web about them? Should advertisers be able to track those user’s purchases in order to determine behaviorally the most effective ad strategies to employ?  Who should have the final say in the information that is released about a person’s buying habits, the social forum or the user?

http://gigaom.com/2007/11/06/facebook-beacon-privacy-issues/

It seems like it was only a matter of time before MySpace and Facebook created their own ad networks in which to compete against the Search Engine giants. With the capabilities to target your key demographic (i.e. age, gender, hobbies), most advertisers are eager to jump on board.

Advertising on social media sites may be a bit controversial and intrusive, but this can’t take away from the fact that it represents the perfect opportunity for a company to converse with their potential customer, instead of just pushing information at them. Websites, such as Facebook, offer behavioral user data that help to give you more detailed information on your target audience’s interests.

Many of my clients felt overwhelmed or intimidated by these sites at first, but after a few sessions of browsing the sites, they caught on quickly and couldn’t wait to join in. These companies would agree that you may be able to put a price on the cost of advertising, but the ability to speak with your customers on this level is invaluable!

It is no surprise that the internet marketing industry is becoming more and more competitive every day. Thus it is very important that we, as marketers, stay on top of the trends within the digital space. Below is a recap of Google’s Top Ten trends to follow within today’s digital space.

Be “Always On”
It is important that you are always on and always available for your online audience. Flighting your online marketing campaigns is not an effective strategy anymore. You cannot effectively decide to target your online consumer in January and not in February. Your consumer is online 24/7! If you are ever curious to see search trends/volume for a particular keyword, visit- www.google.com/trends

Be Ready Online for What’s Happening Offline
Offline news, events, and media drive what happens in the online world. Visit www.google.com/trends/hottrends to confirm. If you take August 2^nd for example- the most popular keywords that day (a.k.a “hottrends”) were terms related to “bridge” and lyrics to songs. If you look back to what was going on in the “Offline World” that day, you will discover that it was the day the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis and the day that the show “The Singing Bee” launched – hence all of the words related to “bridge” and song lyrics. You can’t always prepare for what happens in the “Offline World”, so be ready Online for what happens Offline to as large a degree as possible. You never know when it can be related to your industry.

Don’t Build it & hope they come…Atomize & Distribute
Building out a great site and expecting people to come to it is not realistic anymore. You have to segment it out into the marketplace- “Atomize & Distribute”. Consumers are too busy to surf an entire site to find everything that would be useful for them. Make different parts of your site available. One way to do this is through Google’s Open Social. Open Social allows you to build applications that work across many websites.

Big Portals are Important, but so are Niche Sites
I think we all know and appreciate this fact, but engagement exceeds clutter- which then in turn presents opportunity. With many niche/vertical specific sights, there may not be a lot of eyeballs available, but your ad will most likely be one of the only ones seen. At this point there is not a lot of competition across the vertical engines so it is a great time to act on them.

Make Video the Centerpiece of your Online Strategy
Online video is becoming more widely accepted and utilized across the digital media space. YouTube is a great example of a portal for online videos. One of the most common misunderstandings is that the younger demographic is the only demographic that participates with online video. YouTube not just for teenagers anymore. 51 million unique visitors visit YouTube every month. Average age on YouTube is 33 and over half of their audience is married. YouTube is currently the 8^th largest site in the world. If you have a lot of video at your disposal, I encourage you to put it somewhere. It doesn’t have to be YouTube, but somewhere. The Navy recently put all of their Video on YouTube so that it would be readily available and viewable for anyone who wants to see it. It is a great way to expand your target reach and get people involved with your product enough to share it with others.

RSS-feeds provide both choice and control
Allow users to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually. It gives your target audience the opportunity to choose you. Utilize RSS feeds!

Tap into the Wisdom of Crowds to Drive Innovation & Creativity
Give your consumers a way to provide their feedback. It is their feedback that will be most beneficial for you in the long run. For example, Fiat gave consumers the chance to design a car on http://www.designboom.com/ and vote on the best design. Fiat then created that car and is now selling it in Europe. It was an easy way to listen to what the consumer wanted.

Implement what the consumer wants. and dramatically increase sales as a result. Dell is now doing something similar with Idea Storm. Mastercard is doing this with their “Enthusiastic community” which allows consumers to submit their “priceless” stories for the chance to become a commercial, etc.

Be where your consumers are at the moment of relevance
Straight forward demographic targeting does not work anymore. As mentioned before, offline drives online. You have to reach your consumer at the moment of relevancy.

Keep your eye on how computer architecture is changing
There is an ongoing durability and share-ability issue with computers today. For example, if I were to create a 2008 marketing budget in Excel and sent it to a co-worker in Nashville- they might not know what version to open it with, etc. However, if you could put a file, photo, etc in a “cloud” (per say) for others to “grab” when they wanted it, that would solve a lot of issues. It is important to keep your eye on how computer architecture is changing- even if you are not tech savvy or a developer. For example, there is buzz about a new “Cool Christmas idea” that relates to how technology is changing. It’s a new GPS digital camera that pinpoints the exact coordinates of where the picture is taken. This will allow you to always know exactly where you were when the picture was taken. Pretty cool!

Data Beats Opinion
As marketers we get so caught up in our opinions and our “knowledge”, that we often forget how powerful data is. You can predict the behavior of your target audience through mathematical methods. It is very important to keep you mathematicians available as a resource to plan a marketing campaign. Google referenced the article, “Knowing What to Sell, When, & to Whom” by Harvard Business Review.

As marketers, we can all be overwhelmed and consumed with our day-to-day work load. Yet, it is important to remember to stay on top of the media trends within the digital industry. Take some time to learn what is out there!