Comments on: Facebook Monetization Strategy: Let’s Take a Poll

By: Mikey

Mikey — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:47:49 +0000

I’m happy that I ran into this article as I’m very curious about how social platforms like facebook will reach their supposedly potential profit.

If facebook creates a business model to where they can capitalize on their data and connectedness among friends, I wonder how this will go. As Dave mentioned about creating business transactions between friends, I wonder if this means that facebook would have to share some very personal info. How would facebook be able to that two friends have a common interests….like wear the same type of shoes or go on similar vacations?

Look forward to starting up a conversation on this topic!

By: Advertising Golf on FaceBook « Diary of a Suburban Startup

Advertising Golf on FaceBook « Diary of a Suburban Startup — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:27:50 +0000

[...] regards to Facebook’s business model, I am sure that monetization through advertising is not a sustainable strategy. And with Facebook [...]

By: Jude Fiorillo

Jude Fiorillo — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:29:37 +0000

Yes I have the same issue Mike.

How can a site that knows everything about me and my interests be so clueless about providing me with ads I have no interest in?

The key to this initiative will be how will people react to the new polls? Will they be just as annoying as the ads or will intrinsic or monetary incentives be enough to engage people in this way?

By: Jude Fiorillo

Jude Fiorillo — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:24:40 +0000

Thanks for the thought provoking comments Cameron and Dave.

Cameron: I like your description of Facebook as a living lab – it really does feel like an organic representation of what real people are interested in, as well as their actions, as measured over time. This is clearly information of value to marketers because this information and the media context you mentioned can be pieced together to create a fairly comprehensive identity. In my mind the key for Facebook is that through their data mining they create an accurate ‘understanding’ of who you are and how you act. Once you understand what a customer wants then you are much better positioned to deliver a mutually beneficial arrangement (ads, polls, content etc…that someone actually wants)

Dave: you raise a great point about the connectedness of Facebook being one of the key opportunities for the site. The ability to manage your relationships on a more sophisticated level, across your personal and professional life, has been established with Facebook. The next step is for them to understand how to leverage these social graphs, the “who” you know, and then relate this to the “what” you know and do. Facebook is going to increasingly be interested not just in people talking about activities, but in people using the platform in order to engage in new activities.

By: Mike Dover

Mike Dover — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:02:56 +0000

I’ve never clicked on a Facebook ad. I’m pretty much appalled that they are not better at targetting them especially when they know (or should know) so much about me.

By: Dave Jones

Dave Jones — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:07:51 +0000

It strikes me as a bit ironic that Facebook (viewed as one of the most innovative uses of the web to date) is still stuck trying to make the same old web-based business model of advertising work for them. In my opinion, FB’s true value lies not in the demographic information that is deemed valuable by marketers. But rather in the “connectedness” of the networks that people have created and the belief that most people invite those whom they trust into their network. The value of a “trusted” relationship is that it makes business transactions much more efficient. If I have a need (i.e. someone to do my taxes) and I have a medium with which to get a referral from a friend (without just posting it to a “wall” or through “share”), then I can make that transaction occur (and if FB makes it simple to match wants and needs, they can extract ‘rents’). If they could make the transactions occur between businesses and individuals – even better! Obviously, this type of stuff happens in other parts of the web – i.e. InnoCentive – but the networks aren’t as sophisticated as FB’s are from a relationship standpoint. This also isn’t to say that someone like LinkedIn couldn’t make it work either. But since the topic is FB, the question to me is….if it still doesn’t work, why not try something new?

By: Cameron Norman

Cameron Norman — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:58:50 +0000

Facebook’s overwhelming presence in the lives of millions throughout the world provides one of the most remarkable living labs in the world. Just as Google mines through every single search to aggregate trends based on a wide-range of demographics, so too can Facebook. Facebook already can tell what words are being used on the site (the Lexicon service). But unlike Google, Facebook has the ability to examine the social context in which these words are used via the utilities that they are used in (e.g., the wall, Facebook ‘mail’ etc..). Over time this could amount to the most incredible natural experiment on human community online that has ever existed — provided they keep the data secure, ensure anonymity and privacy, and look at aggregate data instead of creepy personalized statistics (which is a big ‘if’). This would be invaluable to all kinds of groups — from business to non-profit to health care to government.