AdBeacon Should Be FriendBeacon

By | November 30, 2007

When Facebook introduced its News Feed feature, which gives members a streaming window into what their friends are doing, a lot of members protested. So, Facebook first resisted, then said “calm down, we hear you,” then offered a way for members to put limitations on what their friends get to see in the News Feed.

That was a win for them. The News Feed is a great feature – Facebook wouldn’t be the same without it. But, in retrospect, it was a sign. Still, it was a friends-only feature so no harm done.

Now, the Beacon ad system is the issue and they’re having to rethink they’re approach to that . . . well, not rethink, retreat. Everyone knows they’re retreating except, it seems, the people at Facebook.

Link: “Whenever we innovate and create great new experiences and new features, if they are not well understood at the outset, one thing we need to do is give people an opportunity to interact with them,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, a vice president at Facebook. “After a while, they fall in love with them.”

If it was just about opting-in or opting-out, which is what the buzz is about, that would be one thing. You could give them the benefit of the doubt (again). But there really seems to be a deeper issue about how Facebook thinks about communicating among friends, which they’ve nailed, and bridging the larger world of buy/sell into those conversations, which they’re screwing up beyond belief (beyond opt-in/opt-out).

Facebook, a word of advice. Put your members out in front. Let them be the ad. Zuckerberg is saying the words, but you aren’t doing it.