WikiLeaks About You

Facebook Wants to Be Your Best Friend

At first there were applications on Facebook with games, surveys and much more to click on, or a friend invited you to participate and play. In the beginning, very few people knew that answering the questions to finding out“Where in the world you should live,” or your “Top favorite soft drinks,” companies were gathering information about you and your friends. Then there was Facebook Beacon that was criticized right away by the media and turned off audiences bringing up issues around personal privacy. People were automatically opt-in by “the face” to share your face with others in the advertising community. Through the introduction of FriendFeed, Facebook Connect and now called the Facebook Registration Login, a tool that allows one to access websites with a universal password and username, as well as shares the places where you go with your friends online.

It also gives Facebook and its advertisers access to information everywhere you go on the web with your friends. As society adopts new social media environments, does it impact your decisions and participation across the web, as more personal information could be shared with advertisers or other sources?

Social Media Peer Pressure

As more websites decide to make it a requirement to sign-in using Facebook’s Registration Login, or one’s Twitter account to use certain services online, it’s as if this is social media peer pressure. Initially, many people created profiles on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites to learn the tools and connect with others. For some it was the trend, if my friends are doing it, so should I. More companies need to explain better the value and purpose as to why one should sign-in with their Facebook, or Twitter accounts. It’s important to give one an option to choose not to use their personal accounts in order to reap the same benefits. In the long-term, is it really just an effort to provide you better service, or could these new conveniences put you at risk to another form of spam, taking the real social aspect away in the future. The blurring of the lines between one’s personal, professional, virtual vs. real persona, maybe coming together in one place. Our daily roles as a worker, daughter, son, brother, sister, mother, father, companion, or something else are different in the ways we interact with others. One may not want to share certain data with everyone we come into contact, as well as with one large data warehouse. For many signing into these new web and mobile services, one wonders if he/she actually understands the reality of sharing my pictures, my comments, where I’m located, or other things that I like, or mention on my pages. Is it just my friends, or with someone else? Does that bother you? People believe it may just be to their protected environment of “friends,” but other places are gaining access to their information.

Berkman Center For Internet & Society

As new technological advancements occur, there are conversations being discussed to protect the rights of others and keep people informed. Harvard’s Berkman Center For Internet & Society addresses some of these issues and has raised awareness through its events, fellowship program, and research to bring clarity to consumers in this new digital age. The Berkman Center’s mission is to explore and understand cyberspace; to study its development, dynamics, norms, and standards; and to assess the need or lack thereof for laws and sanctions. Also, we should all start to think about more personally the ways in which we communicate on the web and how we use our smartphones.

The Power of People in Numbers

We have the power to say something and stand up for our rights. Yet, in this new digital age people don’t even understand the implications of joining certain sites or sharing information with others until it maybe too late. Some people’s frustrations, or lack of understanding the need, value, or benefits of the service can lead to closing of one’s Friendster, MySpace, or Facebook accounts. It’s interesting to see the digital revolution change the way in which society becomes reliable on new forms of technology that impacts our lives, and we give more permission to others that seek profits that could impact our rights. Many governments complained of the threat of WikiLeaks and shut-down the site, while founder Julian Assange is facing jail time.

How do you feel about leaking out more personal information about yourself, your friends, or family to the rest of the world without you knowing and potentially having no control over it? Is it just a matter of convenience, or is Big Brother actually watching YOU!

Put Your Best Face Forward

The Face of the Year – Is YOU!

Mark Zuckerberg must be proud showing off his face to the world as the Person of the Year for 2010 in the new Time magazine cover. At the end of the day, people young and old want to be recognized, express themselves, be acknowledged for their ideas and thoughts, connect with friends, or ask others their opinions. Each appeases to one’s emotions, concerns, and make us feel welcomed by the crowd. In the beginning, as depicted in the movie The Social Network, the growth of Facebook was due to college students that craved a connection to be part of an exclusive community. Who’s the face of the year? It would have to be YOU and how advertisers and brands increased their tactics this past year to appeal to you and your connections on Facebook.

For many brands and advertisers trying to appeal to Generation Y using Facebook, a recent study concludes they are failing in their approach. The Nielsen Norman Group put together a research report to address College Students on the Web focused on Generation Y’s interests and uses of social media. As quoted in MediaPost’s article Social Networks No Place For Marketing To College Crowd, “While it’s no surprise that organizations targeting college students try to reach them on the web, they’re mistaken if they think the best path is through social networking sites,” noted Jakob Nielsen, principal of Nielsen Norman. Students find it easier to accomplish what they seek using search-engines, rather than turning to social media sites for the answers. “Sites like Facebook are simply not the first place that college students think to visit to get information about organizations,” states Nielsen.

College students enjoy chatting with friends and family on social sites sharing new discoveries and/or pictures, but the results of the research suggests that Gen Y is not keen with clicking on certain links from advertisers, or brands to Share This, without a clear understanding what he/she will gain from making a specific connection. The belief by most marketers is if college students are using Facebook, then they want to seek out our brand to connect. Right? Is that really the case for Gen Y, or for others? Many people fear they will be “taken advantage” by marketers. Some complain that it doesn’t make sense to pay attention to the information being shared, or perhaps others may ‘Like,’ ‘Follow,’ or ‘Share This’ for a short-lived promotional offer. A good marketer, or community manager should ask if the information is relevant to the audience, and what drives the audience to take action in the long-term to share his/her interests or thoughts with others?

Every Breath You Take,
Every Move You Make,
I’ll Be Watching You!

As consumers become more savvy with the web and the popularity of smartphones expands, there is also an increase in how personal identifiable information is collected and shared with connections, companies and/or advertisers. Is it to improve the user experience and offer better customer service? Or, do some customers think the information tracking their every move online and now off-line, could be threatening his/her privacy, security, or could create some other potential risk? Recently, the government intervened a Do Not Track proposal directed to advertisers. Additionally, companies such as Facebook have created outrage with new innovations to their products that turned off audiences for fear his/her information was shared with strangers or advertisers for financial gain.

MediaPost’s article, Dramatic Rise In College Students Tweaking Facebook Privacy Settings, highlights a study by social media researchers Danah Boyd and Eszter Hargittai suggesting, “virtually all of the respondents (98%) had changed their privacy settings at least once, while more than half had done so at least four times.” The aspect of controlling one’s privacy and the amount of information made public on social sites and mobile applications continues to be raised.

Scan This, Share This, Facebook Us, Tweet Me – Is it Too Much?

As people mature from one stage of life into another, marketers and technical developers must keep in mind with new product offerings and promotions issues around tracking, consumer rights, as well as privacy a concern to customers and new government regulations. People may want to change information that was once made public in college to being private. This could have implications for one to have immediate access to these control measures, as well as it could impact a shift in one’s business model to earn money. As changes continue to occur with social media tools and other mobile applications evolve in the marketplace, the check-in could potentially check-out, unless the proper education and long-term value is brought to the attention of the audience.

Nielsen’s findings elaborated on ways for marketers to adjust their approach to ‘Share This’ or ‘Like’ that when connecting with college students:

1. “Feedback from my friends is always close.” Give an opportunity for others to receive feedback from friends on areas such as purchasing decisions. Instead of ‘Share This’ explicitly say, “What do your friends think?” Look at what the audiences continues to bring up in their conversations using social media and provide them with the answers. Or, create a larger forum for people to come together on a particular topic.
2. “If I can’t find what I am looking for fast, look somewhere else.” Gen Y like others are fickle when finding something online fast. Ease-of-navigation, limit the amount of clicks to get where one needs to go, and implement clean design that helps to make the discovery process more efficient and enjoyable to find what one seeks.
3. “There are companies that are honest, and those that will try to trick you.” People want valuable information, good resources, and ways to connect with others. However, one doesn’t want to provide his/her information at the expense that it could later turn into an open invitation for marketers to be bothersome. This could make one feel threatened that he/she maybe held captive to future promotional campaigns that offer too much clutter of content. People realize that some marketers require too much information that isn’t necessary at the initial stage of interaction with a product or service offering.

Social media will continue to thrive, change and be a cool place for the college crowd, as well as others to connect. Stay away from surprising the audience, as Zuckerberg learned quickly from the people and the media backlash against Facebook with its new product launches, privacy controls and speculation on new tactics used to monetize the site. Be sure to follow digital best practices to examine the design and provide useful content and resources. It’s important to be upfront with audiences that helps to build trust and empower them to take action to building more valuable connections.