Why "Liking" Just Might Work

Comment by Howie Goldfarb on April 27, 2010 at 2:22pm

Is this any different than Digging in terms of the action. So your right. But how many people Digg?

I also wonder how many people if given the proper choice would opt out. Vs blindly not knowing what is going on. If Facebook say has just 30 million people blindly move forward that's a huge group. (Which is why they take the kind of sleazy path). Though these sheep maybe are not the brightest or most inquisitive of the bunch, marketers and brands love sheep. The best customers keep buying and never change for no apparent logical reason other than...'always done this'.

I mean the numbers prove with 300 million people if 100 million are drones who spend money....who says intellectuals or elitists need to challenge what makes money. I can slam Britney Spears for making lame music (meaning she is not an artist in my opinion) but she is a great businesswoman! This is something I gave a lot of thought recently. I might not use Facebook much myself but I sure will use it for my clients if it benefits them in positive ways. Until something better comes along.

So here is where Facebook is going wrong. I think if they do anonymous aggregating of votes with 'like' its a winner. But if every time you 'like' this goes everywhere like other websites/businessas well as friends all see this as you, to target to you...is this any different than Beacon? Is this any different than the very controversial behavioral targeting?

BTW did you listen to Fridays Jaffe vs Joel tag team podcast. If you haven't you should. Its really good.

Comment by Bob Knorpp on April 27, 2010 at 2:35pm

The trouble with Digg was and is that you have to go to their site and participate in their community. There was no partnership, like where Google offers their search bar to site. Digg was trying to drive traffic to their site.

Well, Facebook already has the traffic, now they need the data. So allowing partner sites to add "like" buttons to their content will create a user paradigm that is simple and already accepted. People know how to like things and pressing the button requires nothing but a click. Then Facebook collects that data and makes their ad offering that much more targeted and compelling for their clients.

Then once that's up and running, FB can sell this ad targeting to their partner sites, presenting the first serious contender to Google's dominance.

In the end it doesn't matter how we feel about Facebook. People are using it en masse and a play like this could be monumental.

Comment by Howie Goldfarb on April 27, 2010 at 2:58pm

You are correct except there is a huge risk of another network upsurping Facebook (very likely this will happen). Curious what happens to that infrastructure and data.

This is going to be very interesting how it plays out. People don't want BT but Facebook and Agency's and Brands seem to want it. See who wins out. if I was doing the BT thing I would bribe people with lower prices in return for my lowered marketing costs.

Comment by Bob Knorpp on April 27, 2010 at 3:26pm

Clearly no single company dominates for ever. Microsoft and IBM are proof of that. There is always risk. But the FB play is a solid one.

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