By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
8/19/2008
I am a Facebook Junkie and my life has become unmanageable. I have up to 5 Scrabble games (I formerly played Scrabulous, but that’s a story for copyright lawyers, not retailers) going at any one time, and feel a creeping anxiety over the fact that today, Scrabble is down for maintenance. A good friend joined FB the other day and I was surprised to read a note she posted on someone’s wall saying, “I don’t fully understand this application yet.” My immediate reaction was, “Application? This isn’t an application…it’s a place.” Uh-oh. I’m in trouble.
So that’s the backdrop.
Advertisers on FB are astonishingly good at contextualizing the ads they put in front of you. I sometimes wonder if they’re not too good for their own good. Since I put my birth date in, it’s not hard to figure out I’m over 40, and present ads to me targeted for “my crowd.” It is even reasonable to assume I have a Jewish lineage even though I state my religious preferences as “my own.” I imagine an advertiser could parse my name easily enough, or find it on a list of “common Jewish names.” I suppose targeting weight loss ads is a good guess for most anyone in my age bracket. You can’t take these things personally.
But then it starts to get just a little creepy. The day after researching flights from Miami to Nice (not a typical itinerary) on Orbitz, FB presented me with an ad offering great deals on Orbitz for flights from Miami to Nice. The geek in me knows Orbitz is doing something with my cookies, but the human part of me goes, “Ewwwww. I’m not in Orbitz, I’m in Facebook.”
Retailers and TV shows have fans, and along with placing ads, they send you updates on things you want to know about. So far, nothing has floated my boat or changed my behavior.
Is it Anything?
Fans will recognize “Is it Anything?” as the name of a popular segment on The Late Show with David Letterman. The curtain rises, and we someone doing something. Dave and Paul Schaeffer debate whether what that person is doing is “anything” or not.
I have to ask the same question about retail presence on Facebook and other social networks. Is it anything? Is it brand-building, revenue generating, low cost advertising? Or is it nothing at all?
I know that there are generational issues at play here. I still don’t quite “get” all the money being poured into Second Life. I actually prefer NO graphics to the seemingly primitive graphics there. And I prefer using a picture of me (taken at just the right angles of course) to my avatar on Second Life, even though she’s younger and hotter. But still…I have to ask the question again. Is it anything?
Once again, I am looking for the “wisdom of the crowd.” We’re going to post an excerpt of this article on our blog, Vox Paradox. Let us know. You’re retailers, and you’re making these investments. Is it anything?
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