Sarah Arrow

is when people start telling you ‘how to behave’ on a site.

Lately, it’s happening with Facebook. With the advent of the ‘like’ button and the fact that it’s now on 50,000+ websites, mean the marketers are moving in swiftly.Ok, they were always there, but now they are coming out of the closet, and like on Twitter, they are vocal in how to use the platform and how to behave on it.

They don’t like game notifications. Instead of turning them off so they don’t receive them, they want you to convert to their perception of the right behaviour. Easier to get blood from a stone methinks

I have also read that Facebook is taking a serious look at ‘location’, yes that’s right, the site that only gives me two options of where to live – London or Brighton, is now looking at location I expect that ‘location’ will be a while in coming. At least in the UK.

So why are the marketers using Facebook more and more?

• Fan pages are quick and effective to set up, and a good one will allow your content to reach more people. I made a post about this over at the Blogmistress called Sharing is Caring.

• Because the ‘like’ button means your profile is updated.

Most people set up their accounts and rarely remember to update their profiles, and when a marketer buys Facebook ads, they use this information to see the ads displayed match your interests. Fast forward a few years, and that information is still the same but now out of date. That’s why the adverts were of little interest to you!

With the ‘like’ button giving a constant update to your profile, the marketers who use Facebook can now drill down further, so their ads reach the right people and have an increased uptake.

Of course that would be the ideal world, the real world says if your friend who runs the sparkly pink dress shop invites you to ‘like’ her page, you will do. An upset friend isn’t worth having is it? Even if you hate pink sparkly dresses.  You will never hear the end of it. So your profile will also be updated with a stream of ‘life-wouldn’t-be-worth-living-if-I-didn’t like-this-page’ likes, skewing the accuracy for the marketers who have rushed over to Facebook in their droves they will find a way around it, they always do.

I don’t actually like the like button. I need a ‘love this’ button and a ‘no way’ button to make my profile more accurate, something that reflects all aspects of my nature. And perhaps a ‘liking this for a mate’ button to explain away the ‘likes’ of the pink sparkly dress shop.

Whilst many people are concerned about this, the greater concern for me is the fact the status updates, default settings are ‘everyone’ and they filter into search engines. They are also searchable using tools like Openbook. Next time you are off sick or hating your boss, it becomes mainstream and everyone will know unless you change your settings.

How this will mesh with all the ‘like’ I have yet to work out, but we certainly live in interesting times

Sarah

PS if you are THAT serious about Facebook for your marketing, check out Dan Zarella’s post about words that discourage sharing on Facebook. I guess that line now makes me one of those people telling others how to behave on Facebook