The Gold Mine Facebook Refuses to Explore
I was interviewed by Silicon Alley Insider on Facebook and monetization recently. The results of the interview led to this story. Basically I said that Facebook has a huge monetization opportunity in all its data. Just anonymize it and package it for marketers the way brand monitoring firms do with the rest of the social web. Needless to say, the perspective was a little controversial.
Shiv says these agencies would happily pay Facebook twice as much for a rival service "I think Facebook is sitting on a gold mine," he says. Already Facebook has a free service called Lexicon, which, according to the company, "aggregates and analyzes millions of Facebook Wall posts every day to provide a searchable database of trends over time." But Shiv tells us he and his fellow marketers want a "Lexicon on Steroids."
Read the full post over at Silicon Alley Insider and let me know whether you agree with my thinking or not. Am I ignoring the potential privacy concerns that may arise? The article was also picked up by CNN Money.
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I quite agree with your views- as long as it is dealt with professionally, and anonymously, it can actually be a dual-functioning system, employing at least 1000 more people, and creating an accessible database for market researchers, etc.
When I first joined Facebook, I thought it was a great way to stay in touch with friends. Then I put on my marketer's hat and also realized that this was a dream come true. As people reveal a lot about themselves, marketers can have conversations with relevant prospects and glean valuable insights.
Facebook should be able to monetize that information by selling it to marketers be it in the form of hyper-targeted ads or research. Now part of the bargain we all struck with Facebook was that we would contribute tons of content to the site and reveal much about ourselves as long as we had CONTROL over who sees what and that includes marketers. I don't mind if they see my favourite movies and leisure activities and target their message accordingly. But I don't want them to know it's me.
It's the same bargain we make all the time with reward cards like Air Miles, Aeroplan, and Shopper's Optimum. We know we're giving up information but we know what we're giving up and we're getting something in return.
Before they monetize their information, Facebook needs to figure an acceptable to its users.