Marketing Roadmaps

Susan Getgood

What does Facebook want to be when it grows up?

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Facebook. It’s hot. It’s become one of the most popular social networking sites mere months after opening up to the masses. It’s cozying up to, and getting tons of cash from the big boys.

But what does it want to be when it grows up?

Some of its recent actions suggest that it’s a little confused.

If it wants to stay the adult equivalent of the college facebook, then I guess it makes sense to have a terms of service that requires that people use real first and last names on their accounts, a security measure that has its roots in Facebook’s beginnings. And to boot off people using pseudonyms. But then it won’t really be an inclusive social networking site, will it? Lots of "people" who would join, and bring their rich social interactions, will find someplace else to (net)work and play.

If it wants to enforce its own definition of obscenity on the entire community, in direct contradiction to US law, by banning photos of a legal act, breastfeeding, while allowing things like pro-anorexia groups, the company certainly has the right. It’s not smart to alienate current and future customers, but it is their playground,so they can set the rules. They have every right to define obscenity as something that would make a 16 year old boy uncomfortable… in a bad way. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Facebook. It has tremendous potential as a social networking platform. But even as its valuation rises, it seems to be making short-sighted business decisions that will ultimately affect its future growth.

Personally I like the fact that I know my friends on Facebook are real, live people. I’m not likely to befriend an avatar. And I’m not a big fan of anonymous blogging. However, I do engage in other networks like Twitter with folks using pseudonyms. Sometimes I know their name "in real life" and sometimes I don’t. And I don’t care. Wouldn’t the smarter decision be to allow pseudonyms, but require that it be acknowledged in the profile? Transparency. You have the right to know that Jon Swift is a pseudonym before you friend him, but it is ridiculous to require his real name. His online friends don’t require it. Why should Facebook?

And the obscenity thing. The legal definition of obscenity is complex (and by the way, doesn’t even apply to breastfeeding in public which is legal in all 50 US States.) In the US, we rely on the Miller test. Facebook on the other hand appears to be applying the frat boy test. Or something. Truly, they have to straighten this out. Either  Facebook supports free speech or it doesn’t. And "doesn’t" is a really bad business decision which doesn’t have to be made explicitly. Inconsistent application of community standards accomplishes the same thing.

It’s time for Facebook to grow up. Think about the long term implications of its actions. Understand that the seemingly trivial issues of breastfeeding moms and anonymous avatars are fundamental business decisions that ultimately will affect its ability to become the preferred public social networking platform.

Or not.

UPDATE: The Facebook account of political humourist "Jon Swift" has been restored.

UPDATE 11/2: In this corner Microsoft and Facebook. And in this corner Google and everyone else. Ding Ding. Yesterday the Internet was abuzz with the Google OpenSocial announcement, and today the kids at Facebook are looking at a whole new world. They still have the users and a very powerful Big Brother in Redmond. But they can’t afford to keep making stupid mistakes. Because it seems we have a viable alternative.

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Being Green

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You may already know that if tap water cost the same as bottled water on a per gallon basis, a bath would cost $192. And that it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil per year to produce the bottled water consumed in the United States. That’s like filling every one of those bottles ¼ full of oil.

But until I started helping CamelBak Products with blogger outreach for its Sustainable Hydration Project, I didn’t, even though my family tries to be environmentally responsible. And I’m pretty sure my family isn’t unusual. We know there is an environmental cost, so we take care to recycle our soda cans and water bottles, but most of us just aren’t aware how much that bottled water is costing us financially as well as environmentally.

Now, it isn’t always easy being green, but in the case of drinking water, at least in the US, it really is. Tap water in most places in this country tastes just fine. Otherwise companies couldn’t filter it a little bit, put it in a disposable bottle and sell it at a huge mark-up. To compound the crime, most of those disposable plastic bottles aren’t recycled. To the tune of 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. Bottled water just doesn’t make sense. Environmentally or financially.

What can we do to reduce the cost, for ourselves and for our planet? There’s one simple thing that almost every one of us can do without much difficulty.

Instead of expensive bottled water, switch to tap water.  At home, on the road and in restaurants. My family has. We’re even bringing our reusable bottles with us on vacation. Still not going to be much use for airplane trips but just about everywhere else, we should be able to get clean, cool tap water.

And it will be even easier early next year when CamelBak installs hydration stations in more than 50 top outdoor and bike retailers where we’ll be able to refill our bottles for free.

See, sometimes it is easy being green.

Disclaimer: as noted in the post, I did some blogger outreach this month for the Sustainable Hydration Project. Also: I love the CamelBak bottles.

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Snacktime

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Well, I can’t sing beautifully like my good friend Kami Huyse, who tagged me in the media snackers meme started by Jeremiah Owyang. Geoff Livingston already did the pet exploitation thing so I can’t leverage my dogs and cats, even though my puppy is REALLY cute.

While I’ve been known to invoke my child on this blog occasionally, and on my photo blog Snapshot Chronicles all the time, I can’t quite figure out an angle for him here, other than that he is pretty much a media snacker in the making.

Many others playing this lovely game have already talked about Twitter and Delicious media snacks, and while they are yummy, I won’t serve them again here. One needs variety.

And that’s the first way this blog feeds the media snacker. Variety. I have a wide variety of interests, and I mention them all here. Always with a marketing and communications angle. So, one day you’ll find a post about SciFi Channel, with a heavy dose of Battlestar Galactica. And the next day, a gender rant. Followed by something completely different. Like politics and the presidential election. Stick around, you’ll find all sorts of different snacks.

I regularly do round-up posts of different, usually unrelated things that interest me, most recently a post called Thirteen to One in honor of the Red Sox win in the first World Series game. Some items are almost  "mini-posts," other items just one line. Easy to scan, not hard to follow. Snack food.

Sometimes I write long. When I do, I put a long post warning at the top. If the topic greatly interests you, you’ll sit down, set for a while. If it doesn’t, you won’t get sucked in and then pissed because the post goes on and on and on and on…..

Sometimes I’m funny. They say. You be the judge. Not as funny as some of my esteemed colleagues who are about to get tagged, but hey, I still have my pride.

And finally, even though I respect the right of someone to "read and run," I do hope they stick around for a while, once in a while. Pull up a chair at the table and read some of my longer posts. Comment on them. Challenge my arguments. Nothing pleases me more than comments on this blog, and particularly those from students and young professionals who, although they may be the "snacking generation,"  are clearly taking the time to dig in and learn. And in the process, they become part of our education.

And that is the most delicious snack of all. We are all teachers. We are all learners. YUM!

That’s it. Don’t want you to get too full.

I’m tagging David Wescott, Scott Baradell, Robert French, Sherrilynne Starkie and Sam Whitmore.

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Thirteen to One

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In honor of last night’s stupendous Red Sox performance in game one of the World Series, here are 13 things that I’ve been meaning to write about. Mostly social media and marketing related and in no particular order.

1. A new social network The Point  attempts to harness the power of collective action to bring causes to the tipping point. People and organizations post their causes on the site as an if/then. The basic idea is that if enough people do whatever the action is – if the cause tips, then some other thing would happen. Once it emerges from alpha, it could be an interesting vehicle for a company that is supporting a charitable cause. If enough individuals/customers do something (volunteer, quit smoking, whatever) then the company would do something as well — donate money, sponsor an event, and so on. From Jeremy Pepper, who works for the company, via Twitter.

2. Last week Doug Haslam from Topaz Partners emailed me about a social media survey done by his client, community builder Prospero Technologies. What was most interesting about it, though, wasn’t the survey. The sample size of 50 from a population of the company’s customers is neither large nor random, and the results were pretty much what I’d expect given that population: generally positive about social media with no clear idea of what is working and what isn’t. I do however give the company credit for actually asking its customers, rather than assuming.  What was most interesting was that Doug was pitching other marketing and communications bloggers; both Shel Holtz and BL Ochman wrote about the survey. If you wanted more tangible proof that the media landscape is shifting, this is it. We aren’t just the media relations folks. With a nod to Dan Gillmor, we are the media. Ain’t that a kick. Doug also blogged about this phenomenon.

3. "You could be a Durex Condom Tester and Win $1000"  Durex is pimping for recruiting condom testers on-line. Must be that new form of word-of-mouth: virile marketing (seen on Media Buyer Planner).

4. Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules by Mike Moran.  Not much news here for anyone already deep into social media marketing and communications, but a good read anyway. I’d recommend this as an intro text for experienced marketers who want to come up to speed quickly and get some practical advice on what they should do next.  Plus Moran is funny and he says lots of things I agree with  🙂  (via pitch from Peter Himler)

5. Society for New Communications Research is holding its annual Research Symposium & Gala in Boston December 5-6.

6. Kudos to Kami Huyse for spearheading liveblogging and twittering at the PRSA Annual Conference last week.

7. Andrea Weckerle has a good post on how social media has been, and will be, used in real-time disaster response. And if you twitter, make Ike Pigott happy and follow the Red Cross. 

8. Congratulations Josh Hallet, on joining Voce Communications and Geoff Livingston, on the publication of Now Is Gone.

9. I’ve been playing around a bit with Photrade, a new photo sharing site. It’s now in closed beta but I have three invites. Email or twitter me if you want one.

10. Courtesy of Scott Baradell, a great example of why we should NOT write blog posts simply for search engine optimization.

11. Papeldance.

12. Thank you to all the PR and marcom students who have been  reading the blog and leaving comments. I love to hear from you, even if I disagree with you.

13. Are the comment spammers getting a little more clever? Check out this one on an old Marketing Roadmaps post, comment left up purely to use as an example. Someone less suspicious might not catch it as spam, as the comment is pretty innocuous. BUT: I almost always follow commenters back to their sites. It’s a great way to discover new bloggers and get to know my readers better. AND: I am always a little suspicious when I get comments on really old posts.

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Red Sox Nation

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Yes, I have interesting and relevant marketing stuff to talk about. And I will.

But tomorrow, I, like many of my colleagues, am simply a member of Red Sox Nation.

GO RED SOX!!!!