Is this the end of Facebook’s media honeymoon?
The world of social networking services seems particularly unforgiving. As if floating on the froth of a speculative wave, any sense of downward movement has the bulls running for cover, erasing web 2.0 platitudes from their blog footprint.
But Facebook seems to be a victim of its own success. The darling of web 2.0 media has suddenly findings its good work coming undone by the very people that made it possible - its partners.
2 key factors why the Facebook brand is being dragged through the mill this week
1) Tech journalists have got bored of it but didn’t have a good enough reason to slate it until MS bought in and FB decided to launch “Beacon”
2) Savvy hackers realize that all those years phishing your email details seem Stone Age when consumers are volunteering it to a public platform
3) Invite all your friends to become a Vampire too…
Pundits have been quick to kick the chair out from under the web2.0 cavalcade (before someone else manages to do so first) with influential writers such as Om Malik raising concern over the network’s intentions. It doesn’t help when well read publications such as the Post start running stories entitled “Facebook.com Increasingly Overbearing and Terrible“.
In true groundhog day style, we are currently witnessing a rerun of the late 90s when short lived VC love affair with tech stocks started asking “where’s the money?“. No doubt, investments that needed to be given time suddenly became costs centers when the credit crunch started to affect the liquidity of the capital markets.
You can also sense it as the consumer. When you start to tire of you’re 10th invite to become a Werewolf, Vampire whatever or invited to use an application then forced to invite all your friends before you can use it, you start to mistrust the network. As MySpace demonstrates, once the trust is lost it’s difficult to regain consumer mindshare.
MySpace, without a doubt, is a spent force. In the space of 12 months, its brand equity amongst writers has decreased sharply. No doubt it still carries weight amongst its subscriber base, but it’s more Microsoft than Google - a stable giant rather than a rising star.
So, it’s interesting to see how the media has turned against Facebook in recent weeks… moreso by the timing of their new advertising platform following their “buy in” from Microsoft. Bloggers are one thing, but when trusted brands such as Business Week start doubting your offering, you’re (potential) investors will be perturbed.
Microsoft have enemies. I’m not one of them. Whereas everything Google touches benefits from the Google Juice, Microsoft it appears has the opposite effect.
But the mass media couldn’t really give a hoot about FB or who owns it, let alone what MS is up to. They’ll only jump when you prick them with a sharp stick entitled fear or security… they’ve got a war on terror, immigrants, crime and disease to fight.
That is unless FB itself makes a good read. What if FB was the perfect platform for a 15 year old kid to scam executives… like me? Seems like he’s already up to it, sending the FBI on a wild goose chase.
Which brings us on to Vampires… of the Facebook kind. Now, those apps are fun no doubt, but do I have to receive a flippin’ invite from every single person on Facebook? And if I want to use an app do I have to invite to world before I can actually get anywhere in it? It’s Spam 2.0… and is damaging FB’s trusted brand.
Quote here from Huffington Post shows how consumers are actually being duped by FB app providers. In this instance, a member purchased tickets through Facebook and Fundango only to find his details posted up on the Fundango site.
As someone once said, you only get one chance to sell camel dung in a box. Facebook’s attractive packaging hides a nasty surprise inside.