Facebook: Do you get it now? It's about users not you !
02/19/09 09:01 AM
The about face of Facebook's content policy was a lesson for all internet marketers and that lesson is: It's about users not about you ! The fundamental difference of the Internet is that users control the message not marketers. Yet marketers continue to want to apply old marketing to new media? It's not about new media it's about new marketing !
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The challenge for eMarketing people today is to develop an online strategy the supports brand objectives while understanding that the Internet is in fact a pull channel and that users control the message. Try to hard to "sell" people and they will give you a high bounce rate and laugh at you. Don't be transparent and social media users will ensure that your brand is trashed everywhere (i.e. Vonage).
It is estimated that Facebook has over 65 million visits month by US Internet users. This is really attractive to marketers because marketers have always been taught to go where the eyeballs are for the best cost effectiveness and reach. However content and usability are always king and that is why I don't understand why so many marketing people don't do site usability studies or have someone who can write content with an understanding of how people use the Web. We know, for example, that a lot of people scan web pages and don't read a lot of content but some websites have too much content which turns people off.
I have always tried to communicate to senior managers that the Internet is about users not a channel for a sales message. Sites rich in FLASH look good to creative people but web users are turned off by sites that take even a few seconds to load. In fact if your site doesn't load within 3-5 seconds you're losing a lot of people who work on Internet time which is measure in microseconds.
Facebook learned the hard way that even minor changes to their website can create a backlash that is echoed online. Their power comes from visitors and unless they start spending more time with their users to determine what they want they continue the risk of alienating users and having them go elsewhere.
