Is Facebook trying too hard?

[RobfromtheGulag]

Is it just me or is Facebook trying way too hard recently?

This isn't related to the movie, which I'm boycotting after reading that article from the Escapist water cooler about the guy being a liar and going behind his friend's back. I just thought of it after seeing this 'Assassin's Creed on Facebook' post.

-We know Facebook asks for tons of information even to register, and...
-When you register they guarantee you virtually no privacy with the info you supply
so...
Why is every product on the market now trying to get us to 'Follow us on Facebook!'?

It's almost as if some higher power wants to know everything about everyone...

 

[dex-dex]

Facebook has become part social network and part advertising site.

It is a way for people to show they are in favour of what ever let's go with billabong.
before i never used facebook but since a lot of my friends have moved out of province, it is helpful. and then skype came along. Yet i still use facebook for those who don't have skype.

 

[Geekosaurus]

It's a little off topic, but the film actually looks fairly interesting. Plus it got four stars from Empire, so it can't be all bad.

I don't think Facebook have to try very hard any more. They're probably laughing at the fact that other industries like the gaming industry are coming to them to help promote their products. They understand how powerful they are, and they're obviously going to benefit from that.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

It's a little off topic, but the film actually looks fairly interesting. Plus it got four stars from Empire, so it can't be all bad.

I've no doubt the film will be interesting. David Fincher directed, and all of his movies, even the ludicrous 'Game' one, had amazing atmosphere.

I remain stalwart in my resolve to avoid Facebook, and I'm sure for people that are already on there that joining a club for their favorite games or products or whatnot is easy and worthwhile. But as an outsider looking in it seems like it's becoming really focal as an internet phenomenon; even more than just a social site.

 

[SimuLord]

There are a lot of very clueless marketing people out there (scum of the earth, right down there with ambulance chasers and war profiteers) who think "Facebook is hot! Everyone's on Facebook! There must be a way to MARKET TO THESE PEOPLE!" (although I shouldn't complain, I'm networking with some people in the business department at school and touting myself as a personal-branding social-media expert for my own efforts on Facebook)

It's a lot like how everyone rushed to have a website when the Web was new, like "visit us on the Web at www._____.com." They didn't have any means of turning browsers into customers, they were basically wasting shit tons of money on bandwidth, and all their sites were were a bunch of commercials---not even interactive commercials because everyone still had dialup. It was stupid and pointless and a money sink (you still see it today with a lot of companies. Their Web presence is costing more in bandwidth costs than it's generating in revenue but "you HAVE to be online!")

Facebook is the same way. Have you seen these "official" Facebook pages? People "like" them, but that's the extent of customer involvement. And what's the chance that sticking an ad on someone's news feed is going to generate any business, especially when people tend to restrict what shows up? Slim to none, I'd say. It's a WOMBAT* scenario.

If I were consulting with these companies, I'd certainly tell them to maintain a social-media presence, but do it in a token way and don't spend a lot of marketing resources on Facebook when you can direct that money in a way that's far more likely to go viral and generate real customer interest and sales. The Internet is used wrong FAR more often than it's used right. And marketing people can go suck a fat one.

*Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time.

 

[Geekosaurus]

It's a little off topic, but the film actually looks fairly interesting. Plus it got four stars from Empire, so it can't be all bad.

I've no doubt the film will be interesting. David Fincher directed, and all of his movies, even the ludicrous 'Game' one, had amazing atmosphere.

I remain stalwart in my resolve to avoid Facebook, and I'm sure for people that are already on there that joining a club for their favorite games or products or whatnot is easy and worthwhile. But as an outsider looking in it seems like it's becoming really focal as an internet phenomenon; even more than just a social site.

Oh of course, Facebook is more than just a social site. It's become annoying and repetitive to anybody that hasn't been sucked into the whole experience. I still use it, but I use it as a tool to keep in contact with people I don't get to see very often - like friends that have gone to different universities.

Ideally I'd like it if Facebook got rid of all the 'Like' things, made your personal information more secure by default, and turned it into a site for keeping in contact with people. That's not going to happen though, so you just have to use it in a particular way.

 

[Thyunda]

Is it just me or is Facebook trying way too hard recently?

This isn't related to the movie, which I'm boycotting after reading that article from the Escapist water cooler about the guy being a liar and going behind his friend's back. I just thought of it after seeing this 'Assassin's Creed on Facebook' post.

-We know Facebook asks for tons of information even to register, and...
-When you register they guarantee you virtually no privacy with the info you supply
so...
Why is every product on the market now trying to get us to 'Follow us on Facebook!'?

It's almost as if some higher power wants to know everything about everyone...

Now that you mention it, it is as though the world's most powerful men are running Facebook. They have all of their separate companies trying to get everyone on Facebook...perhaps, when they reach a good percentage of the world's online population, they'll fire cerebro shells into our heads and control us through Facebook.

It's a conspiracy.

 

[Rusman]

It's a little off topic, but the film actually looks fairly interesting. Plus it got four stars from Empire, so it can't be all bad.

I've no doubt the film will be interesting. David Fincher directed, and all of his movies, even the ludicrous 'Game' one, had amazing atmosphere.

I remain stalwart in my resolve to avoid Facebook, and I'm sure for people that are already on there that joining a club for their favorite games or products or whatnot is easy and worthwhile. But as an outsider looking in it seems like it's becoming really focal as an internet phenomenon; even more than just a social site.

Oh of course, Facebook is more than just a social site. It's become annoying and repetitive to anybody that hasn't been sucked into the whole experience. I still use it, but I use it as a tool to keep in contact with people I don't get to see very often - like friends that have gone to different universities.

Ideally I'd like it if Facebook got rid of all the 'Like' things, made your personal information more secure by default, and turned it into a site for keeping in contact with people. That's not going to happen though, so you just have to use it in a particular way.

Oh god the "like" things are getting way out of had, people "like"-ing quotes from TV shows and stuff, and the whole "Like" this page to see THE MOST SHOCKING PICTURE EVAAAAARRRR!!! Really winds me up.

I do agree to have it as a site for keeping in contact, that's pretty much all I do on it as I am away from different groups of friend for most of the year.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

The "Like" pages are pointless. It's a social networking site, but I can tell people just click "Like" on pages in a very robotic fashion without even thinking about what they're doing. In theory I imagine linking every little thing to Facebook will work well because we essentially become the various companies' advertisers, but it's ultimately up to us if we want to do such a thing.

I don't see this whole security issue that people talk about though. You can set as much or as little information public as you want.

 

[skips]

This isn't related to the movie, which I'm boycotting after reading that article from the Escapist water cooler about the guy being a liar and going behind his friend's back.

Sorry to be (partially) off-topic but would you mind explaining this?

 

[the Dept of Science]

As I said in one of the threads about The Social Network, I think its retarded to hate Facebook. When it comes down to it, its just a tool for messaging friends, sharing photos and organising events. I could rant about stupid things about Facebook for hours, however, I think to hate Facebook as a whole would silly. I don't like receiving spam emails or cat picture chain mails from my mum, but I don't write off email. I get annoyed by cold call and drunk dials but I don't refuse to use a telephone. Ultimately, pretty much everything in Facebook that people complain about can be easily turned off (and unless your friendbase consists mainly of 14 year olds, then most of them aren't a problem in the first place). Lets take a simple exammple, if I want to organise a party and invite 100 people. I could either text/telephone them all individually and take a couple of hours doing it, or I could create page on Facebook and have it done in 5 minutes.
While I see why people dislike Facebook, don't be offended if in my mind I lump you in with people in the 50s that hated popular music or people in the 00s that hated videogames.

 

[Nwabudike Morgan]

I've found that the people who hate Facebook tend to have no friends.

 

[Blunderman]

Facebook is the latest production of the innate shallowness of the vast majority of people living in society. It's just the next step in the ever-developing social game, where status and being cool earns you points and validates you as a "good person". Friends are a commodity and since it's a popular gathering place for sheep, companies place ads to attract the sheep to their particular venue. It's on the verge of becoming a background framework for the entire web, where all established websites of any kind are linked to and through Facebook. Which isn't anything but a very natural progression of the concept. And yes, in the eyes of the corporations we are all sheep.

It definitely has its uses and I don't mind it at all, and the mere fact that a large proportion of the global population has completely the wrong idea about the significance of Facebook doesn't affect me.