This week in the blogosphere we’ll focus on five blog posts that take a look at public concerns over Facebook privacy, behavioral targeting by advertisers and location-based services. Below are some of the highlights from these articles:
- Consumers have had a negative overall reaction to behavioral ad targeting, and there’s an ongoing debate as to whether government regulation should be enforced.
- A recent study was conducted that analyzes whether the concern over Facebook privacy is more grounded in the public’s actual reaction to the controversy, or the media’s sensationalism of the issue.
- Just 4% of Americans have tried location-based services, yet businesses and investors are investing tons of money in this technology.
- One blogger has analyzed whether Apple’s new music-centric social network Ping could have better revenue potential than Facebook.
- Salesforce.com has announced the newest component following their Jigsaw acquisition: Jigsaw for Salesforce CRM.
Retargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites
The New York Times | Miguel Helft & Tanzina Vega | 8-29-10
As the authors of this article point out, the idea of targeted advertising is hardly novel and most online users expect to see ads based on their preferences and past activity. With behavioral targeting becoming a more precise and widespread practice, though, consumers are encountering highly targeted ads that go a step beyond loosely related products that they’ve previously searched for and are instead exact matches to their online searches. While businesses have embraced this advanced marketing technique for its ability to target the right customer with the right ad, all in perfect harmony with their search in real time, most consumers find it concerning and invasive. Some companies have attempted to alleviate their customers’ and prospects’ concerns with explanations of how the ads work and the choice to opt-out (e.g. Zappos redirects users to an info page on ad technology company Criteo’s website), in an attempt to assure users that their online activity is kept anonymous and private. Though, this isn’t always enough to ease the fears of consumers that their personal information isn’t being tracked. There are also ongoing discussions among lawmakers as to whether targeted advertising should be government regulated.
Main Takeaways:
- While marketers have reveled in advancements in targeted advertising, many consumers are negatively reacting to this highly personalized marketing.
- Lawmakers are considering industry regulation of behavioral targeting.
Just How Concerned with Privacy Are Facebook Users?
WebProNews | Chris Crum | 9-2-10
In this post, Crum discusses a study recently conducted by PeopleBrowsr, which looked at public reactions on Twitter compared to reactions from major news sources in response to the major Facebook privacy concerns surrounding the social network’s F8 conference in April. The evaluated tweets were based on keywords relating to these privacy concerns, like Facebook, Zuckerberg and Open Graph. Before the F8 conference, privacy-related tweets ranged from 1,000 to 3,000 a day, but saw a dramatic increase up to 9,000 references the day of the conference. The day following F8, references dropped to 3,500, saw a boost to 7,500 privacy-related tweets when political officials entered the conversation and one month later rose to 20,000 unique references to Facebook privacy. Chief Data Analyst at PeopleBrowsr and blogger, Brian Solis said: “We see that even on the day when privacy took center stage, the media sensationalized the topic. But the public, at least those on Twitter, did not flood the streets with 140 character picket signs. 9,000 tweets does not seem to account for the millions of Twitter users or the 500 million people who have Facebook accounts.” Crum points out that while Twitter is an excellent measure of the general public’s perspective on a topic, not all Twitter users are Facebook users, so this data may be inconsistent with the specific user sentiment it’s trying to capture. Yet, Crum also suggests that there hasn’t been a dramatic plummet in Facebook’s user base either; they’ve only continued to grow.
Main Takeaways:
- PeopleBrowsr recently led a study that compared user reactions on Twitter in comparison to that of the media at the time of the major Facebook privacy debate during Facebook’s F8 conference in April.
- Solis points out that the initial reaction from the public on Twitter the day of the conference was relatively small in comparison to a month later, once major news sources sensationalized the controversy and privacy-related tweets rose dramatically.
Technology Aside, Most People Still Decline to Be Located
The New York Times | Claire Cain Miller & Jenna Wortham | 8-29-10
Despite the number of Web-based services that allow users to publicly share their geographic location, like Gowalla, Foursquare and Facebook, and the financial investments going into location-based technology, the percentage of the population using these services remains relatively small. According to Forrester Research, only four percent of the U.S. population has tried out these websites and apps and a mere one percent employ them on a weekly basis. The user demographic primarily consists of young city dwellers, specifically 80% of the users who have tried these services are men and 70% are between the ages of 19 and 35. According to the National Venture Capital Association, since last year venture capitalists have invested $115 million in location-sharing technology startups. Many users report uneasiness with publicly disclosing their location, which is evident in the low rate of user adoption among the general public. Sharing one’s location with friends hasn’t served as a major enough incentive for users to use these services, which is why these location services are looking to include more user benefit-focused features, like points or coupons, to entice users to disclose personal information.
Main Takeaways:
- Younger users, who have grown up sharing personal information on the Web, account for the largest demographic of location-based service users.
- Many speculate that if Facebook Places hits it big with the social network giant’s 500 million users, location-based technology could gain significant traction among mainstream users.
‘Ping’ Could be Apple’s Backdoor to Social Networking
Internet Evolution | Ron Miller | 9-2-10
In his blog post, Miller speculates on the revenue and user base potential for Apple’s new music-centric social network, Ping. Miller points out that Apple already maintains 160 million users, provides a platform for people to share music, TV and movie preferences and allows users to make purchases right from their live feed, which combines the activities of friends and artists that they follow on Ping. In short, Apple offers users a way to buy directly from recommendations in their personalized social stream, a strategy that Facebook has yet to successfully implement and effectively profit from, says Miller. Ping also offers privacy security, something Facebook has been continuously dinged for. Ping doesn’t currently allow users to integrate their Facebook accounts, and Miller questions whether Apple could have a large enough user base to at least come close to posing a threat to Facebook.
Main Takeaways:
- Apple’s newly announced, music-focused social network launched with 160 million users to start, and as this blogger points out, might have caught on to how to turn social networking into a profitable channel.
- Ping’s at a disadvantage, in that they’re restricted to iTunes and have yet to enter the Worldwide Web, yet Apple has opened themselves up to a larger subset of the population by allowing access via an application available in the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users.
Salesforce and Jigsaw Help Keep Business Data Up-to-Date in Real-Time
Mashable | Christina Warren | 9-1-10
Following their Jigsaw acquisition in April, Salesforce.com is now releasing their newest platform feature: Jigsaw for Salesforce CRM. The latest component will integrate Salesforce CRM and Salesforce Chatter with Jigsaw’s data service. Jigsaw helps businesses ensure that they have the most up-to-date contact information for leads and contacts, by permitting users to revise and provide the most current contact information and distribute it throughout the Jigsaw community. With Jigsaw for Salesforce CRM, the blogger points out, Jigsaw data can be accessed in Salesforce and updated contact information for your business’ leads and contacts will be consistently updated in Salesforce Chatter–all in real time. Jigsaw for Salesforce CRM is available for $29 per seat a month for businesses who already use Salesforce CRM as their daily dashboard.
Main Takeaways:
- Salesforce.com recently announced their first major development since acquiring Jigsaw: Jigsaw for Salesforce CRM.
- This newest platform feature allows users to access Jigsaw data from within Salesforce, as well as receive the most recently updated contact information for their company’s leads and contacts in real-time via Salesforce Chatter.
Could Ping Gain Enough Traction to Take on Facebook?
We hope that you’ve enjoyed this week’s summary and that you’ll share your feedback and questions with us. To get the weekly summary, or any other Optify updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or subscribe to our RSS feed. Here’s one question we’d like to hear your thoughts on:
- In his blog post, Miller suggests that in starting out with a 160 million user base, Apple might have a shot at serving as a real competitor to Facebook with their new social network Ping. Do you think Ping’s revenue model for encouraging users to make purchases based on recommendations from their social network could serve as a major step in making social media profitable?
