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Facebook rolled out their new features last week—timeline, social graph and more—and users had a lot to say.(Isn’t it interesting that fans of Facebook and people addicted to controlled substances are both called users?)
Whether you are a Facebook evangelist, a skeptic or you are in a schizophrenic love-hate relationship (that’s me), you likely have your view about the changes, too. But one thing I took away from all the conversation was a recurring theme if someone expressed their displeasure.
“Quit your whining. It’s free. If you don’t like it, just leave.”
Except that it’s not free.
What We Are Giving Facebook
Facebook makes an estimated $4.05 billion in global advertising revenue. Nothing wrong with that. You build a successful company and you get the rewards.
One of the biggest things we give Facebook is our time. And if I remember my Economics 101, that’s called opportunity cost. It’s what we give up, what we don’t spend our time on, when we choose any one particular activity over another one.
Aside from the ginormous (yes it is a word in the Mirriam Webster dictionary now) value of that time, we are giving Facebook other things in exchange for their service:
1. Our privacy.
We are the masters of our own fate when it comes to how much we share. I understand that. Still, giving a significant amount of information about our personal lives can be problematic. And you never know when it can come back to bite you.
You may never have to look for a new job. But just keep in mind that in a recent survey by Reppler, 91 percent of recruiters said they screen applicants via social networks. 76 percent use Facebook and 51 percent screen after receiving the application but before the interview.
People have their different levels of comfort with how much they share but I truly believe that some things made public in the spirit of “authenticity” should never have seen the light of day. And because Facebook seems to tinker with their privacy policy incessantly, who knows what information will be going where?
2. Our agreement to be at their every whim.
Remember when they made the public listing of your phone number the default setting? When they also made “everyone” the default setting, so the whole thing became subject to indexing by third party search engines —and then they made it hard to find how to change your options?
Sometimes it feels like fiddling with my privacy settings every time they change things could turn into a full-time job.
3. Our personal information (depending on how much we share).
In what ways would you benefit—as a business or an author—if you had a huge, rich database of information on the customers and readers you are trying to reach? Could you leverage that information to sell more products or services? To sell more advertising space?
Just picked up today, in one sweep of my Facebook feed, people were sharing:
• where they stand on the political candidates and issues
• types of pets in their house
• their opinions on banking and the mortgage crises
• whether they are single or married and how many kids they have
• whether they love coffee or hate it
• what kind of car they drive
• that they have a new baby or children in school
• a photo of the new pair of shoes they picked up at Nordstrom’s
• that they are addicted to Tic Tacs
• that they got moldy food and an attitude from a grocery store manager
• their favorite books, movies and music
• whether they travel by air frequently and where you go
I could go on, but you get the picture.
4. More subscribers.
Compare it to a newspaper (I know, they are dying now) that can charge advertising fees based on the number of subscribers they have, and thus, how many potential customers the business will reach.
Even with laser-targeting, it’s a lot. Because Facebook has 800 million subscribers. I think that’s worth a chunk of change to them.
5. Control of our platform and connections.
I see it all the time. People who are “renting” space from their Facebook landlord and not owning anything—their message, their connections, their platform. They don’t have a home base. And Facebook (and Twitter) are their only platforms.
Okay. Before you brand me as one of those weird “big brother is watching you” nut jobs, let me just say that I like Facebook. I like the ability to engage in longer conversations with people and build deeper relationships. I like the chance to promote my blog and my writing and my upcoming book.
I just know what I’m giving them in return.
And it’s huge.
What about you?
What do you think of Facebook’s changes?
Do you consider your involvement on Facebook “free”?
Anything to add here?
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Great post Judy! By the way, I think you made a typo at the end of #4. You repeated the phrase “to them.” Just letting you know.
You’re always so thoughtful and I learn so much from you every time Judy. Keep it up!
Judy, you can also include me in your list of people who have a ‘schizophrenic love-hate relationship’ with facebook. I was probably the last person to join, and have the least amount of ‘friends’ on there. Sorry to say, but I don’t get the fascination. And I agree, nothing is free in life, and same is the case with facebook. This will not sit well with the fans – of fb you know.
@ollinmorales My dear writer friend. As much as I proof before I publish, some things just slip past me. Thanks for the heads up and I’ve made the correction.We Top 10 Blogs for Writers people need to stay together. : )
Thanks also for taking time from your busy schedule to read and comment, Ollin.
@Marya | Writing Happiness Marya, Good to see you here. I’m a little late to the party with Facebook, too. Hoping to hear from some true Facebook fans here and getting some perspective. It’s all a tradeoff, isn’t it?
Scary when you lay it out like this. But so true. And worth noting. Thanks!
@Ruth – The Freelance Writing Blog Yes, everything has a cost. I think sometimes we forget that (at least I do). Thanks for reading and leaving a comment, Ruth. : )
Such a relief to hear someone speaking truth… there is so little of it going round these days! I try to participate, but on some level I just so don’t get FB, and the constant changes that seem to their advantage and not those of the subscribers is a big part of it. In a way FB is a lot like Apple – so alluring, all that fun stuff, but never quite comfortable or the way you would want it to be (and this from a die hard Mac person). I like your point about the term, “users” – exactly! There’s the high and then the crash and then it starts all over again.
@mdyak Good to see you here, Miriam. I use Facebook regularly but just get a little tired of the “love it or leave it” mentality. And I REALLY worry about the people who have given them total control over their message and their connections. Thanks for sharing here.
AGREE… and it makes me a bit nervous! FB has become a bit difficult to manage but yet, I am still using it all the time.
I just have to be careful with my privacy settings… Thanks for the great blog here. (as always!)
@yunomarioni Hey, Yuno! Thanks for reading. On the privacy thing, I just read in The Daily Mail (UK publication) that Facebook has admitted to watching the web pages we visit—even when we are logged out of Facebook. They claim it was a “mistake”— a “bug” in their system— but I’m not convinced.
That article is here, in case you’re interested:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2042573/Facebook-privacy-row-Social-network-giant-admits-bugs.html
I guess as long as we are aware…
I’m glad someone has taken the time to elaborate on these hidden costs. Just because you aren’t paying money to Facebook doesn’t mean you’re not paying anything at all. It’s tempting to look at the zero dollar cost and say that Facebook isn’t selling anything. Actually, Facebook is selling their users. They sell their user base to advertisers and investors. I’m not accusing Facebook of selling private information. All they need to do is show their massive number of subscribers to advertisers to make a sale. And that’s why we’re ALL on Facebook, right? To reach all those people with our message! Even if it is just a private message to family and friends. I think it’s important for people to realize that when you click Yes to that subscriber agreement on Facebook, Google, Digg, or any other “free” social platform, you are essentially becoming that company’s product. I’m not trying to sound all Big Brother, either, but it’s important to know what you are giving away.
@BenjaminRose Good way to describe it. We definitely are the commodity, or product. I think the privacy issue is still the one that bothers me the most, though. Just this morning, a news article had Facebook admitting they “mistakenly” watched us when we logged off and collected data on what other sites we were visiting. That’s just creepy to me.
Thanks for weighing in here. You make a lot of sense.
You are so right. When you get down to the bottom line Facebook isn’t free. The only reason I still use it is out of necessity. I have friends and people that I work with all over the world and Facebook is the only social networking site that they all use. And, as you mentioned, it’s also a great place to promote yourself. Love/Hate relationship. Yep, that about covers it. Thank you for posting this. It definitely gives us all something to think about. And while I’m here I wanted to thank you for all your other blog posts. I read through a lot of them and they’ve really helped me decide how to set up my first blog. Thank you!
@SBMartin Yes, Facebook has certainly created a “critical mass” and it seems to be the tool with which to reach almost everyone. Good point. It is so gratifying to hear that my posts have helped you sort through some of your blogging issue. Thanks for letting me know. : )
FB has a different sense of privacy than we do. This article should have shocked me more than it did:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/09/27/facebook-keeps-a-history-of-everyone-who-has-ever-poked-you-along-with-a-lot-of-other-data/
But I have to come to see that Zuckerberg and company act like the 800 pound gorilla and do what they want without much concern for what we think.
@TheJackB You are right. It all boils down to what we define privacy as. And as far as Facebook’s definition, we just need to decide if that is okay with us. Followed the link and nothing in that article surprised me. It’s interesting, just today, I read on mashable.com a post titled, “Will Facebook Ever Charge for Its Services?.” It’s so obvious, isn’t it? : )
Can I just say a “Hell yeah!!”, miss, and leave it at that? Because you nailed it with this post in so many ways. Thank you.
@DannyBrown Yeah, read mashable’s post today and thought, he’s right. Facebook will never charge users because they are already getting so much from us. : )
Well you nailed that on the head, dead center @JudyDunn .
Thanks @DannyBrown for sharing Judy’s article on Google+, Judy has a new subscriber, follower and well social media stalker now
Shared.
@ExtremeJohn@DannyBrown Thanks for subscribing and following, John! And thanks, Danny, for the Google+ share. Have a great weekend, you two.
@JudyDunn@ExtremeJohn Likewise – and watch out for that John dude, he’s sharp (but in a good, honest way).
Really good blog post you wrote here. I still haven’t changed any of these new Facebook features that they have been throwing around. As long as I can just engage and talk to my friends and fans that’s all that matters to me.
@Justicewordlaw It’ll be interesting to see how all of this plays out. I read somewhere that Facebook will eventually just support the timelines and people will need to move to that in order to stay on board. Google+ is looking better and better to me. : )
@JudyDunn Yeah Google+ has been one of the best things and I have been using that platform more and more.
@Justicewordlaw How has that been working for you? I like it because it has such a clean, uncluttered interface. Not sure I’m working it to get the best value yet, but I plan on spending some time this weekend on playing with it and learning how to leverage it. : )
@JudyDunn I really love it a lot. The interface is so clean and nice and I think that’s why I like it. I don’t like the mobile so much on my Iphone but it does look great and the conversation stream is almost somewhat like what livefyre has on here so I think a lot of bloggers will like it that use this commenting platform.
@Justicewordlawlivefyre Yeah, mobile still seems to be an issue with a lot of the platforms. Looking forward to talking more with you on Google+. Are we in each other’s circles?
@JudyDunn I don’t know actually but if were not then we should change that very quickly then. I will search for you on the world wide web of Google+ and add you.
Thank you thank you. I`ve commented that on every `Facebook is free`post my friends made. IT`s not free.
@AsraiDevin Thanks for reading. Maybe we can start a small revolution!
Hi,
Thanks for posting an important Article. I have seen your informational posting. You are highlighting very popular topic. I have enjoyed reading it. Thanks John Moor
<a href=http://webreputationmanagement.net/blog/general/450/public-relations-and-online-reputation-management.html>”Public Relations & Reputation Management”</a>
Hi,
Thanks for posting an important Article. I have seen your informational posting. You are highlighting very popular topic. I have enjoyed reading it.
Thanks
John Moor
http://webreputationmanagement.net/blog/general/450/public-relations-and-online-reputation-management.html