ICM - Leeds Design Agency

There are many better places for businesses to be.

Last year there was a wave of enthusiasm for Facebook, with user numbers rising at unprecedented rates. For people like myself, who had been an early adopter, there was a sense of bemusement at the massive amount of publicity. The site had long been the main focus point of our social lives, if you weren’t friends on Facebook you weren’t friends in real life! It was with dismay that I watched the marketing and sales world leap on the bandwagon. This was how brands were going to reach the 18 – 25 year olds and finally they could specifically target individuals based upon the mass of information on each profile.

It doesn’t fit with the origins of the site.

The origins of Facebook have a large role to play in why businesses are finding it difficult to engage with the users. When the site became open to all universities and you required a university address to create an account, many people flocked from MySpace to Facebook, as it was more private, you didn’t get random people asking to be your friend and it didn’t feel as commercialised, while still having excellent functionality. Business networking and advertising, therefore, are regarded as being intrusive and an annoyance.

Facebook is a social networking site for people to keep in touch with their friends.

People on the site want to share pictures and videos, keep in touch with their friends and organise events and groups. It’s great for getting people together and then enjoying the aftermath on a Monday morning at work. The last thing you want is to be sold to when you just want to socialise.

Facebook have a major problem.

They don’t make any money. How can they sustain the site without making any money? They need businesses to see the potential and then try, but Burger King tried and their campaign was banned. The Compare the Meerkat campaign are trying, but there is already a backlash with a hate group already having 15,000 members.

I just hope Facebook does something spectacular this year, but I can’t see its core users shifting their view. And they will jump ship if it all gets too much. Remember being inundated with applications? Users got fed up, let the site know and now they are a lot less trouble.