The article I’m about to post is not a very recent one but the
story of the article is exactly how I feel these days when I’m on Facebook and
I am sure that a lot of people feel the same way.
In this Forbes article by Paul Tassi, he writes about how ads
are dominating our Facebook feeds. The amount of actual content he sees on
Facebook is shockingly low because of all the ads popping up. And some of the
ads are of companies he’s never heard of or hasn’t even been liked by any of
his friends. This is because the company targets certain segment of customer
based on their gender and age and Facebook has all of our basic information.
Also what annoys him is that the TV shows he liked so that his friends could
see what he was watching are linking the likes to their brand pages and using
it as a secondary ad resource. Sometimes because of the suggested pages on the
main page and the sponsored ads on the right page, his entire Facebook news
feed consist 100% ads. He tried to hide the ads but has given up on it now.
As many of my friends, I am a very active Facebook user but
I often get really angry at all the irrelevant page suggestion Facebook post on
my news feed. In contrast, sometimes Facebook makes me feel creepy because the
ads are too relevant. On the right side it has a bunch of websites that I have
actually visited or searched. It feels like Big Brother is watching me from
somewhere. I’ve tried to hide the ads as Paul did but Facebook just doesn’t give
up and keeps suggesting more and more.
I know that marketers will be extremely happy to know that
Facebook is matching their ads with the right people but how long will the
users be happy to see these ads? I really want to transfer my social network
account somewhere else but all my friends are on Facebook so it’s not easy.
This must be that network effect I’ve learned in marketing class.
It is good to know
that Facebook is making a lot of money and can improve the system more often, but
they will have to consider customer needs more in order to maintain their spot
as the number one social network website.
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