Is Facebook too hot to handle?

By: John Davidson, Singapore

Published: Feb 20, 2009

Singapore – Facebook is a very dangerous thing for companies to get involved with, according to Edelman’s Asia Pacific president Alan VanderMolen, and brands are best advised to be cautious with social media and potentially create their own channels to engage with consumers.

VanderMolen said companies should be cautious with social media and networking sites, but be aware of and listen to conversations involving their business which occur on the likes of MySpace, Bebo and Facebook. VanderMolen spoke yesterday at Singapore’s American Club about the findings of Edelman’s latest Trust Barometer study.

In his opinion, Facebook is the most dangerous platform for brands. VanderMolen said the popular site “scares him” because of its terms of service and that ultimately all content on the site is owned by Facebook even after user stop using it.

“Facebook is the worst [compared with the other sites like MySpace],” he said.

“My digital colleagues might not agree with me. Brands need to pay very careful attention to Facebook’s terms of service.”

Facebook.com has enjoyed a metaphoric rise across the globe and according to recent statistics from comScore, in 2008 it received 222 million visitors and now ranks as the top social networking site worldwide and the seventh most popular property in the world.

VanderMolen advised companies to be careful when experimenting with social media, and said they need to understand how different channels intersect and fully the risks involved.

“Don’t jump in blindly,” he said.

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jeff@webguruasia.com at Feb 19, 2009
i disagree. wholeheartedly.

in my view, it all comes down to is proper strategic thinking. yes, brands should be aware of terms of service but should not be afraid of them.

it simply takes the right kind of creative strategic thinking that takes the limitations of terms of service into account. facebook still presents many exciting opportunities for brands at little or no cost despite the terms of service issues. this is especially relevant in our current time of economic crisis when delivering the best possible ROI is of even more relevance.

and more importantly, if our target audience spend lots of time on facebook (or on any other social media site) then our brand should be there.

running away scared is NOT the correct response here. running forward, embracing social media in a strategically relevant manner is the only answer.

i am very disappointed in this backward-thinking, head-in-the-sand, old-world, traditional attitude from a company whose HQ is in the same country that elected president obama.

jeff zweig
chief guru, web guru asia
www.webguruasia.com

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6 comment(s)

jeff@webguruasia.com at Feb 19, 2009
and another thing:

i strongly encourage mr vandermolen to read the book Wikinomics if he has not already had the opportunity to do so.

Gwendy Krijger at Feb 19, 2009
Hear Hear Jeff!

As a business communicator who embraces technology (the good the bad and the ugly as I figure that's the only way to learn), I think the hype and media on the facebook story is hot air and sensational news that has got everyone in a panic. To their credit, they did a good recovery this morning by embracing their users to re-write the terms and more importantly standing up to their accountability (which is something not many people are doing today in business, particularly if you look at other stories out today of Alan Stanford who was promising to transform English cricket and last night accused by US financial regulators of an $8bn banking fraud - and you think facebook is dangerous?

They get brownie points in my little black book for understanding the power of their users and reacting FAST! Thats why they are where they are. Instead of pushing the idea away and tarnishing it as BAD - why not embrace, build your knowledge, understand it and USE IT !

This is a perfect example where leaders and business should have foresight in questioning their current 'state of the world' and dare to journney into the unknown - but better still know how to manage the unknown and the leadership skills required to do so. See my blog posting two days ago on a the report of talk I attended from INSEAD's Executive Educaton group - Managing the Unknown (what is risk, what is uncertainty and what is the risk of uncertainty!)

http://www.connectingthelink.com/managing-the-unknown-what-is-risk-uncertainty-and-the-risk-of-uncertainty.htm

WIKINOMICS - a favourite book of mine that has inspired inspired and continues to inspire and I WISH more execs in business and comms would take the time to read it and transform themselves - Wikinomics is written by by Don Tapscott for those interested. My personal copy has been loaned out, gone to scotland and back with a friend, whom I demanded return the original copy with a six month delay as it is marked up with highlights and foresight that continuously helps me learn.

Jeff - the new one to buy is Groundswell ... If you don't have it, Li & Bernhoff have some excellent case studies on application of and power of social technology and the need to embrace it, the risks and the reward.

Go forth Web 2.0 - you change our world and I know this world needs a lot of changing!

Gwendy Krijger
Indepedent Consultant
www.connectingthelink.com

PS. I cannot claim to be a brand specialist but aren't company's already on facebook just by the simple fact that all your employees are on there and acting, behaving, writing, forming groups, wearing the company teambuilding tshirt? Afterall - your people - your business. They want it, why not you?

Gwendy Krijger at Feb 19, 2009
http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/marketer/article.jsp?content=20080714_150509_14628 - For the 3M story and to marketeers out there.

jeff@webguruasia.com at Feb 19, 2009
That's right, Gwendy.

To add to what you have correctly stated:

In my view, Facebook has a vested interest in responding quickly to massive customer complaints because they know very well that they can lose their huge customer base to a competing social network with literally "just the click of a mouse". Surely they know that members can leave in droves just as quickly as they joined in droves. And of course if this happens, Facebook is out of business.

Furthermore, Facebook already has a proven track record of listening to their audience when many people complain about certain aspects of their privacy practices—we can see this in how they backed off their intrusive and horrible Beacon advertising technology.

As you can probably tell from the tone of my first comment, I get frustrated with old-time, one-way, passive, mass media thinking applied to digital marketing and leveraging social communities online.

In fact, I would argue that the principles of success in social media are not “unknown”. They are the same principles that human societies have always embraced when forming communities and collaborating with one another. We have always made recommendations to friends, relatives and co-workers about providers of goods and services that we like and we have always believed friends’ recommendations more than blatant brand advertising.

The only thing that has changed is that now we have the ability to connect like never before. And brands have the ability to leverage communities of like-minded individuals like never before.

But what it takes is a fundamental change in mindset back to our basic community ideals to get it right with social media. A realization that openness, honesty, trust and transparency coupled with leveraging user generated content and multi-way conversations is not only the future of advertising, marketing and PR but also the most cost effective use of advertising and marketing spend.

And that it’s OK to admit the brand has some warts on it. As long as the brand is seen to be doing something about the issue, then it’s going to turn out just fine. In fact, it can turn out even better than “just fine” since the brand can turn savage complainers into raving, loyal customers along the way. This is simply not possible using one-way, mass messaging.

This mindset must also include getting used to the idea that losing some amount of control over conversations and turning it over to our customers and prospects (and even detractors) in social media is a very good thing. There’s nothing like the power of crowdsourcing and even if there is a risk of the crowd turning against the brand, the rewards far outweigh the risks. And even when the risks do emerge, there are still proven strategies for sensing and controlling a potential crisis before it snowballs out of control and in the worst case scenario, for repairing damaged reputations online.

Jeff Zweig
Chief Guru, Web Guru Asia
www.webguruasia.com

Alan VanderMolen at Feb 20, 2009
Great discussion here between you guys... My position relates to the Terms of Service and the fact that those have been pulled temporarily while they are under review. So, the advice for brands vis-a-vis Facebook is 'look and listen before you leap'. To the bigger discussion, I am a huge supporter of the power of horizontal communication and the role it plays for corporate and products brands...it is a discussion I have all day, every day, with clients.

jeff@webguruasia.com at Feb 20, 2009
hi alan,

ok, good to hear it!

i just had a knee-jerk reaction to the first para of the article, which said:

"Facebook is a very dangerous thing for companies to get involved with, according to Edelman’s Asia Pacific president Alan VanderMolen, and brands are best advised to be cautious with social media and potentially create their own channels to engage with consumers."

i inferred from this that brands shouldn't leverage already existing platforms and should therefore only try to create their own, independent channels. i don't agree with this position and i don't think that facebook is "very dangerous".

apologies if i misinterpreted the overall meaning or took the first para out of context :)

jeff

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Farik Osman at Feb 20, 2009
I thought they have reverted their policy to their older one?
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090083954&ch=2/18/2009%204:35:00%20PM

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