Monday 26 September 2011

Marketing in a social environment

With the arrival of frictionless apps from Facebook it seems the line between private, social and professional life has finally and irreparably been blurred.

Facebook used to live under strict rules akin to Google+ - no business need apply. In fact, if they found out you were a business with a profile page they'd suspend your account.

Then came targeted ads - remember those? It would announce what you just bought on amazon and target similar products to your friends. Well, we rebelled and Facebook tucked its tail between its legs and scampered off to think again.

Finally pages arrived and we all jumped right on board. Newfeeds became an amalgamation of what colour your mate’s bra was followed by what special offer dominos had on that night, followed by what the current situation in the West Bank was...

And it worked.



In choosing to allow which organisation can sneak into our life on Facebook we accept that marketing and information dissemination from news agencies, corporate conglomerates and PR agencies might actually occasionally be of interest, nay of use to us.

With frictionless apps we can take it to the next level and not even have to leave the blue and white platform to take in every aspect of online existence. Scary? Or clever? Or both?

I fear until Google+ catches up it might simply limp along behind Zuckerberg’s online ‘social’ giant.

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