Get outta my face(book)!

One thing I love about Twitter is the stuff that people share. Ben Watson posted a link this morning to this article from Advertising Age.

In it Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation at P&G (wow how wide must his business card be to hold THAT title) discusses the relationship between advertisers and social networks.
He is of the opinion that Advertisers really don’t belong within social networks but there is promise for them in social network applications.

“I have a reaction to that as a consumer advocate and an advertiser,” he said. “What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?”

Along with that he thinks that consumer generated media should not be treated as a Media space for advertisers:
“Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

Here is what really stuck out for me:
“They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations”.

And I agree with him wholeheartedly – broadcasting a message into peoples ‘private’ spaces is possibly the most idiotic way to try and generate sales. I manage to pretty well ignore all the ads I see in Facebook but I have noticed on several occasions that even though my status says ‘married’ I still get singles adverts placed in front of me (perhaps they need to refine the status so you can say ‘happily married’) and lately it has started to annoy me. Not only have you entered my space, you’re not even targeting me properly – it feels spammy.

Later in the article he notes that applications hold promise as a vehicle for advertisers.

What this highlights for me is the divide between the broadcast and publishing/Social Media mentality.

The first approach, ads in networks, is all about ‘me me me me me me me me me me’ – and no-one cares.

The second approach, building apps, is about providing something of use to your market, something they can choose to interact with if it does something for them….adding value.

The article is an interesting read, and I see already there is a lot of commentary going on in the blog-o-sphere.