Facebook backlash and its effect on social media brand presence
Ahh the almighty Facebook, its reach on the internet seemingly knows no bounds. It’s how we find out what’s going on at the weekend, invite people to parties, conduct informal qualitative research, express our love for music, show off our holiday, share current events, jokes, games and occasionally catch up with friends. And whilst weaving its way into so many aspects of our lives it managed to simplify the two way communication between brands and their consumers; who wouldn’t want a piece of that? However, there have however been a fair few negative repercussions in the wake of the social media honeymoon.
The Daily Mail published an article claiming that “Facebook could increase your risk of serious health problems by reducing levels of face-to-face contact” (Based on an article by psychologist Dr Aric Sigman who is concerned that the lack of face to face contact could lead to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke and dementia). These claims are certainly to be taken with a pinch of salt; the amount of carcinogenic risks according to the daily mail are too many too keep track of. However many observers are convinced that using social networking sites can lead to social isolation and loneliness which can in turn cause further health complications.
Another reason people are questioning / rejecting Facebook is the ever unfolding privacy settings issue. Facebook claims to have revamped their privacy settings by essentially making them simpler. In actual fact, the new settings are intended to encourage people to open up more of their personal information to the world. This issue has lead to a serious amount of bad press for Facebook and has resulted in a backlash from Facebook users and the wider social media community. Various web applications have started popping up in retaliation to Facebook’s disregard for people’s privacy, applications such as Facebook Suicide which can kill your entire social presence on the internet in less than one hour.
So what does this all mean for brands investing serious money into Facebook and social media strategy? A huge potential problem for brands, as a result of the new privacy settings policy, will be the implementation of Facebook’s new “Community Page” concept; by aggregating content from Facebook user wall posts and combining it with information from Wikipedia users are able to talk about topics of mutual interest in one place. This will have a sizable effect on official brand information released by corporations as information released will be lost amongst a sea of potentially damaging user generated content (UCG) which will in turn lead to consumer confusion.
Brands interacting with Facebook should be aware that privacy issues as well as serious health concerns are a risk to their credibility and customer trust. Brands also need to understand that even the most popular social media platforms can quickly find themselves losing subscribers fast if they annoy their members one too many times. Interacting with Facebook should no longer be a pre-requisite to a digital campaign. The Starbucks or Toyota campaigns are excellent examples of how it can go terribly wrong. This is certainly not to say social media brand presence should be completely avoided, Facebook usage still currently makes up a significantly large percentage of peoples online behavior. Facebook consequently still presents many exciting opportunities for creativity and brand exposure, but should only be approached when fully understanding Facebook’s ever evolving formats and trends and how these could either benefit or damage a brand.
Written by Rob Waite