Liking a page on Facebook is one of those things people do without too much thought. You visit a page or update on Facebook about something or someone you know, you press like, you move on.
Facebook likes are sought after as a way of indicating popularity of a product or service and as a way to attempt to create a networked community that can be leveraged for advertising. Some may disagree with that last bit, but the truth is; while a number of organisations are actually using social tools like Facebook for building a better understanding and learning more about their customers, most see it as another channel of advertising.
Did you know your like can now be displayed as an advertisement on Facebook (sorry, “sponsored story”)?
Check out this example that popped up on my Facebook wall today.
What got me intrigued (given I missed the press on this new feature) was how it quite blatantly appears that Jen is recommending this business as an advertisement rather than the traditional like.
By liking them, is she really? That is a question only she (or you) can answer, and in many cases you may well be happy to recommend them, isn’t that why you like them in the first place?
Is the cross over into a blatant advertisement such a big infringement on your privacy or your intentions? Let’s face it you chose to like them in a public place, not dissimilar to getting up at a Westfield Shopping Mall and telling people you like one of the shops at the mall.
I guess the key here is would you willingly get up and be shot in a TV commercial for them or appear in a magazine advertisement without more explicit consent?
Richi Jennings feels it is a breach of your privacy using Facebook “sponsored stories” with you in them. What is clear is it doesn’t seem very easy to be able to turn off the setting that allows you to be used this way.
That could potentially be the main issue here, if you can say no, then that is the same as saying no face to face.
When traditional advertising campaigns are made and people are used in commercials or photo shoots there is an agreement in place whereby compensation is made in return for the rights to use your face / voice / etc in the advertisement. At what point does the use of your avatar and you as a “liker” cross into that area?
Should you be compensated for this use?
I also wonder whether the difference here is in the view that his is an advertisement. I don’t think users mind being “testimonial” referrers much like if they write you a testimonial for what you have done for them, but whether or not they want to be your poster girl or boy on your product is a different story altogether.
Initially my first thought was how to game it with a crazy photo, but that thought wore off pretty quickly. More importantly if ‘likes’ are now going to mean you can be used as an advertisement will users start to claw back their use of likes? That potentially could be much more damaging for businesses than the small gains they might get from using their fans as advertisements.
Well that’s what ireckon anyway.
What do you reckon?
Darryl I believe that with sponsored stories that the only names you will see will be that of your friends, you should not be seeing just any random person.
It would be the same as it displaying in your news feed – “Andrew Likes Coco-Cola”, however it is just placed in the right hand side and made more prominent with a picture.
This is what I were told by Facebook a Rep in regards to Sponsored stories last week.
Cheers
Thanks Andrew. From what I was informed privacy controls relate to news feed versus normal controls. I don’t mind them per se, but it did get me thinking about how much the user will tolerate before they might hold back on a like.
Darryl
I do see what your saying, however I think any user within the Facebook environment is aware that any activity they are doing whether that is liking, commenting and sharing is in the public domain and will be seen by their friends and even non-friends.
However I think your post makes a good point of highlighting that liking a brand page on Facebook is becoming more a big deal rather than just a throw away click of a button.
Hey Darryl,
I’m with Andrew on this one. I think that, when you look at what “Sponsored Stories” actually are, the practise seems less intrusive. Namely, Sponsored Stories are only stories that are eligible to *appear in your News Feed*. So that can include any “stories” that would normally publish to your friends feeds, such as: Page likes, Page posts, Page post likes, check-ins etc.
My thinking on this? If you’ve already agreed to broadcast your relationship with a page through taking action that would publish to your friends’ news feed anyway, than you’ve already consented to showing this information to your friends. Considering that Sponsored Stories will only display your interactions to your friends, it’s not really different. All that’s happening is that Facebook is placing this “interaction news” in a different spot on the page
Also, yes: if you want to restrict this, then you need to restrict your “news feed” settings to reflect this. If you lock down what publishes out to your friends’ feeds, then you are effectively locking down sponsored stories at the same time.