This is an ongoing debate and one I keep reading about in my research related to using social network sites for business. Having read this article on the BBC Web site I have finally got around to looking at my facebook profile and seeing what can really be accessed by people/applications other than those I have chosen to connect to. What a surprise I had!!!

Here are some of the things I found within a few minutes;
1. Yes, applications can access a lot of data about you. I did find applications that had been authorised that I had never installed. Facebook can hide behind various comments, but the bottom line is that their platform allows uncontrolled 3rd party developers to add applications that can harvest data from unsuspecting Facebook members.
2. I can browse my friends list and click on ’see friends’ and see a limited profile of ALL their contacts. I can then repeat this with their contacts (view friends) - even if I am not ‘friends’ with that person. If you manage to find a real celebrity profile through the search facility you can view their friends - a very interesting exercise, but is there not a breach of trust taking place?
3. It is possible for external Web sites to post stories to my news feed.
4. If a friend of mine comments on someone’s photo and this appears in my news feed, I can view the photo even if I am not conencted to the owner of the photo. I can then use the forward and back buttons to browse the entire album.
5. By default, Facebook submits a public search listing of your profile to be indexed by search engines. Not only do they not fully protect your data they share it with the likes of Google, Yahoo, etc.

Given the sharp increase in identity theft and increasing concern about data privacy, it seems incredible that;
A) Facebook allow such easy access to private data - even data of individuals that just happen to be friends of someone that has installed the ‘wrong’ application.
B) Facebook memebrs are so careless with their data. I know of people that put a lot of private data in their profile and more than enough for someone criminally minded to fake their identity.

My message: be careful with your data. I have put together a very quick guide to protecting your privacy against Facebook applications and gives a few pointers about other steps you can take to improve privacy.
Restrict data accessible to Facebook applications

To tie this back with this week’s discussion, how does this affect businesses trying to use Facebook to reach new clients? How far should you go in trying to reach them and to gather information about them? When does market research become an invasion of privacy? When does making contact become spam? If Facebook tightens its controls to protect privacy will this impact the business use of the site?

In my pursuit of answers, I just keep finding more and more people talking about this topic;

The recent Web 2.0 Expo
Media Week
New Media Knowledge
Emarketer
Search Engine Land

These were just some sites. There are lots more plus blogs and other companies that do what we do.
There are the usual ‘make a $million on Facebook - GUARANTEED’ merchants, but most sensible people seem, at best, not totally sure of how best to use the online social networking movement to generate new customers for their business.

In this situation I find the best way to resolve the issue is to carry out an experiment. I already have some keen ‘guinea pigs’, but a few more would help. If you’re interested in testing the concept of using Social Networking sites to promote your business please let me know. It will probably take the form of a workshop with follow up meetings to measure results.

I’m also still interested in your opinions, experiences, etc. So keep commenting…

Well maybe not everyone, but just about everyone involved in the Web industry and marketing is talking about social networking.

In many cases this is focussed on creating your own community and using social networking tools; blogs, forums, wikis, etc. (Web 2.0) We have already embraced this approach and have built, or are building, many Web sites based around this concept. There are many others talking about ‘monetising’ social networking sites such as Facebook. This is the topic of these posts and something we are currently wresting with. Brian’s experience (see comment on yesterday’s post) is interesting. We built and support the bomocreatives Web site in partnership with Brian to match his vision and purpose for the group as a whole. It has been built as a social networking site; events are listed, there is a forum and so on. This site performs the function for which it was intended. Brian has also turned to Facebook as another way to find new contacts and build relationships with existing contacts. He states this has not generated any income for his business, BUT it has improved attendance for Bomocreatives. So there has been a benefit. Although it has not generated any additional income yet. Maybe it will do in time. As Brian meets more people and they get to know him better and trust him he will get more work and make more money.

I certainly don’t believe online networking is a shortcut to building relationships with people to the point where they trust you enough to do business with you. I do believe there is an opportunity to make that initial contact with another group of people you may not otherwise reach. You would then need to do the usual things you do to convince someone of the value of doing business with you.

‘Monetising’ social networking is itself big business. in fact today there is a large conference taking place in Los Angeles: The Economics of Social Media Conference. This presentation in particular caught my eye;

3:30 - 4:20pm
Pushing Social Media Boundaries With Marketing And Advertising
Sponsored by Bunchball

Is social media advertising a beacon of light or a train wreck? Social media has been blasting through the boundaries of online advertising as consumers engage and carry messages more easily than ever. From ad networks to immersive social brand marketing campaigns that are driving consumer engagement - marketers have more tools at their disposal than ever. How is the marketing landscape changing, where is the creative bar being set and how is engagement being measured?

Maybe if I’d have know about this conference earlier I could have booked a ticket and found out all the answers to my questions. As it is i am hoping there will be access to notes/slides/MP3 recordings and I will be able to find enlightenment only slightly later than the attendees and without the need for long air flights.

Is the use of social networking to promote businesses another attempt by technologists to make promises they cannot necessarily keep?
I’m not sure. that’s why we’re asking the questions, trying things out and MEASURING the results we get compared to the amount of work needed. Only then will we be able to say with any confidence ‘using social networking to promote your business can have a positive impact on your bottom line!’

Anyone else with something to share?

As we wrestle with the concepts of promoting business through the medium of Social Networking sites, the most obvious question is; ‘how will we know if we have been successful?’

Everything we do as a business is executed in a manner which allows us to measure, and therefore assess, performance. We work in partnership with our clients to make ‘a measurable difference to their business’. This implies we have some way of measuring what we do for them. If we assist a client with a Social Networking campaign, what is going to be our ‘yardstick’? What results do we want and what are we going to measure?
How many Facebook friends/fans the business has?
How many people say ‘I saw your company on MySpace’ when we remember to ask them how they found us?
How many ‘conversations’ or ‘relationships’ your business has online?
How much profit changes over the period the campaign runs for?

Ultimately for a commercial organisation it comes down to profit - hard cash! You get profit from satisfied customers. Social networking sites might be one place to find new customers you can satisfy. But this is just a tad crude and we’re not sure yet what the time lag will be. How can we effectively monitor performance as we go along and be confident we’re heading towards having more satisfied customers giving us more profit?

Is it about ‘audience’ numbers or should there be a focus on the level of participation?
Do we need a range of measurements to match our clients goals?
Is it really that different to measuring other marketing activities?

These ,and others, are questions that many people are struglling with;
Facebook Group - Social Media Measurement
MeasurementCamp
Chinwag - Measuring Social Media

I actually found lots of places where this question is raised - has anyone got ideas about the answers???