Jumpin’ Ship – To Facebook I Go

{ 15 comments }

SamO July 17, 2007 at 11:51 am: Hey Michelle, we resisted facebook for the longest time, but for some reason it has really taken off in Canada. After our successful marketing plan on myspace with over 30,000 friends now myspace just seems to be too inundated with spam for legitimate marketing to be very effective any longer. I know many people who not only have stopped going on myspace but have completely deleted their profiles.

With that being said, facebook’s success with applications has really taken them to the next level, in addition to their seamless integration with text messaging (works perfectly in Canada). Looking forward to hearing your take on marketing on facebook. It’s an area we look to enhance on in the very near future.

Sam O.
Marketing Manager
http://www.thefreshpage.com
“World’s Best House Music Downloads”
Mike July 17, 2007 at 12:01 pm: Great stuff, I’ve been using MySpace for a while, maybe I will have to have a go at Facebook too
Michelle MacPhearson July 17, 2007 at 12:46 pm: Yes, it’s the apps that has brought Facebook to where it is today. With MySpace creating/releasing an API, it’ll be interesting to see what happens between the two.
Richard Harlos July 17, 2007 at 12:51 pm: Hi, Michelle. When I saw your intention to move to Facebook, I was reminded of a video about Facebook that I watched recently and that disturbed me very much.

Not trying to be a scaremonger or anything like that but as a woman with a family, the issues covered in this video may be of great interest to you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMWz3G_gPhU

Best wishes whatever you decide but please… do watch the video. It’s only 5 minutes long and it’s some very, VERY disturbing info.
SamO July 17, 2007 at 1:06 pm: To be honest I think myspace has missed the boat. Not only does their site need a complete overhaul in design (looks very outdated) but there is nothing unique about it anymore. They’re trying to launch myspacetv but it’s no where nearly trafficed as youtube and they don’t even promote their own Fox network tv shows very well (e.g. So You Think You Can Dance).

Facebook isn’t perfect either though, their user interface is at best satisfactory, but a lot of times you are looking for the link to something you want to edit and it’s unintuitive. Nevetheless, these social networking sites have taken a lot of traffic away from other message board forums. One thing Facebook has focused on is to make it really hard to spam. You are blocked out of adding friends once you reach 20 or so in a day, and then you are given a strict warning.

Will be interesting to see if Myspace can get some buzz going on again.
Michelle MacPhearson July 17, 2007 at 1:07 pm: Hi Richard,

My thoughts on this are that if the Gov’t wanted to gather data about me, they could with or without my Facebook account.

-Michelle
Black Belt Bob.com July 17, 2007 at 1:08 pm: Hi Michelle,

I love Myspace and hang out here…but that is about to change…I will open a facebook account soon…

Heres why….

My oldest daughter starts college next month as freshman at Univ of TN…few weeks ago was parent student orientation….

I was asking the students…hey do you guys hang on myspace and they reluctantly said yes…but all the college students hang on facebook…

This caught my interest right away…I said why facebook..the students can rate professors…in other words if I was in same class as michelle macphearson…we could go to facebook and talk about class that day…in other words…michelle misses class all the time and cheats on my homework…LOL

They can slam professors…by saying never take his class again…or get notes from other students…etc…

I hope this gives you guys some insight..

PS – Michelle, will you quit cheating on me and quit missing so many classes…over eating and over sleeping when you should be in class….LOL

http://www.BlackBeltBob.com
http://www.CarDealersExposed.com
Craig July 17, 2007 at 2:54 pm: hiya michelle.

im a musician, so what i dont really see how face book can get my music heard. that is, for me, myspace’s biggest advantage. it is a good outlet for music and adds up the amount of times people have listened to each individual trackas well as giving me a total of plays. This then creates a buzz because the listener and profile viewer believe the musicians popularity is greater than it is.

so how can facebook help me?

i think for this myspace will win hands down.
Hi Michelle July 18, 2007 at 8:44 am: Well, I have come here through family. But, I am looking to expand my marketing campaign dilligently. It’s good to see you are here.

Ian Charles
EyeSee Music Records / Woodstock, NY
devin July 18, 2007 at 10:21 am: I signed up for face book, Michelle has not let me down yet ! !

thanks Michelle

http://www.takeanapfightgear.com

MMA Apparel, Fight Gear, Sports Wear
Michelle MacPhearson July 18, 2007 at 12:55 pm: Facebook is very different then MySpace – as commentors have pointed out, it’s more a college thing (although it’s getting a lost of exposure in other markets right now).

I’ll be reporting here with more information on the site, marketing on it, etc. Although my intention was not, and is not, to start a Facebook marketing campaign. I think it’s one of the important sites to have a presence on – i.e. use it as an actual social network, meet people, create a sphere of influence. But, as with most marketing techniques I recommend, I would NEVER suggest you abandon one site for another.

Use both. Double coverage.

@Craig – Well, college kids like music. Entrepreneurs like music. High schoolers like music. Those are the biggest groups on Facebook, so it would certainly help your music get heard to a new group of people outside of MySpace. Again, don’t ditch MySpace, instead add Facebook to your marketing campaign.
Richard Harlos July 18, 2007 at 1:58 pm: Hi again, everyone.

my earlier comment in this thread pointed out some very disturbing information about the Facebook site, and included a link to a 5 minute video.

I’m just wondering, with the sevreal comments that have appeared since my original one, how many of you have actually followed the link and thoughtfully considered the information in that video?

It’s one thing to be open to new information, and to examine it, and to form a conclusion based on the new information.

Quite another to simply turn a blind eye and pretend like, whatever it is, it can’t be important enough to take in.

I don’t mean to be hostile or offensive in what I just wrote, above. My intent is to learn if even ONE person here as seen the video and, if so, how that influences their perceptions about privacy online (generally), but specifically with the Facebook site.

Let’s not be sheep and ostriches; let’s be rational human beings, even if only this once
Michelle MacPhearson July 18, 2007 at 2:27 pm: Maybe they watched and it didn’t disturb them. Maybe they disagree but didn’t care to contribute to the conversation. Maybe they agree and didn’t care to contribute to the conversation. Maybe they didn’t subscribe to comments so didn’t see your posts. Maybe they haven’t had time.

I took the time to watch and posted my opinion, and perhaps that influenced people’s decision on whether to take the time to watch themselves.

I think this blog is probably not the best place to expect a response for this kind of video. It’s a political issue/question/concern, and people here aren’t here for politics. I understand that the information in the video concerns *you* personally, but this really isn’t the audience for it.

Adding YouTube friends who have the tags “politics” “government” “facebook” and “conspiracy” in their videos with a tool like Tubeinator to the the account the video is under would probably elicit more passionate and relevant response.
Richard Harlos July 18, 2007 at 3:14 pm: Hi, Michelle. Thanks for your quick reply. There are really just a couple of simple facts here that I’d like to highlight:

** Fact– the information in the video *affects everyone* who signs up for a Facebook account.

** Fact– this is a thread about *signing up* for a Facebook account.

** Conclusion– the information in the video is relevant *both* to this thread and to everyone in it who’s considering signing up for a Facebook account.

I think even you’d have to agree to the inevitability of that conclusion, Michelle.

Now… if people don’t choose to watch, or watched and aren’t interested in the information, that’s fine. I’m not trying to hijack this thread into a political or conspiratorial tangent.

On the other hand, if the information *is* relevant both to this thread and those considering a Facebook account, I don’t see how mentioning those things in comments would be a ‘bad thing’

My 2nd comment was nothing more than an additional encouragement to watch the video, with some tongue-in-cheek thrown in at the end to make sure folks realized I was trying to be helpful in a friendly way.

I am a Tubeinator customer, and was a Badder Adder client before that so please know that I’m not here to heckle you or anyone else. I’ll take your Tubeinator suggestions to heart and appreciate the advice.
Michelle MacPhearson July 18, 2007 at 3:32 pm: I do disagree to the videos relevance to this post, or, moreover, disagree to this continuing conversation’s relevance to this post. If it’s not illiciting a response from people, they’re not finding it relevant. Browbeating people (by continuing to push something that’s clearly not interesting to the recipients, as evidenced by their lack of response) into watching the video will likely only further alienate them.

Since you seem hungry for response, my thoughts were only an attempt at explaining why this venue is not bringing you the response you are hoping for and a suggestion as to where you may get a more communicative audience.

And as such, this will be my last response on the topic.

-Michelle