By Joseph Gizzi

 

Although Facebook handily infiltrated mainstream culture several years ago and is poised now to reach more than one billion users, the leading social network is also dealing with blockbuster threats to its brand reputation. In a recent Zogby poll, 75 percent of respondents claim to trust the platform a little or not at all, even as the worldwide community continues to spend 500 billion minutes per month utilizing the networking site.

Marketing and ad reps rejoiced at Facebook’s rocket launch to the top, drooling as user profiles were quickly populated with everything Madison Avenue needed to nanotarget prospective customers and product evangelists. Self-identified social fans are worth anywhere from $130-300 to a brand, enabling agencies to identify and narrowcast messages to their diehard in-crowd.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg 

For a few years, it seemed like the perfect opt-in business model; but in a moody consumer backlash, the public has decided it wants its privacy back. After a few Facebook PR fumbles over privacy settings and the safe keeping of user information, social marketers have hit a setback as concerns reemerge over identity theft (even Barack Obama’s Twitter feed has been hacked) and exactly who knows what about their online social lives.While one might think users would be happy to finally have ads that are useful and tailored to their needs, the Ponemon Institute reports that users actually fear ads more than identity theft. Scary if you’re a media buyer.Whether neo-conservative views of privacy have really shaken the psyche of a public that has largely operated on overshare for the past few years, cries of Facebook abandonment were more of a threat than a promise. The platform has suffered little defection, because, well, it’s Facebook. Few other sites are poised to offer the same utility, much less the sheer enormity of social graphs.

The Privacy Reformation presentation on CESweb.org.

But if Facebook, a technology we all have been using for years, is only now coming under fire, how does this bode for newer social standouts like Twitter, location-based apps like Foursquare, Loopt and Gowalla, or more cutting-edge augmented reality services?

In a way, Twitter has excelled because of backlash. The microblogging site found legitimacy as a cure for the public’s distrust of the media. At the rate of 3,283 tweets per second, users have full control over where they get their real time news curated by a network whose perspectives many have come to trust more than print or television. Through elections and disasters, Twitter has empowered users and sometimes entire countries to organize as they can no longer be ignored.Intel booth at the 2010 International CESBut things may become tricky for Twitter as it becomes more involved in geo-location, an area of social activity that has already raised its fair share of fear over leaving behind a trail of bread crumbs indicating where users are and where they aren’t. Twitter has dipped its toe into the market using Places, which allows users to shout out digital hellos in delis, dancehalls or dinner venues for any and all to see. It sounds innocuous enough; it’s not unreasonable to want an easy way to know where your friends are, or better yet, find tips for exploring a new city. Foursquare has become a juggernaut app by banking on its nearly 1.8 million users’ love affair with location based check-ins – if the deal is sweet. Reluctance to release your location seems to be trumped by the roll out of corporate promotions and the opportunity for a penny to be saved.It’s a game changer for brands like Starbucks who enjoy social media but “can’t make a cup of coffee over the internet.” Not only does it get customers in the stores, but it’s an easy way to provide loyalty programs, solidify relationships, and make recommendations based on other purchases. With a host of similar services like Gowalla and a recently revitalized Loopt, advertisers again have major opportunities to reach customers where they are.Except, that is, when documenting where they are leaves them susceptible to crime. Please rob me.com declared mission accomplished this year after it raised a red flag on the dangers of location broadcasting. Many argued that tracing someone’s location via a social network is a lot of effort to go through when you could just peek in a window and know no one’s home. Whatever happened to the good old days of getting an answering machine or not seeing any lights on? Despite the fact that most of us leave our homes between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., being stalked by a mortal enemy still seems to weigh heavily on our minds, even if it’s more the stuff of fiction than justifiable fear.But if the cards aren’t played right, these fears could stunt the growth of a whole host of services ready to burst onto the scene. Recognzr is a visual search tool that would be incredibly useful for sharing profile information with new business contacts or friends, but creepy if an overeager stranger identified you on the street. Will the cons keep people from using these services? Maybe. But there are definitely those who want to be found for both business and pleasure.Solutions like Nearverse offer a compromise. They create a temporary network for sharing documents, photos and calendars with those within a few feet from us — perfect for a meeting or family reunion. But once you leave the network, you cease to have access.Where do your profiles fall in between very public and private? Should platforms be giving us more options, or should we be thinking more about what we share in the first place?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 11:20 am and is filed under Social Media, Wireless Communications. Reply to this post, or trackback from your own site. Follow responses to this entry through the comments RSS feed.