The Praetorians of The Net & Facebook www.facebook.com
posted in Affiliate Marketing, World News |
An Orwellian Society, hmm maybe a little melodramatic & out of context, however Facebook is continually the hot bed of conversation with regard to acquisition rumours for those on the path to becoming another of the “Praetorians” of “The Net”?
Are the figures quoted for acquisitions currently becoming a little overvalued?
Now, think about it, with all these social media sites cropping up left, right & center like rabbit holes, it never ceases to amaze me how the general public quite willingly allow relatively loose acquaintances the ability to pry a little deeper into their private lives. Is this because of vanity or ignorance or simply the innocence of wishing to socially participate (the desire to socially interact) in perceived friendly environments, which is human nature after all, however this is where our natural guards & common sense are generally lowered & go on walkabout.
I do think we are potentially opening ourselves up not only to privacy issues but also personal security. Not from friends, off course not, but anyone who could casually glance over their shoulder or have access to the central database for more sinister intent. Granted, it is fun to keep up with friends, joining in & sharing their enjoyment & happiness of lifes experiences, but it could get misused / abused.
Think about it, no I am not scaremongering, but lets get realistic about it.
Think about who the acquisitors are, who do they really have loyalties with? On the face of it … it is or is it simply a means of mapping ip addresses & names to deliver advertising, or is there more to it?
Not related, but just an additional story?
Now, I like Facebook, then again I have only been on there a few weeks or so, thus it is still at the stage of being a novelty factor for me. It does possess the potential for greater longevity than it’s predecessors until the next king of the hill arrives. Ask me the same question in 6 months, on how often I log in Facebook then.
Off course like keeping up with what friends are up to, even though it consumes your time, when time is an affiliates most precious commodity … “there’s thousands of people wasting good surfing time petting virtual rabbits” – Loquax
… I say … lets boil the bunny.
The Facebook.com: Big Brother with a smile – courtesy of Kier
Big Brothers, Big Facebook: Your Orwellian Community – courtesy of Lee
Make what you will off the above linked articles I am neither condoning or supporting, there are probably other articles around, but they are there just for an additional read, if you have others please feel welcome to submit them in comments. There is no intent on my behalf to create a conspiracy theory thread, but to simply step back & examine the bigger picture & address accordingly.
At the moment it seems like a fad, a better model than predecessors and will probably enjoy / endure greater longevity. I realise Alexa rankings are to be taken with a pinch of salt in some respects, but if you look at some of these charts, it supports this case. So the timing for them for optimum sale price is essential, if that is their intent.
Has Beens
1. My Search 2. Friends Reunited
Current Crop
3. Flickr 4. Facebook 5. Youtube (Utube :P)
Web 2.0
I am still sitting on the fence with regard to any firm opinions of Web 2.0 and certainly not dismissing it out of hand, but looking how this maybe somewhat slightly pretencious buzz word / coined phrase fits into the grand scheme of things & how it can be applied from my own business perspective. I don’t think I am being blinkered, but being more objective by assimulting the information available without it running away & leaving me behind, just in case.
However, I am not wholly convinced by Web 2.0 as anything trully innovative, but readaptations of existings ideas aggregated together, except, and I may be wrong on this that it is merely “user generated / degenerate content” in the sense they provide it all, i.e. the user does all the work for you & you provide the platform for this. Like content is king & creating website stickiness by forming a community with quirky bells & whistles & widgets & applications. The platform maker earns to wonga & the content providers diddly squat … generally.
For affiliates jumping on Web 2.0 … What are the thoughts on the monetisation of these sites for affiliates apart from hoping to be bought out? Yesterday was Myspace, today is Facebook, what is tomorrow? Web 3.0 was that refferred to as virtual realms and mentioned Affiliate Summit (which was a very good event btw)? Don’t we have that already with World of Warcraft & biting Facebook members by turning them into Zombies … note I am currently a Ninja Zombie 🙂 … Social media sites … are the rage … are fun, but how do we monetise it? Social media sites are just that, the mindset of the user is not to purchase at the time when they are using these, unless you deliver CPM or allow for a very low CTR with low ROI (might as well brand build) on ads or develop applications to piggy back on the existing current fad sites.
“There are so many strands of social media. Social networks in the form of blogs and newsgroups … This content has allowed a more open dialogue between consumers and between consumers and business. Review sites and blogs, and sites like this, enable people to openly discuss the merits and faults in businesses and play a huge part in influencing people’s buying processes.” Lee McCoy
Lee presents his points well.
Also from a your own personal perspective, you have to consider if your business revolves around your lifestyle or vice versa, if you prefer the freedom of the former, then the full implemenation of so called Web 2.0 ideas may be inhibitive to this, as I guess you would have to be more hands on to ensure that nothing offensive is being published, as it grows it will become more demanding. Thus, it’s down to individual needs & to what scale you want to manage this.
If the concept of so called Web 2.0 is the future demand, then we will have to look at doing more work for the equivalent income, unless innovative ways of monetising are come up with. Then how long will it be before privacy issues become more of a concern?.
Now, I am not dismissing “Web 2.0” out of hand, nor the opinions of those strongly in favour, it’s just that from a personal perspective, it hasn’t grasped my “rollocks” and inspired / impressed me yet. Though I will consider ideas which can pigeon holed as Web 2.0 cos it sounds cool and see if it fits in with our sites.
I think that is enough waffle on this for now …
I will quite gladly add links to this blog entry to those who are firm beleivers of the Web 2.0 concept, as I like to read opinions of those which differ from my own by considering other perspectives.
These articles may provide an alternative & equal view point to the discussion:
Segmentation of Affiliates, Social Networking and the ‘Thick Long Tail’ by Matthew Wood
Post For Facebook Lovers and Haters
All Those Social Media Knockers: Start Listening
Matt Wood quoted to me saying it’s “Evolution” and to check this out which some of you may have seen already.
Summary:
With Web 2.0, keep an open mind either way. With Social Sites like Facebook .. Think! .. Sites like these show a how users are easily seduced into letting strangers & organisations know too much information about them. For example, if you say on one of these that you are going on holiday, when you come back you might be burgled. Just don’t be over zealous in what information you volunteer as it’s not your friends you need to worry about, but who else is reading.
BTW The Film “The Net” was back in 1995 and Praetorians are ficticious.
Social sites can be used for good or fun or bad or to counter bad. I won’t spell everything out as the idea is to think & read between the lines, as well think about time lines. So will Facebook for example be acquisited or become the acquisitor or both.
I will update grammatical errors later 😛 as I am off to build a Web 2.0 widget, whatever that maybe.
