The friend of the average Facebook user sees the status update first. You know this section, Scott is…and then a Twitter like commentary on what is going on in Scott’s life at that exact moment. As a user of Facebook, I see the status field as nothing more than a comedic outlet. As I fancy myself an amateur comedian, I like to use it to try out new material and solicit a response from my friends. Here are some of my recent status updates:
1. Scott is still sitting at the gate at O’Hare and remembers why United sucks.
2. Scott wants to know why I’m being served with Alice Cooper ads. Behavioral targeting my ass.
3. Scott is in Geneva. It would help to be able to say more than “hello” in French.
4. Scott just ran around Lake Geneva. The real one, not the one in Wisconsin.
5. Scott finds the FinallyFast.com commercials on par with those from Life Alert (“ALL senior citizens should have Life Alert.”).
Comedic genius? Probably not, but go watch that Life Alert commercial. It brings back memories of the Clapper. But I like to have fun with it, as I think most people do.
But let’s look at the status field from a marketer’s perspective. The one knock on Facebook, and maybe on social media as a whole, is how a brand advertiser can monetize it. About a year ago, Facebook rolled out social ads and the now infamous Beacon Tags. In case you forgot what a nightmare those were, this should remind you.
Mark is: trying to monetize his site.
So rather than digging in defending Beacon in a Butch-and-Sundance kind of way, Facebook pulled back and initiated an ad model that combines traditional display, behavioral and, in some ways, Ad Words. And as any good digital marketer knows, in order for those to work, and for the host site to monetize the placements, you need traffic. Lots and lots of traffic. And what drives traffic? Well, content for one. Or a text box that users update as many times a day as they want for the whole world to see as it becomes an obsession. Yeah, I guess that would work.
So as you continue to update your status, pay attention to the ads you are served. The more you update, the more ads you will see.
