Farmville Sucks (and why that's important to Social Media)

Re-tweet this post?

Share on Facebook

You or someone you are friends with on Facebook plays Farmville (or Farmtown). These games have over 60 million regular users. But guess what -- by any means of measurement, these games are terrible.

For each super-popular app-game on facebook, there are 10,000 free flash alternatives on the web that run more smoothly, with less ads, and have more features. So why do people play these games? Simple: they already have an account. Facebook eliminates the first barrier to entry, and with friends already playing, the users are content to follow.

This is an important lesson to be learned here when converting to social media; in this age you have to go where the people already are to be relevant. Millions of people will play an inferior game because it's easier than typing in a different website -- why would they visit your domain? Why would you want them to?

Facebook Targets Ads To More Than Just Your Info

Re-tweet this post?

Share on Facebook

If you facebook, you've realized the ads you see are based on the interests and activities listed in your profile. You know, that's why all those ads are so relevant. Now it seems there's more to the story they're not telling us or the advertisers yet.

According to the Ads FAQ: "Keywords are based on information users list in their Facebook profiles, such as Activities, Favorite Books, TV Shows, Movies, etc." What they don't tell you is your status updates factor into the equation as well.

Last week I posted something about "NC" as a status updated. Almost immediately I began seeing ads for bars, lawyers and insurance agencies in North Carolina. Similarly, when I posted about a mandolin I had bought, I began seeing a repeating ad for a mandolin site.

While this keyword-based advertising is nothing new (gmail has been creeping us out for years), I find it a bit disingenuous that facebook is doing so without explicitly telling us, don't you? If you're a regular user, you should feel your privacy is being a little bit violated; if you're an advertiser, you should know you're not getting the actual demographic you think you're paying for.