Dear Facebook, “Just Ask”
What’s one of the biggest blind spots at Facebook? That Facebook must build, store and analyze deep personal profiles of each and every user to generate the ad revenue they need.
This blind spot permeates everything Facebook does. If Facebook is convinced the statement is a true fact, and the corollary is that its only alternative is to become a paid subscription service, then Facebook is doomed to pursue some version of grabbing as much personal information as possible, using it to create profiles and leveraging that into ad dollars. The inevitable end-goal is to somehow predict what each user wants one minute or one day ahead, and post paid advertising based on that prediction. It is a forever-effort that requires them to compile ever more data about every aspect of us (physical, mental, activities, friends, connections, personal preferences, etc) in an effort to perfect their ability to read the future mind of every user.
Because that is not ever going to be accurate enough to meet the demands of shareholders for a sufficient increase in revenue quarter-over-quarter forever, Facebook also needs to be able to manipulate the future mind of the user, either directly or in combination with its advertisers.
In many ways, they already can do this, but it is also a never-ending addiction to capturing more information leading to more and deeper predictive and manipulative capacities that feed their ever-growing revenue needs.
Periodically, they will make mistakes in this pursuit, and will have their wrists slapped by some mix of users, journalists, pundits, academics, politicians and regulators.
But the business imperative driven by their total commitment to the “fact” that they can only generate sufficient revenue based on mind-reading (and manipulating) the future state of their users means they will keep going down this road.
Is there an alternative, especially one that can generate more ad revenue than their current model? Yes, there is. It can be encapsulated in two words “Just ask.” If Mark Zuckerberg alone were to take these two words to heart and mind (or even take a few minutes to consider them seriously), he could transform the future of Facebook.
What does “Just ask” mean in this context? It means just ask your users. Ask them what they want. Ask them what content they want in their ads. Let users answer whenever the users want. Deliver ads based on what the user actually wants according to what the user says they want.
Let’s say one user wants a new microwave. Another wants a new tv. Another wants a vacation in Florida and wants ads with discounts to Florida resorts, restaurants, flights and rental cars. Another needs ideas for dentists. All Facebook has to do is give the user a pull-down menu to enter and/or select what the user is interested in at that moment that lets the user enter one or more things/services/whatever they are interested in getting advertising about.
Facebook could give the user all sorts of bells and whistles around this: let the user enter a time period, prompt the user when the time period is up, let the user rate whether they’re receiving ads that are relevant to their choice, etc.
Potentially, Facebook could implement, as part of this selection menu, “advanced” options, such as enabling a user to give permission to use his/her location or other information in order to fine-tune the ads that get delivered.
There’s no need at all for profiling. There’s no need to gather personal information, at least for advertising purposes. If they gather it at all, they can use it to improve the features that give users a meaningful social experience on Facebook.
Facebook obviously knows how to give users choices to do things, even very complex things, such as giving the user the options to control a wide range of privacy settings. Facebook also knows how to give advertisers a wide range of controls, settings and options on how and to whom their ads are delivered.
Clearly Facebook can figure out how to make this “Just ask’ system easy, quick and powerful for its users.
Advertisers will like this system a great deal because they will be advertising to people who have expressly stated an immediate and direct interest in a thing/service/topic/whatever, whether specifically (a microwave or a rental car deal in St. Petersburg on x date) or generally (kitchen devices or deals on everything for a Florida vacation in the next three months).
For users who do not make selections, Facebook could offer two alternatives: random ads (in a higher number than ads that would appear if the user made a selection), or, a subscription option. By constructing alternatives carefully (and respectfully), Facebook can nudge (create incentives for) users to enter ad choices.
Mark Zuckerberg has instituted sea changes before at Facebook. When it went public, and its share price dropped because it did not have an effective answer for the shift to mobile, he laser-focused the company as a “mobile first” company.
He can do it again. He can truly stand up to his statements that Facebook needs to respect its users. He can do this by implementing a “Just ask” ad system. It isn’t complicated, and certainly not for Facebook with all its resources. Even better, it aligns Facebook with what he would want from the world he is significantly involved in creating for his kids: one where individuals are empowered and respected, rather than the one he is creating now that seeks to manipulate, mind-read and control individuals.
Hey, Mark, “Just ask.”
