How Media Companies can solve their Facebook Problem
Here’s an idea for the New York Times, the WSJ, NBC, the Huffington Post, and any other mainstream media outlet: Leave Facebook.
I’m once again experiencing that guilty feeling as I scroll through my Facebook feed for probably the 36th time today. At the top of my feed:
Friend’s baby picture
Mom sharing another Facebook Memory
Huffington Post video about Ted Cruz
Bonobos ad
Wall Street Journal article about the Italian Referendum (I follow them)
Seth Meyers clip
A questionable NewCenturyTimes.com article: “One Major American City Just Gave An Official Middle Finger to Donald Trump”
Suggested Care.com post
NY Times Instant Article about Trump’s business empire (I follow them)
Another liberal friend posting about trying to be positive about Trump.
If you remove the HuffPo, Seth Meyers and NYTimes content, Facebook becomes what it was kind of meant to be — a place for family pictures, awkward outbursts, questionable news, and annoying ads.
What gives my Facebook feed an air of legitimacy as an information source is content from quality news (and entertainment) sources. I always feel a bit guilty every time I go on Facebook, but there is some pre-election part of me that is convinced I might be imbibing something important and of quality.
Here’s an idea for the New York Times, the WSJ, NBC, the Huffington Post, and any other mainstream media outlet: Leave Facebook.
I’m serious.
I understand there is no realistic manner in which any large media company could possibly just leave the greatest “harvester of human attention” in history (credit to Tim Wu). But we all know Facebook’s credibility is teetering. We know it was overrun with fake, spammy content that possibly could’ve help elect Donald Trump. We know it’s an incredibly addictive platform that’s built off of the same triggers that satiate other addictions.
Facebook is not going anywhere, but what if it was sapped of the very credibility that your expensively-produced, quality content provides it.
What if that tinge of guilt evolved into full blown, cigarette-level guilt?
What if you stopped providing the legitimacy that powers Facebook’s power over you?
Naturally people would still be sharing your content, but maybe just stop with Instant Articles. Don’t upload native video (seriously, could you imagine!?). Delete your Facebook brand page. Take a concerted stand to make Facebook officially not a platform for smart things. Relegate Facebook’s reputation to a cross between Yahoo Answers and Tumblr.
Make it so no one would ever dare answer a question with “I saw it on Facebook”.
This is a near-impossibility given the tenuous business model of publishers, but it’s not that far-fetched a cultural leap. If you start to pull the mainstream media legitimacy from Facebook, it can very quickly become solely a place for the misinformed, at least by traditional mainstream media standards. Furthermore, I imagine a good number of Facebook employees lean left. In today’s talent wars, if you remove working at Facebook as a source of pride and even an embarrassment, the company could very quickly begin bleeding talent…and that matters more than ever.
For folks at mainstream media outlets, while we talk about the danger of normalizing Donald Trump please remember it’s your content that has been normalizing Facebook for years…..while simultaneously crushing your own business models.
