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28
Aug
07

Facebook Follies (or the Dangers of Investing in Someone Else’s Platform)

By baratunde
Categories: Technological Tags: , , , , , , .

A few weeks ago, I wrote a comprehensive, sometime scathing critique of Facebook and its shortcomings (it’s worth a read, though long, and builds the basis for this current post). Despite that review, I was still positive on Facebook vs. MySpace and could live with its deficiencies while they sorted things out. I have now changed my mind. Facebook just cost me access to 639 fans/leads/potential customers, and I am partly to blame for trusting someone else to manage my business.

 


Photo via Flickr by B I R D

As I pointed out in my previous post, I use Facebook in the same way I use MySpace: a bit of personal communication but mostly artist-to-audience communication in the form of announcements, videos, calendar, etc. Because Facebook does not let you send messages to all or groups of your friends (I have 944 of them) and because I wanted to give people an explicit choice to receive such messages, I created a Facebook Group. I called it “GLOBAL Fans of Comedian, Author & Vigilante Pundit, Baratunde Thurston.” The “GLOBAL” was because the first fbook group I created was limited to the Harvard network, and Facebook’s staff said they could not change it once set that way. It’s also because I will be taking over the world shortly.

Over time, this group grew in size to nearly match the size of my email list. In fact, with the growth of these social networks, I noticed fewer and fewer people signing up for the email list at all. I used the group mostly to send my NewsPhlash email messages to group members, three or four times per month at most. It helped get people out to shows, announce cool accomplishments and get feedback from people on ideas. The Facebook group complemented my other “channels” if you will, which include

  • My regular email list
  • MySpace friends
  • Blog/Podcast and associated RSS feeds
  • Upcoming calendar and Twitter
  • Friendster decommissioned summer 1996 due to lameness

My routine had been that every time I wrote up a NewsPhlash I would send it out via email, blog post, MySpace bulletin, MySpace blog, Twitter announcement and the Facebook group. As more people joined Facebook or began to use it more (especially when they opened it beyond students), I got a higher response to my posts from Facebook users than from email or MySpace. I have always been annoyed at this needlessly, inefficient cross-posting arrangement, but other social media types I respect insisted that you have to do it. It’s one of the reasons I prefer blip.tv to manage my podcasts cause they do a lot of the cross-posting for you, especially to MySpace, and anything that keeps me from logging into that design nightmare is a good thing.

On August 16th, a big part of Facebook died to me. I tried to send out my latest NewsPhlash to the group. It included announcements of an upcoming NPR appearance I wanted folks to check out, plus links to a recent column and a photo of me with Barack Obama. Exciting ish! Sadly, Facebook did not care how exciting it was. My group message went only to me. I have tried over 50 times since then to send out a group message to no avail. I got into software testing mode and tried from five browsers — three on my Mac and two under Windows. Nothing.

I wrote Facebook, describing the problem. One day later, August 17, they wrote back:

We are aware of the problem that you described and hope to resolve it as soon as possible. Sorry for any inconvenience. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Between then and today, I had tried repeatedly testing the message feature. Nothing. So today I got ahold of a an anonymous source at Facebook. This person was kind enough to talk to me about some of what’s going on. Out of respect for this person, I’m gonna keep the exchange anonymous and merely summarize many of the points we discussed

Point 1. Facebook is nervous about groups using the messaging system for SPAM and has some “limits” set up.

SPAM? That’s why I created the group in the first place — to give people an explicit opt-in to my messages. Unlike actual SPAM, people can leave my group at any time. The message source is transparent. If people feel they are being spammed by their groups, they should leave. I wrote back explaining my frustration and thanking the person for taking the time to be in touch with me. Always thank people for their time yall, even if they disappoint you! I basically said I had been building up my group over months only to have it broken. The response was quite revealing. Again, summarizing some points.

Point 2. People sign up for Facebook assuming we’re like MySpace, and we’re not. We’re a very different kind of service.

Ok, tell that to your investors and the media and your users and the public and Microsoft and Yahoo who thought they were trying to buy something a lot like MySpace for $1 billion or more. If people sign up for your service expecting something, either provide it or make it clear to those people that they won’t find what they’re looking for. Don’t get folks all invested then pull the rug out and say, “we don’t support that.” As for being a “very different” kind of service, I’m not so sure. Different, yes. “Very” different? Meh. More summary:

Point 3. Facebook is focused on “connecting real people with the people they know.” Groups were designed for this, but users re-purposed them for things like promotion. We don’t want to do the MySpace thing in the area of promotion. We think we can do it better.

I can partially respect that. Facebook does get that users will build whatever they want and can with your tools but is not comfortable with that. Again, there is this point of not being MySpace, and I don’t fully get it. Maybe they want less noise than the MySpace system which overwhelms me with event invites and grotesque HTML comments all over my profile. Man, it’s good that Facebook’s pleasant environment doesn’t overwhelm me with meaningless communication like zombie bites or friend comparisons.

Again, I gotta give it up to this person for a very professional and empathetic tone. I actually got screamed on by another Facebook engineer who was upset at how I tagged a video and, rather than discuss it with me, bitched about me behind my back to a friend. Good to know there are mature, thoughtful people at the company. Sad to know that the company is being so rigid about how people use a tool.

Through continued correspondence I discovered that Facebook says it sets a limit for group messaging. Based on my experience, this limit must be around 500 or 600 people, but perhaps it’s a bit different for different users. This, of course, doesn’t apply to sponsored groups like “Apple Students” with 400,000+ members, but Apple is paying for the privilege. Me? I’m not spending any money except on silly $1 gifts. All I’m doing is being an active node in the network and increasing its value by providing valuable, ad-monetizeable metadata about myself and my friends. All I’m doing is being Facebook, but what do I know?

This is all very troubling. I invested a lot into Facebook, but I’ve discovered, painfully, that Facebook doesn’t value me nearly as much as I’d hoped. I took one of my most important assets, my relationship with my fans, and allowed Facebook to mediate a large portion of it. Sure, I still have my email list and blog subscribers and my pedophiliac MySpace friends, but the loss of access to my Facebook group will be felt. Facebook users are still largely college folks, and that’s one of the few groups that will actually pay me to perform.

Meanwhile, I have to come up with a way to patch this hole. Unlike an email list, I cannot simply load my Facebook friends into another system as I would if I moved from Topica to Constant Contact. There is no Internet standard for a “Facebook user” like there is for an email address, and that’s one fatal flaw in the system for anyone who plans to outlive Facebook.

At least Facebook and MySpace have not been my end-all, be-all web presence like some folks I know. This has served as a wake-up call for me and hopefully others. Build and own your online presence. I knew this when I registered baratunde.com way back in 1998 and began managing my own email. I got a bit lazier in recent years, but I’m glad I still have my Baratunde-controlled universe to fall back on. Too bad I can’t message my Facebook group and tell them about it.

Epilogue - My Plan of Action

I cannot afford to wait for Facebook to fix my group messaging, and even if they fixed it sooner, I no longer trust the service with such valuable information. I will keep my Facebook account, but I have closed my Facebook group to new members (what’s the point if I can’t communicate with them?) and will be sending them individual Facebook messages asking them to follow me in some other, more open, portable, non-hostage-taking way. I’ll be adding forums to my own site and encouraging people to follow me with RSS. This will take a lot of time, but it’s worth it. Contracting out major parts of your business has a huge long term cost, though on paper it looks more economical. I think we’ve all learned this lesson.

It’s sad, I had fun making people random officers in my group with such titles as “Dirty South Regional Enforcer of the Family Name” and “Awkward Turtle Whisperer.” I had hoped to eventually make 50 people officers, but Facebook has an officer limit. Nice. More artificial limits on my creativity.

I wish it were as simple as saying, “see Baratunde, that’s what you get for believing in Facebook,” but it is not that simple. I didn’t just “believe” in Facebook. This was not a faith-based decision. I used it because that’s where the people are. I stopped using Friendster because the people left. The “Internet” has all sorts of more open tools I could use to do what I was doing with Facebook, but millions of people have chosen Facebook instead. It seemed foolish to ignore that. Will people show up just to see me without having their friends, photos and Zombie bites one glance away? Facebook has become to the Internet what RSS readers are to the blogosphere. As I mentioned in a comment on my previous Facebook post:

…no matter how open a system I build/take advantage of, it is worthless if no one is there to use it. I don’t use facebook for fun. I do it because the people I want to communicate with are there, and they are not willing to work with me right now to cobble together the equivalent of an open social network / event manager / messaging platform / internet application storefront / discussion board. Yes it is true that I could individually manage all those pieces, but I guarantee you, only a handful of the people I’m trying to reach would follow me.

I suppose it is time to find out.

You can follow Baratunde’s musings, show schedule, videos and more at www.baratunde.com, and he promises not to hold you hostage. 

Viewing 28 Comments

    • ^
    • v
    A lot of people don't realized that in FaceBook or MySpace, we're at the mercy of the platform vendors. All our particulars are in there and they could easily manipulate the data. If not, how do you explain getting tons of unsolicited calls from companies. I've got 100+ Facebook alerts on my email account. It's getting scary.
    • ^
    • v
    Yes, we users don't have any rights. There's a scheme by YouTube that will affect YouTube users worldwide. You can read more about YouTube Blackout.
    • ^
    • v
    Having burned through several accounts on all the major social networks, you're dead on. The social networks are lead generators only, and their sole purpose is to drive traffic to YOUR properties, the ones you own, the ones you have nearly sole control over.

    The reality is that the social networks are sales platforms for ads, and for the controlling companies to make money off your content. Our goal as smaller, independent content creators is to siphon off their user base as quickly as possible.

    Remember this above all else: we live or die by our database - and if our database is owned by someone else, we're dead and just waiting to be buried.
    • ^
    • v
    boo ya! you are super correcto Chris. I like that callous attitude of yours. Let's siphon those fools!!
    • ^
    • v
    Their actions are entirely bogus and shameful, especially because they'll never make a public statement about the overarching reasons they're shutting you (and probably others) down.

    Social networking is about communication, and it's a damn shame to see a company who was at the front of this new wave of communication tools start to retract. I wouldn't be very surprised to see them introduce a tiered sponsored group structure for bands/comedians/performers as they start trying to squeeze every cent from the "community."
    • ^
    • v
    When I read your first critique of facebook a week or two ago, I thought, this would be a great basis for building a new facebook app, maybe one specialized around promoting independent artists or something like that. Seems like it fits both of your purposes: you get to be where the people are, AND you get to keep the data. Also, there's probably more interesting stuff you can do with an app than with a group (like allow your followers to buy tickets to your shows, rate your videos, etc.) I still haven't read up much on apps, but it seems like something worth examining. Have you thought about that at all?
    • ^
    • v
    My boy DoYouKnowClarence just pointed me to this excellent critique of Facebook's closed nature over at Eloquation
    • ^
    • v
    Facebook groups suck. Why can't you treat a group page like your profile, and add apps, etc? Why all the limitations? I understand their desire to not go down the commercial use path, but there are plenty of legitimate people with large social spheres that find the limitations frustrating and are leaving Facebook--you and Chris Brogan are just two examples. That's just not good for the platform, which otherwise I'm a big fan of, even considering the poor portability of content and the somewhat intrusive copyright policies.
    • ^
    • v
    I had the same exact issue with a Facebook group that had slightly over 500 members--I had known from the past that they set limits to group messages, but for some reason, I thought it was for groups with over 1000 people. I tried to google for more info at the time, but to no avail.

    I think Facebook is hurting itself by not being transparent about the issue. If you're going to set a limit like that, at least tell your members so they can decide if they want to kick out out their 500th member or even use a Facebook group at all. (In all seriousness, though, I completely agree with the dangers of investing in a closed platform like that of Facebook--especially when they are free to turn anything off at their whim.)
    • ^
    • v
    @elizabeth two great points.

    I would never have created the group in the first place if I knew there was a cutoff. Facebook has created an unnecessarily dissatisfied customer. I may have been ambivalent. Now I am angry.

    As for them turning things off on a whim, it does not have to go so far. They could merely suffer an outage or breach or go out of business. The INTENTION is much less important to me than the CONSEQUENCE which is that I get screwed because they avoid openness and portability.

    I will now refer to Facebook as Faceboooo. That'll learn em
    • ^
    • v
    I think I understand Facebooks POV. It's built to be a social networking platform and they are making sure it remains that. I am all for its limits as its not meant to be a promotional/mass messaging platform. I can understand your anger at not being able to message your group, but at the same time, Facebook never made you any guarantees that you would be able to do this. On the flip side, Facebook should definitely have some sort of documentation as to what its limits are.

    Last thing: If Facebook ever explicitly gives group creators/leaders/whatever or App developers the ability to export the contact information of its members/users, I'll delete my account. I have my email address viewable to only my friends for a reason.
    • ^
    • v
    @ericajoy

    thanks for an alternate perspective. I agree about letting email addresses go without a user's permission. I am so livid right now that I get emails about Facebook apps in my gmail inbox, and these are apps I do not even have installed -- they're just letting me know that someone WANTS me to install them.

    as for guarantees in being able to message my group, there is an implied guarantee via the existence of the "message all group members" link which worked until it suddenly didn't. Documentation is the bare minimum. I think I'm owed a PUBLIC explanation as to what the policy is even if it is not set.

    In terms of FB not being "meant to be" a promo/mass messaging platform, maybe. Email wasn't meant to be that. Nor was the US postal service, but both evolved to support things like mailing lists, direct mail, etc.

    I think it will be very hard for Facebook to maintain a zero mass messaging policy considering that mass messaging is also a SOCIAL need. e.g. i want to message or otherwise post a notice to all the gnomedex friends I made with links to my photos or something.

    It is a tough balance for fbook. I'm not saying it should be easy, but there should definitely be more transparency. I would never have created a group there if I knew things would go down like they have.
    • ^
    • v
    I totally sympathise with you regarding farcebook. I was locked out from my own account and I've had many people posting comments at my blog too just lke all of these here.

    Great blog by the way... subscribed to your rss.

    Kind regards

    Podcast Junky UK
    • ^
    • v
    Gosh! As someone who's been a facebook advocate amongst my flittering social network friends I'm disappointed to hear this. Bottom line: these people ASKED for you to contact them by joining your group and facebook said, "eh, I don't think so..." I think there is power in you trying to mobilize your facebook group members to contact facebook with their complaints. I greatly respect facebook's commitment to not being the overwhelming, poorly organized experience MySpace is, however some of the artificial limitations are unnecessary.

    Erica is right about open access to e-mail addresses, but it would be easy to have a member opt in or out of providing their email address to a group when they join.

    I enjoying my first read of this blog and I'll be interested to know what happens next.
    • ^
    • v
    First of all, thanks for being a musician. I don't know many technologist who proclaim their love as often as it is deserved (i.e. all the time) except maybe Steve Jobs for everyone in general, Dylan in particular and the Beatles when he'll can. You make every coder's day sunnier.

    Facebook have a grander vision then MySpace, and they are very careful, sometimes too much. Like Google they see further and shy away from what is a good idea, but is indistinguishable (for a server) form a bad one. A cool group about something anyone can agree with (World Peace anyone?) could use it's user-base to sell poorly targeted ads. That's not what you are offering; because of that, they still feel they have to shy away from Appreciation Society.

    They are all the more cold-footed a few kinks went wrong: of course Zombie is annoying to anyone who is more then 14 y.o., i.e. allowed to *be* on Facebook in the first place -- but the cool thing is that, as soon as you see it, you can ban it with one click; all the more, the viral property has recently been emasculated (cutting your own diffusion capability).

    I sincerely believe their grander vision is based, allows and should drive your attention to that thing they are the only one to have, namely :

    > great basis for building a new facebook app

    I can't use iLike (I'm in Europe) but I assume they have the capability to develop an "Fan" app, or Fan-features in their existing app that would help you greatly. Maybe a "Musician" module that could be the second side of their platform. Do you think you could have you and fellow musician come together, forward your concerns to them or to Slide, and, e.g. offer a margin on CDs, iTunes tracks, concert seats that you sold through them? They are looking for business model, and you have one.
    • ^
    • v
    @bertil, you are hilarious dude. "thanks for being a musician." Sorry I didn't make it clear, but I'm a comedian. My instruments are my mind and my mouth, both of which run constantly. You are the 5th person to suggest a Facebook app. I'm investigating it.

    @amy, I did try to mobilize my facebook friends. I changed my status to have them send help tickets complaining. I have no idea if it worked.

    Since all this has gone down, I've had a chance to cool off a bit, and I appreciate the perspectives defending Facebook's challenging position. It's a delicate balance they are trying to hold. I get that. So besides my great wishlist for all things my way and all things open, all I really want is for them to state publicly what these evolving policies are.

    thanks so much for all these comments. I had no idea this post would strike such a nerve. It's almost as big as the post I wrote criticizing Apple. Talk about passionate users. dang.
    • ^
    • v
    Great post- wish I had read it sooner!

    It's pretty clear that despite all of it's shortcomings FB will succeed on the hype created by venture capitalists, desperate for the "next google" to extend this current boom. How do you think a_website can have nearly the same valuation as Ford Motor Co.? Rising tide raises all ships, friends.

    I worked for an online social networking company who are surfing this hype like kelly slater to the tune of 6 mil injection of VC cash just this year. The product stinks! But hey, if FB is worth 15 billion...

    Venture captialists are some of the dumbest most predictable people you'll ever have the pleasure of nearly getting run over by in their porsches. It's not about connecting people. It's about making your board even richer.
    • ^
    • v
    I got to this post based upon a comment in a post Julia Roy posted earlier today. If you haven't heard, Julia sent a message about a photo collection to five relevant groups, and Facebook promptly accused her of spamming.

    I have a different definition of "social networking" than Erica Joy (comment number 9). In my view, what you were trying to do was clearly within the realm of social networking. These were people who wanted to hear your message - the fact that these people numbered in the hundreds should not negate the fact that you were engaging in social networking.

    Frankly, I question whether Facebook qualifies as a "social network." Of course, since I post under an alias, I could never join Facebook anyway...
    • ^
    • v
    I guess your problem is solved now with facebook 'pages', specifically catering for businesses and celebrities and the like.
    • ^
    • v
    @john, not quite.

    The IDEA of Pages is good, but it still needs to merge more with Groups. I do have a facebook Page btw, at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=9179646182

    There are many problems with Pages still.

    * You can't invite your friends to become a fan in more than groups of 20 people at a time.

    * If you send an update to your fans, they have no easy way to write you back. In fact, Pages don't support any messaging, but you can hack the page to add that ability

    * Videos you have uploaded to your profile are not available to be put on your page. You have to re-upload them. Same with photos

    * There's no directory of Pages.

    Those are a few examples.

    I think Pages are an improvement over the limitations of a Profile, but it's clearly a beta launch. We'll see.
    • ^
    • v
    I have been receiving several spam emails from the groups i joined at Facebook and has since left them due to the huge amount of spam emails i received every month. Mostly are self promoting emails, if not advertisements of their sponsorers.
    • ^
    • v
    Facebook or myspace? i prefer facebook.

    Thanks
    • ^
    • v
    Facebook is free....so we're at their mercy. I'll still cling on to them until the next better platform appears.
    • ^
    • v
    The bitter truth is that if you use a free service, you find yourself fully dependent on this service. And one day it may happen that you encounter a 'we close your account' notice and you can't do anything about it. The best way out is having your own server with your own copy of a platform installed. In this case you have your business protected from other people's will however it makes it much more difficult to promote yourself.
    • ^
    • v
    If it is said that Face book would always gives you better result than MySpace than I think it won’t be false.. Face book has captured the market by facilitating us with better security.. So it would be good to make such groups for more better interaction among people..
    • ^
    • v
    Hi guy, it’s a really a nice post on face book follies. However, If you feel bore, pl take a look of gochi juice , new item of goji berry’s which increased energy, sharper mental acuity, less fatigue, improve athletic performance, better quality of sleep, easier to woke up, bowler regularity, felling calmer, healthier, happier, reduction of stress and many more. The clinical trial has proven that drinking just 4 ounces a day can have significant positive benefits in 19 areas of your health and well being after just 30 days. You're going to love GoChi!
    • ^
    • v
    Youtube has already started censoring people on their channel. Very soon, there would be no swear words allowed in all their videos.
    • ^
    • v
    great blog
 

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