December 17, 2008

Social Media Fantasies

From TechDigest, July 2007
"Facebook applications are the best thing since...sliced bread...they're mushrooming by the day, as companies and individual developers alike catch on to the potential of having their content splashed over (potentially) millions of Facebook profiles."
Yeah, right.

Along with so many other social media fantasies, marketers have found Facebook apps to be a pretty good way of pissing away barrels of money. According to Adweek...
  • Nike's "Ballers Network" ("the brand saw its mission as building community through applications") gets about 3,400 visitors a month.
  • FedEx touted its "Launch A Package" Facebook app as a big success, having achieved 100,000 installations in its first three days. It now gets 1,500 visitors a month.
For some perspective, this pathetic blog gets ten times that.

Other marketers who have flushed away good money on failed Facebook apps include Coca-Cola, Champion, Ford and Microsoft.

As we have said on many occasions, there is no bigger sucker than a gullible marketer convinced he's missing a trend.

So Let's Review...
Advertising on Facebook is going nowhere. The apps scheme is falling apart. Someone remind me... how are they going to make money again?

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