Facebook's Ads Not Selling Merchandise...

[Illiterati]

Apparently, maybe only 1 out of 5 people are buying stuff advertised on Facebook.

http://marketday.msnbc.msn.com/_new...em-ads-arent-grabbing-users-analysts-say?lite

Facebook is apparently like AOL was and are claiming user numbers even for those who may have started accounts but no longer use them, to the 900,000,000 user number they boast is more than a little bogus.

 

[Overmind One]

Apparently, maybe only 1 out of 5 people are buying stuff advertised on Facebook.

http://marketday.msnbc.msn.com/_new...em-ads-arent-grabbing-users-analysts-say?lite

Facebook is apparently like AOL was and are claiming user numbers even for those who may have started accounts but no longer use them, to the 900,000,000 user number they boast is more than a little bogus.

Facebook is not going to be long lived like Google or even Twitter. The reason is because of it's "one stop shop" mentality which assumes that everyone on earth will want a Facebook account and once procured, will be perfectly willing to be tracked like some demented tagged caribou wandering in the tundra of the internet. No thanks. I chewed off my tag last year and did not look back. I wont EVER join another Facebook-like entity online. Having said that, the reason that Facebook is worth so much is because the "captive audience" SEEMS to be a logical goldmine for consumer advertising. Like you said, I think that is largely an illusion, and now the metrics are exposing the reality. I give it 5 more years or so. Something new will kick it off it's throne, and it wont be Google+.

 

[Illiterati]

When you're trying to network with people because you have a book to sell, you plug your nose and jump into whatever social networks you must to get the most coverage.

 

[shavedape]

Yeah I think Facebook has bit off more than it can chew at this point in its development. It seems to work well as a social tool but I don't know how well it works for commercial endeavors. Case in point, I almost never go to a business site on Facebook and have yet to order anything via that method. I can see how it could be a good thing for small businesses but I don't know that it will really take off in this regard.

 

[Overmind One]

When you're trying to network with people because you have a book to sell, you plug your nose and jump into whatever social networks you must to get the most coverage.

Of course! Facebook morphed into a hydra AFTER joining. When they started the Timeline thing, I left them. Too intrusive. But if I go back in for business reasons, controlling all data, I might reconsider. But then it is not social networking, it becomes marketing.

 

[Illiterati]

That's why I'm there. Marketing. As you know, I write under a pseudonym, so it's not a social place for me to spend time with my real life friends.

 

[Graybrew1]

I spent a small fortune on it and advertised my company to "locals" only. I had to pay per hit. What stinks is that people get curious and hit the link to look at it and I have to pay, but they don't use the services. Total negative investment. I stopped quite a while ago.

 

[Bluce Ree]

GM pulling all their ads from FB was a huge blow to their IPO. I read an analysis that claimed the number of people who actually looked at the ads, let alone buy anything because of them, was somewhere around 0.001%. Google was #1 for ad effectiveness. I strongly feel FB is an overblown bubble about to burst and there will be a lot of pissed off investors left holding their dicks. There's no way that company is worth anywhere near $100b.

 

[Illiterati]

They are also charging people who have things like author/product pages to be able to get updates out to everyone out there who has Liked that author/product page. So what's the point of using Facebook to connect when you have to pay out the asp to use that service?

At this point, I post from my regular Facebook page and don't do much with my "official" page.

I'm not here to make up for the failure of the IPO, thank you very much.

 

[Overmind One]

They are also charging people who have things like author/product pages to be able to get updates out to everyone out there who has Liked that author/product page. So what's the point of using Facebook to connect when you have to pay out the asp to use that service?

At this point, I post from my regular Facebook page and don't do much with my "official" page.

I'm not here to make up for the failure of the IPO, thank you very much.

Treatment like that is not going to endear them to their paying clients like yourself! That is appalling. But it is another example as to why Facebook will "pop" like Bluce said. Not so long ago, the throne that Facebook sits in had been warmed by MySpace. Remember them? And the granddaddy of all proto-social networking platforms, AOL, already is living life after its bubble burst. Facebook is nowhere near 100bn in value. 10 years from now, there will be something else.