Facebook on 60 Minutes – The Most Intriguing Story We’ve Discussed in a While

The following story on 60 Minutes, a prime-time CBS talk show, is perhaps one of the most interesting discussion points we’ve had around here in some time.  if you haven’t seen it yet please check it out here.  We also found this Wall Street Journal article to be quite interesting.

Let me start by saying, that my (Adam) belief is that the internet should largely be unregulated.  If laws are being broken then yes, perpetrators should be punished and their content removed however, I do not believe that any governing body should have a say over what content is published online (see FCC) nor how commerce is conducted online.

Over the years, specifically, when we began offering social media marketing as a service at Bridge Road Marketing, I’ve questioned how large a role I wanted to play in that aspect of the company, and were we living up to the ethical standard that I hold myself and my company to?  In working with a company that offered body armor products to children and we would launch marketing campaigns after school shootings I thought, this is not the business we want to be in, and we ultimately discontinued that contract.

In my view marketing is “here’s a great product or service, and here’s why you should buy it.”  The fact is, that method doesn’t always work.  If marketing methods don’t work we don’t get paid, or we don’t continue to get paid.  Ms. Haugen covers this very point in her grievances with Facebook in a very user-friendly way.

Frances Haugen: So, you know, you have your phone. You might see only 100 pieces of content if you sit and scroll on for, you know, five minutes. But Facebook has thousands of options it could show you.

Frances Haugen: And one of the consequences of how Facebook is picking out that content today is it is — optimizing for content that gets engagement, or reaction. But its own research is showing that content that is hateful, that is divisive, that is polarizing, it’s easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions. 

So by making people angry our job as social media marketers becomes easier.  And as more agencies use this method it is required we all follow suit, else be left behind.  Again there are 1,000s of options for content and the user may see 10% tops.  

More opinions to follow regarding Facebook algorithms and their ad practices after we’ve had a chance to discuss further internally.  Next up “How Instagram Harms Teen Girls” and “The Ad Effects on Governmental Elections”  Stay tuned….