I’m sure that when Mark Zuckerberg first adapted the Winklevoss twins original concept, he had no idea of the monster he was about to create. Certainly Zuckerberg has upset a few people along the way but very few pioneers have managed to get through life unscathed so I guess it goes with the territory!

While I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of using social media sites as marketing platforms, I do have a personal Facebook page as well as a business page so I’m not adverse to the site. I readily admit that I do enjoy the social interaction aspects, easy communication with overseas relatives, interstate school friends, family etc.

Two things interest me about the social media space and I’d like to expand them here.

The first fascination is with the sudden appearance of a new business, that of marketing social media expertise. Where did all of the social media gurus come from; what were they doing two, three, five years ago? There is an entire industry of self-appointed “experts” who want to teach you how to master social media from profit or who want to manage your social media campaigns for you.

This eclectic bunch of opportunists have spawned my second concern which is the commercialisation of Facebook. Let me state that I have no issue with Zuckerberg following Google’s paid advertising monetisation model , it’s a very good way of generating a return on investment for him and is no doubt why pundits are saying the float could be worth as much as $10 billion. Larry Page and Sergey Brin would no doubt be jealous of that, and I wonder if Zuckerberg actually worries them?

Without getting into arguments about the pros and cons or both, it’s certainly apparent that some products and services, especially consumer goods can do well with Facebook advertising, the process being used on some business pages to secure “friends” and thus elevate their status is quite bewildering. Let me explain…

Today I clicked on a paid Facebook link which promoted a video. The advert had no mention of the promoter or where the link might lead me. It took me to the Facebook page (not a website) of an Australian business publication where, to watch the video which I guess was there to tempt me to buy something from them, maybe a subscription; who knows?

In order to watch their promotional video, I had to “like” them, a process that reveals to the world that I’ve been there. This process is unlike the conventional ethical bribe used in direct and Internet marketing where only the vendor knows you’ve enquired. I didn’t want to “like” them so I left a comment to that effect. Some of you are going to say that

I shouldn’t have done that but I believe in speaking my truth and did so on this occasion.
Two hours later, my inbox has a reply from the publication saying “then unlike us at the end of the video but please refund the 34 cents it cost us for your click”.

I don’t know if that was a poor attempt to be humorous but it certainly wasn’t funny from my perspective so I replied to that effect. I’m wondering what will happen next; if they will respond back again; if they will leave the reply on their site or maybe someone within their organisation will get their butt kicked?

Contrast their behaviour with another magazine publisher, this time a UK based hobby magazine I pick up at the newsagents. I missed the September 2011 issue which featured an article I particularly wanted to read. I found their website and posted an enquiry via their contact form. Inside 12 hours I had a reply saying they could airmail the issue to me if I emailed my card info, or called them. I phoned and provided my information and the magazine will be here in a few days.

They’re a real bricks and mortar business with a long, successful history who know how to do it. Why is it so hard for others to do the same?

In a daily newsletter I receive in an attempt to stay abreast of the social media disease (which I hope with die a natural death in the near future with Facebook going the same way as MySpace) I’m beginning to see a trend of disillusionment with this new media.

Smart marketers well recognise that you need to be where your customers are but whereas the wider web and search is today’s equivalent of the high street, Facebook is just the local coffee shop or public bar. A place for friendly social conversation where the only transactions are the meat tray raffle or someone attempting to offload a shonky TV or DVD player.

Kraft don’t try to sell you Vegemite in the front bar, magazines don’t solicit subscriptions there and nobody wants to declare fake friendship to hear someone’s story. It’s a public place just like Facebook. Yes, okay, one needs an account and has to be over 18 to get in but you need to be over 18 and observe the house rules to enter a public bar don’t you?
All the statistics about how well some people are doing on Facebook, on how many friends they have, on how may Twitter followers they have (and isn’t that a totally pointless site?) suggest nothing more than hype.

Tell me honestly, are all your Facebook friends really friends, and do you really believe that just because someone “likes” you or your page that they are actually going to by your product or refer their friends? Though so…

Aggressive, impersonal marketing on Facebook doesn’t cut it for me, sorry; neither do rude replies from some faceless person masquerading as a social media manager. Send them out to see a few clients face to face, let them be responsible for generating real revenue instead of just accumulating statistics and see how good they are.

And don’t think that this aggressive, impersonal rudeness is restricted just to Facebook. Another experience today reminded me of that. I clicked on a sponsored link promoting a marketing book and the landing page had an ethical bribe asking me for my name and email address in order to receive an extract from a book they promote.

Happy to do that on the basis that only they know I’ve subscribed, and knowing too that I can unsubscribe and remove my name from their database, I completed the form. It promised me an email would arrive to confirm my request. 10 hours later it hadn’t arrived so I went back to the site and resubscribed. A message then appeared saying I was already subscribed and I couldn’t subscribe twice.

Finding the contact us page, I was amazed to see that I needed to lodge a support ticket BUT if my problem was that my download hadn’t arrived, I could get it by clicking a link on the page. It all looked very sleazy – as if they were hiding and frankly I should have quit then, but no, I downloaded the book and started to read it.

Talk about junk! Diabolical content, badly written, badly formatted and left me with the distinct impression that the author had written the book out of spite to his previous employers about whom he was highly derogatory. There was nothing positive, no useful content in the free download. At least give me something of value to base my decision on.

What gets me is that his site proudly displays the logos of ten or fifteen large US companies he is reputed to have worked for. I wouldn’t hire the guy in a pink fit!

Whatever happened to truth and honesty in business? Has it disappeared or am I just naive?