What's seductive to Facebook not so for members

Regardless of whether MoveOn.org was the right organization to do it, they apparently were the most effective one.

On Friday, Facebook announced, via a statement on its Web site, some changes to its controversial Beacon advertising program. While the changes keep Beacon in place, they seem to give Facebook users more opportunities to opt out of the program and to do so more easily. They also are giving users more opportunities to become more educated about exactly what Beacon is and how it works.

I still think the program is far too blatant an attempt to convert Facebook’s large membership into revenue via advertising. Clearly, access to millions of members is the reason social networks such as Facebook (and MySpace and YouTube) are valued at billions of dollars, but if your attempts to capitalize on your membership turn them off and cause them to defect to any one of hundreds of other social networks, then those attempts aren’t too effective, are they? Quoting one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies, Broadcast News: “I am beginning to repel people I am trying to seduce.”

It doesn’t take a genius network news producer like Holly Hunter’s character, Jane, to figure out that invading people’s privacy without their complete consent and control is repellent, not seductive.

Fellow social networking sites, take heed of Facebook’s big blunder and act accordingly.

To learn exactly what changes Facebook implemented, click the link above.

For a tutorial on how Beacon works, click here: http://www.facebook.com/beacon/faq.php