BUZZ NEWS

Facebook’s Instant Market Research Tool

Posted on February 2, 2009
Jessica Hartstein

As you probably know, Facebook was once valued at billions of dollars, much to the dismay of most people who have actually taken two seconds to ask “why?” and then waited another ten in silence, not having gotten an answer. Facebook has made several attempts to monetize its social network, but none has proven its “worth.” Its partnership with Beacon was such a failure that it angered members and eventually caused Facebook to pull the plug on the initiative, which informed users what products their friends had bought on online shopping sites like Amazon.com. Talk about TMI!

Last Friday, the World Economic Forum held its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The meeting brings together political leaders from around the world, intellectuals, business leaders, and journalists to talk about the world’s most pressing issues.

On my list of the world’s most pressing issues, I’m pretty sure that social network marketing potential would not make the cut. However, the Facebook team presented a new tool at the forum and discussed the incredible marketing opportunities companies could find with the “serious and insightful” Facebook community. Its new tool allows Facebook (or brands) to poll users and get instant feedback. The tool would allow companies to target people based on all the personal information Facebook has of its members. According to a The Telegraph article, Facebook claims this could replace today’s timely and costly focus groups and give companies a much wider and faster alternative.

As of now, there has been no announcement as to if or when this Facebook tool will be offered to companies in search of market research. It certainly could prove to be an excellent way for Facebook to monetize its social network. But, we have to wonder whether Facebook users will really be supportive of such an initiative. Would the companies doing the research be offering any sort of compensation to the users? Would there be a limit as to how many times in a week a single person could be contacted for market research? How much time would each poll take? How obtrusive would the polls be in the Facebook interface? Time and Facebook will tell. Stay tuned…