I’ll admit, I’m completely schizophrenic when it comes to social media.
In most ways, social media is all about being connected. Like any new communications medium, I first approached Facebook with my share of skepticism. Why did I need to write on someone’s Facebook wall when I could just IM them or send them an email? Isn’t that pretty much the same thing? We all said the same thing about text messages before they went mainstream on cellular phones.
So from a personal perspective, I love social meda. But from a business perspective, I hate it. The create-a-critical-mass-of-users-and-serve-them-advertisements business model doesn’t work for the new social.
The model works for Google because Google is an intermediary, not a final destination. When I go to Google, my end goal is to end up somewhere else. If that means that an advertisement is most relevant place I discover I want to go, then great.
But when I go to Facebook, that is my final destination. Facebook is not an intermediary the way Google is. I go to Facebook because I’m looking for exactly what Facebook has to offer, that is, information on what is going on in my friends’ lives.
The supposed saving grace for social media is behavioral targeting. That is, allowing advertisers to target advertisements to users based on what the users themselves say they like. So if I say I like Arrested Development in my Facebook profile, advertisers could target related ads to me trying to sell Arrested Development DVDs or t-shirts or whatever.
However, a significant difference between behavioral targeting (a la Facebook) and search-based targeting (a la Google) still remains. That difference is intent. If I have an intent to find something, I am much more likely to embrace an advertisement than if I do not have an intent. Just because you know I like something, doesn’t mean I’m looking to purchase that thing. If I am actively searching for information on that thing, however, I would be much more likely to purchase that thing.
The prevailing mindset seems to be that behavioral targeting holds more promise than search-based targeting. This is an erroneous mentality. I’d rather advertise to a user based on their search query than on their behavioral profile any day of the week. Especially as users increasingly use the Internet on the go and in mobile situation, marketing based on intent will be much more successful than marketing based on behavioral targeting.
So what’s the answer? Combine the two. Make web search more prominent on social media sites. Don’t be afraid that this means people will continually be leaving your site as they conduct searches. That happens for nearly every single query on Google and they’re doing pretty good right now. Incorporate the behavioral information from a user’s social media profile into the personalized search algorithm. Leverage both the search and behavioral targeting information for organic and paid results. This will make your social networking aspects more reminiscent of the portals of the 90s, but users will be more engaged because they are communicating with people they know. Google tried to move in to social networking unsuccessfully. Facebook and MySpace would have a much easier time incorporating web search through partnership. It’s good for all parties. Users get top quality web search and more relevant results by only having to go to one single site. Search engines get to cash in on the treasure trove of behavioral information locked in social media profiles. Social media sites get a cut of search ad revenue to bolster their bottom line.
