It’s difficult to ignore Facebook. It’s the most trafficked website online and there’s a good chance that you use it even if to a limited degree. But is your site integrated with Facebook?
Facebook integration is easy to latch onto. Who wouldn’t want to be integrated with the most trafficked website online? A lot of people, actually.
When 42% of people using (or not using) a particular Web property express concerns over privacy, it should stop and make you think. No website has come under so much scrutiny over privacy issues as Facebook. It’s been criticized from every corner of the Web. And if your website is integrated with Facebook, then this should be of concern to you.
On the one hand, the benefits of Facebook integration cannot be denied. You are effectively given access to its billions of users worldwide. More realistically, you have access to every Facebook user interested in your niche. What percentage of them care about privacy?
Facebook integration becomes a major issue when you know how your customers feel about privacy, and about Facebook privacy in particular. If enough people refuse to interact with your site because of privacy concerns, then Facebook integration could work against you. This is one area where a little market research can go a long way. Do you know your customers that well?
Facebook has officially announced that it has changed its privacy protections for users. Specifically, the changes indicated will
(Source)
- Provide one click blocking of third party sites
- Give users one click blocking options regarding Facebook applications
- Make it simpler to customize your profile’s privacy settings
While the jury is still out on whether or not these changes will be effective in giving users the privacy they want, from the face of it there could be a slight hindrance to marketing through Facebook. The question is, by how much?
And the answer is, no one knows. Not yet.
But if users can block third party sites more easily then your marketing efforts through Facebook could be hampered to a degree. If users can block your applications more easily then that could hamper your marketing to a degree as well. Now it’s up to you to figure out how you will navigate those hurdles.
The only sure way to overcome these types of user-control hurdles is to build trust your brand. If users trust you then they will recommend you to their friends. If they trust their friends then you’re in like Flynn. That’s not really any different than it has been in the past. The only real difference is you’ll have to work harder to build that trust. Are you up to the task?
The Web is atwitter today with talk of Facebook’s potential network and its Like feature. The focus is on Facebook’s privacy settings. By allowing publishers Web-wide to mine data about Facebook users through a Like button on their site, Facebook could use that information to target advertising on its own website. But that Like button could be more important than anyone realizes. It can be important for web design.
Issues that web designers will have to consider when building their website will include:
- Whether or not Facebook’s Like button is necessary.
- Where on each page of the site the Like button should be displayed.
It’s a no-brainer, of course. If Facebook is the most trafficked website on the Web then most webmasters are going to consider putting the Like button on their site, but is that going to be a good idea? You might find that consumers will not Like your content if they think that it will reveal something about themselves that they don’t want potential employers, college admissions counselors or someone else knowing. That Like button could then be a pariah.
It will be interesting to see how the Facebook privacy controversy plays out. It will be more interesting to see how it affects web design.
