Technology and people have matured — but Facebook still has many problems with regard to its information architecture, usability, service and technology limitations — just like AOL did.
As a service that was designed to connect people – Facebook was never designed with distinct focus on businesses users, and what they require for success. While recent indications show they’re now considering these users, Facebook is now playing catch up.
Don’t get me wrong: There is a ton of promise in using Facebook for business, and am a strong Facebook advocate to my clients. What I tell them, however — and what they soon learn for themselves — is that being successful on Facebook requires incredible diligence and tenacity. Learning the ins and outs of Facebook and keeping up with the change is challenging. Many companies are surprised and unprepared for this. For example, consider just a few of these fundamental challenges:
1. Profiles, Pages & Administration
In its present model, Fan pages are permanently tied to the profile of the individual that creates them. Facebook’s current policy of demanding “legitimate” personal profiles tied to business is designed to make sure “real people” are running business pages. However, it’s current method not only fails to ensure all profiles are legitimate, it creates legal risk for companies that follow the Terms of Use, as follows:
When the person who creates the page for “Brand X” leaves the company – they cannot be removed as an administrator of the Fan Page. Furthermore, they remain the primary admin, retaining all administrative rights and privileges. This means Facebook administrators who have left your company can delete your Fan Page, add and remove administrators, and post actively as a representative of your brand. This cannot be remedied by anything other than deleting the Fan Page or an “Act of Facebook” — which requires getting a hold of a real person at Facebook, and some kind of miraculous support. To my knowledge, there is no way to migrate a Fan Page to another “parent” administrator in the event of an employee’s separation from a company.
This is a seriously big issue for businesses…but the way profiles and pages are created creates other challenges for Fan pages with multiple administrators:
Every ad created is exclusively tied to the creator’s personal profile — not the Fan page. This creates a fragmented view of ad performance, if multiple ads have been created by multiple administrators. To view results for an ad online, you must be logged in as the ad creator — one admin cannot view the performance of another admin’s ad reports. While performance reports and data can be exported — this requires manual effort — across multiple accounts.
This means each business must centrally administer all ads using a single User ID and Password. Frankly, this pretty much defeats the purpose of having multiple admins. It also means that, when an administrator is dropped from a Fan Page, the advertising performance data tied to their profile goes with them.
The multiple admin problem is also an issue with regard to communication and relationship buildilng. All Facebook Fan Page Admins are forced to post using the same name and brand avatar (which are associated with the Fan Page). This means individual administrators are not individually identifiable on Fan Pages. Facebook asserts brand personas over individual personas — but this actually works to limit dialog and impede relationship building between the people that represent a brand and the people interested in the brand. It’s impossible to tell which admin posted each message, making dialog more complicated – and accountability impossible. Facebook needs to remember that people want to engage in discussion with other HUMAN BEINGS — not necessarily a logo — on Fan Pages.
2. Statistics & Measurement
The introduction of Facebook Insights is useful, because business users can now pull basic statistics. However, you cannot effectively drill down or extrapolate averages at a high level without busting out a calculator or exporting the data and doing the analysis yourself. In addition, it’s not easy to compare data sets to determine cause and effect. For example, it’s hard to compare trends on comments and unsubscribes against post dates.
The analytics can also be visually frustrating for some users, as well... A 40 year old client once remarked that the Facebook Insights charts were designed by 20 year old programmers: That is, they can be hard to read or understand for some users. The charts also lacking visual cues, labels and interactive functions that could make the data easier to understand.
It’s also very difficult to compare data related to ads and page activity. This is compounded by ad ownership being tied to profiles, while Insights are tied to Fan Pages. The only way to compare ad activity with page traffic is to toggle between the ad administrator and insights pages and re-drill through the hierarchy. This is exceedingly cumbersome and makes it very difficult to determine cause and effect. In short, it creates more work for the business — which is something nobody needs.
In the day and age of Google Analytics, people have a hard time understanding why there should be a high barrier to calculating weekly, bi-weekly and 30, 60, 90, quarterly and annual data. Good analytics packages make it easy to show cause and effect, trends and averages. This should matter to Facebook because the quick ability to see cause and effect, lift and results helps businesses better utilize facebook as a dynamic marketing and relationship building tool. That drives activity, engagement and revenue.
3. Advertising & Promotion
On the surface, Facebook advertising is very easy. However, anyone that has engaged in a significant amount of online advertising with Facebook — especially a small business — will complain about the limitations that plague the setup of ads. This is largely associated with the poor connection between profiles, pages, events and ads that plague other aspects of the experience.
For example, if you want to create an ad for a Fan Page, the title must be the title of the Fan Page. For example, Rug & Relic can’t create an ad pointing to their Fan Page called “Pottery Sale Thursday.” Instead they must create an Event Page for the sale, and point the ad to the Event Page. The problem with this is that this also creates more work for the business user, who must do more work to create an event page that intuitively ties the sale event to the Rug & Relic Brand (which takes some work) Being able to launch an ad with a custom title and link it to the Fan Page — where it is promoted it from the Wall where interaction is present and becoming a fan is easy is something brands want.
Furthermore, the practices for marketing on Facebook are constantly shifting. First, they encouraged Brands to dump Group pages and create Fan Pages. Then, they split news feeds and notifications on the home page and started using algorithms to push notifications to users, and changed how updates are communicated through Facebook email. This shifted – and limited – how Brands could communicate to Fans. Very recently, new restrictions and limitations on advertising and promotion on Facebook were introduced. These present a very strong disadvantage – especially to smaller businesses and those with insufficient budget to retain their own Facebook Sales Representatives. Both Ikea and Gillette were both recently dinged for marketing in a manner that violates these new policies. Facebooker beware: You may be on the brink of violation, as well. You can read more about these policies here (thanks to Inside Facebook).
These are just a FEW of the many hurdles on Facebook that create higher barriers to participation — and negatively impact customer experience, interaction and revenue. The features aren’t terrible — they are immature. For those of us who were in the trenches with AOL — this is Deja Vu all over again. While the problems Facebook and AOL encounter are very different, the challenges of serving businesses users in a new channel are very much the same.
So what?
The fact is, today, MOST businesses are creating their own success on Facebook with very little support. It’s not always easy, and only the tenacious – or the ones with good agencies can keep up. Unfortunately, it seems that unless you spend $10k per month to work with your own Facebook Sales Rep (an anecdotal figure provided by a friend with an inside view), you may be treated like the proverbial ugly, red-headed step child…forced to rely on Facebook help and a prayer to resolve your marketing challenges.
I’m afraid that’s not going to work in the long-term for the majority of businesses who don’t have $120k a year to drop on Facebook marketing. Furthermore — I’m really not sure that, in the long run, that businesses will continue to pay for the frustration. I’ve talked to two Facebook admins for rather large brands that are already burned out on it.
As a Digital Media consultant and customer experience veteran, I often ask my companies this: Why be a necessary evil, when you can be intentionally good?
My hope is that the team at Facebook will come up with a more effective (and functional) tiered service solution for businesses who want to use Facebook. This tiered approach would package service, functionality and promotional capabilities for various types of users in a highly understandable, accessible way. Think: FREE, SILVER, GOLD and PLATINUM users — easy to engage based on unique needs, budget and goals. This would also require a reworking of the code, structure and experience that now connects profiles, pages, ads, events, etc.and demand the provision of appropriate levels of support for various business participants who are paying to market themselves on Facebook.
If developers — or investors for that matter — are allowed to create policies that damage the user experience, it will undermine the opportunity Facebook now has. However, if the team at Facebook can concentrate efforts on creating a more consistent, pleasing and positive user experience for both every day people and businesses they serve, it can bolster Facebook’s position.
This doesn’t mean Facebook has to be perfect — people are very understanding. It does mean Facebook should be a bit very careful to weigh the cumulative impact of iterative changes and releases on each audience. It means that Facebook may need to behave in a more humble manner, owning up to its shortcomings (including but not limited to the ones highlighted above) and proactively responding by making value-driven, iterative improvements. It’s my assertion that when this happens, there will be a very natural transition from this FREE for all model to more lucrative FEE-BASED model. That will make everyone — including the investors, pretty happy.
Of course, I also hope that, unlike AOL, Facebook will never stop adapting the business in pace with technological change, adoption and usage patterns. I do think they’ve got a jump on AOL on that front — but that’s another topic for another day.
What do you think? Please weigh in.

Several weeks ago, two 12×12 paintings by Chris Vance were stolen from a gallery wall and replaced with an item from another section of the gallery. The theft went unnoticed for three days, as the team was in the process of remerchandising art and other product, at the time. When the owners realized the theft had occurred, the police were called, and a report was issued.
Unfortunately, there was little to go on. The theft was smoothly executed and likely, the work of people who knew the gallery well. There was no video surveillance (although there soon will be) and few physical clues that would aid the police in finding the thieves who stole the diptych affectionately known as “Bubble Boy.”
The social media APB was issued to spread the news about the theft and thwart the rapid sale of the stolen art. However, Gallery Owners, Steve and Tove Bormes were entirely unprepared for the groundswell of support they received. The gallery’s relatively large fan base spread the news of the theft actively. Within hours, the gallery was contacted by the media and news quickly spread over the week from the online arena to print and televised local news . The story soon hit national news via the Associated Press, appearing in the Chicago tribune and other outlets. The owners admit to seeing both negative and positive sides of the attention:
On the down side, one critic accused the gallery of faking the theft in the interest of self-promotion. “That stung a little” said Tove Bormes “Fortunately, everyone who knows us understands that’s not something we’d do — nor are we sophisticated enough about PR or social media to pull it off.” Another friend who was eager to help, established Twitter and Facebook fan pages for Bubble Boy under the name “Chico Buburja” (Spanish for Bubble Boy). Overnight, the Facebook profile garnered 115 fans and the Twitter account garnered a number of Re-tweets. While the action was well intended, The Bormes’ encourage people to follow news on Bubble Boy on their official Rug & Relic page on Facebook and @rugandrelic on Twitter.
On the up-side, beyond the rapid spread of the news across media venues, he owners received an outpouring of support and encouragement from a growing network of fans and friends. One local restaurateur offered a reward for the recovery of the painting. Several interested buyers expressed interest in purchasing the paintings upon recovery. Inspired by this outpouring, the Bormes’ decided that rather than profiting from the recovery of the painting, they would auction the painting to the highest bidder and donate the proceeds to the Arts Council.
But perhaps the most interesting response was a tip sent by a Facebook user, which led to the likely identification of the thieves. The tipster offered a compelling story and named a perpetrator. The owners immediately recognized the individual as not only a regular Gallery visitor, but a Facebook “friend”! The plot thickened as the team immediately checked out the accused’s photos on Facebook. His galleries included numerous photos of a second individual who was also immediately recognized as having visted the gallery on a Saturday in question. The owner recalls the man as acting strangely, wearing a large coat (in 80 degree weather) and lingering near the position of the paintings. When approached for assistance, he responded nervously and left the store soon after.
Based on the events at the gallery that day, the Bormes’ were thoroughly convinced of the identity of at least one of the thieves. Police are now questioning this suspect and continuing their investigation. While the jury is still out on the outcome, we’re interested to know what you would do in a similar situation. How would you approach getting legal and/or “social justice”. Would you:

• Leave the whole thing to the police?
• Confront the alleged criminals in person?
• Confront the alleged criminal(s) online with a carefully worded Facebook note saying “We know it was you. Return it by Tuesday or face the consequences.”
• Publicly “oust” the accused criminal(s) within the social media network and wait for response?
• “Sick the social media crowd” on the perpetrators, asking them to blast facebook pages, linked in and other sites until the paintings were returned?
• Send a friend (preferably a very big, hairy, tattooed and mean friend) to “encourage” the return of the stolen merchandise?
• Send a mutual friend to gain access to the criminal’s property to search for the items
• Visit the thief’s house yourself and attempt to gain access to the item?
• Something else?

All of these have potentially tricky ramifications…. but it’d be especially important not to act too hastily or position yourself — or your company — in a position of libel.
While hope lingers that the accused will be brought to justice, the overwhelming response from the gallery’s social media network has made a lingering impression on the owners and staff at Rug & Relic, to say the least. The company’s new website and blog have not yet launched, but according to Tove Bormes “The way Facebook and Twitter have helped move the case forward have blown me away. I have a newfound respect for the power of social media and our network.” Bormes remarked, ” It’s like we suddenly have thousands of detectives …. and new friends …. searching for us, and giving moral support in the loss. The tip identifying the probably thieves was the biggest thing to come out of this, obviously. But I’ve also been amazed at the many messages of condolence we’ve received from total strangers — people who’ve never visited our gallery. Photos of the painting have been reposted in major cities all over the country. While it’s not very likely these people thought the paintings would turn up in their respective cities – the moral support, and our network’s quest for justice goes a long way towards assuaging some of the anger and sense of violation we feel. Who knows? It may eventually bring the painting back to us, too.”
In the end, for Rug & Relic (and their network of fans) – this is all a matter of principal. As Tove Bormes expresses it, “Stealing is bad enough. Stealing art is, somehow, so much worse. As one of our Facebook fans put it, ‘stolen art–stolen heart.‘” She continued to underscore their position “This isn’t about the money. The loss was not a devastating one, at least financially. But there is a certain sense of violation that we would like to dispel. Our hope is, our Facebook friends, and their extended networks, can bring this art piece – along with our peace of mind, back to us.”
Please weigh in with your comments, ideas and thoughts.

How do these programs take into consideration longer-term customer behavior, patterns, and brand interaction in a market where acquisition is costly and retention is essential? Is it time for change?
Here’s what got me thinking: After almost six years of being on the road full-time, I entered into a reduced travel cocoon in order to focus on my personal life. I transitioned from almost weekly business travel to making trips every 6-10 weeks. Therefore, I wasn’t particularly surprised, two years later, to find that my hard-earned status with almost every major air carrier and hotel chain had expired.
I tried not to think about the years I spent in hotels and the months I spent in the air, as I anticipated this new reality. I emerged from my cocoon and began to travel again and naturally obtained fewer “free” perks and upgrades. Hitting the road as “every day Jill” was great on some levels, because it allowed me to shed my status and (at least in part) experience travel from a different perspective. This has prompted me to question many things: from what the baseline experience “should” be in the air and on the ground, and how the airlines and hospitality industry view customer loyalty as a whole.

Focusing on Frequent Travelers. For the airlines, frequent fliers with “premium” levels of status represent a small percent of total customer base. However, they contribute the most in revenue …. hands down. In fact, according one major (anonymous) airline, frequent flyers with “premium” status are worth eight times more than flyers without status. I understand that to a large extent these dynamics apply to frequent travelers in the hospitality industry as well. As such, investing in the retention of frequent travelers is where these companies get the most bang for their buck.
Differentiation in loyalty programs. We know that over time, experiences can become commodities. This is true also for loyalty programs for the major hotels and air carriers, where there is currently little differentiation between programs. As points, miles and pre-boarding have become commodities, many major airlines, like United, have launched new “products” tied to premium seating (read: legroom at front of plane). Passengers with status are given automatic upgrades to premium seating based on availability. Other passengers may purchase upgrades to premium seating for an additional fee. It is significant to note, however, that we are beginning to see seating as a commodity, as well. Airlines like Jet Blue boast more legroom for everyone. Beyond the airlines, hotels like the Holiday Inn Express, offer “perks” like continental breakfast free to all hotel guests.
As benefits become commodities, the next question is, “How can hotel and air carriers capture the affinity of increasingly “flighty” customers?” Perhaps the next field for differentiation will focus on Customer Lifetime Value.
It is only logical that customer patterns do not always play out neatly within the constraints of an organization’s “calendar year. Beyond this, research shows that customers who travel frequently are known to take periodic “breaks” from travel. Therefore, why wouldn’t it be logical for companies to build mechanisms in to the customer experience that respond to such trends and usage patterns?
For example, if at mid-year, a customer commences full-time travel, perhaps it would be logical for an airline or hotel to recognize this pattern and leverage an offer that will help “capture” as much of that customer’s travel business as possible.
Sadly, the fact remains that with most major airlines and hotels, unless a customer accumulates a ridiculous number of points beyond the calendar year, s/he runs the risk of a status downgrade at the turn of the calendar year. From a business and cost management perspective, this may be necessary at some level. However, on a psychological level, what this may communicate to an otherwise “loyal” customer is,
“Sorry. We only care about what you’ve done for us lately.”
Should you say this to a frequent traveler who has slept in one of your properties for over one year? Should you say this to a customer who has chosen your airline consistently for a decade of travel? The seasoned road warrior doesn’t need a study to tell us that this type treatment may feel slightly punitive in a manner that goes far beyond the color of the membership card.
Unfortunately, most travel and hospitality loyalty programs fail to take the natural patterns of people into consideration. Beyond this, it isn’t evident that these companies actually forecast customer lifetime value or take into consideration a value a customer’s accrued value in the establishment of loyalty programs. Unless of course, those customers accrue an incredibly high number of points….
Of course, there are some exceptions. I have to give props to Northwest Airlines and Starwood Hotels Last year, both offered to extend my hard-earned status for a year in exchange for a single flight or stay within a specified period of time. In doing so, these brands behaved as customer advocates …. doing what was right for me …. and not just what was right for the “business.” The emotional impact of the approach cannot be understated, and I did attempt to retain my status as a result. These relationship tactics made me feel appreciated and made me want to be more loyal to both companies in return.
Beyond rewarding “loyal” customers, hospitality and air travel industries will need to focus on two things in the future.

1. Offering a baseline experience that fosters repeat usage (on time delivery, guaranteed reservations, legroom, food)
2. Developing loyalty schemas that reward both short and long-term customer loyalty in a meaningful way

In the mean time, something is better than nothing. I still have some status, and I still have my points. Ultimately, the challenge remains, (especially in this tight economy) that as companies have less to give away, they must focus on rewarding “loyal customers.” Moving beyond the narrow view of a customer’s true value and taking a more comprehensive approach to follow lifecycle trends and CLV will play an important role in the evolution of the next-generation of customer loyalty programs.

I’m not providing specific names to avoid getting anyone in trouble. Nevetheless, what happened does this illustrate the power of social media and community and surface some issues related to privacy and social media.
The nutshell version of what transpired is this:

A fellow Plurker (we’ll call her “Freaking Out“) was, evidently being bothered by another individual (evidently another Plurker) we’ll call “Creepy Harasser” for a period of one month.

Evidently, Creepy Harasser had obtained the individual’s home phone number using basic details found in Freaking Out’s Plurk profile. He then used a cell phone to call this person every few days for over a month.

A “friend” of Freaking Out (we’ll call him “Helpful“) posted a well-intentioned Plurk alerting others about the harassment situation. Helpful asked for practical suggestions on what the Freaking Out could do to stop Creepy Harasser. Helpful also publicly listed the offender’s cell phone number for all to see. (Evidently, Creepy was not so smart related to caller ID.)

Fellow Plurkers were angered and apalled, and the Plurkstream filled quickly with a flurry of comments – from “call the Po Po” to suggestions on how fellow Plurkers could impose their own justice on Creepy Harasser.
This is where things got interesting!

It was not long before this story motivated one fellow Plurker, we’ll call him “Justice” to call Creepy Harasser, himself. As he did, Justice narrated his actions in real-time within the Plurkstream. He repeatedly prank called the guy… making obscene comments until Creepy stopped answering the phone. After this, Justice began filling up Creepy’s voicemail with terribly bad You Tube video music.
(I found this all a bit over the top, but I must admit I laughed pretty hard watching all this)

Other Plurkers cheered from the Plurkstream sidelines. Quickly, more Plurkers either joined in, promising to prank Creepy – even those from outside the U.S! The Plurkstream was full of punitive suggestions, such as signing Creepy up for spam text, ring tones and more.
As time progressed, things gradually fizzled out … and while I’ve asked “Helper” for an update I don’t know if the reverse harassment resolved the stalking problem, or not!

Let me be clear that I’m not an advocate of harassment of any kind… and I did not join in. I don’t know if the factual details behind the harassment are accurate. I know the person who posted the information was merely looking for recommendations to help his friend. I don’t know “Freaked Out”… or “Creepy Harasser,” or “Justice.”
That being said – the sense of camaraderie combined with the sheer outrage and backlash from the fine people of Plurkopolis was pretty impressive! I’d go so far as to assert that this type of backlash might take care of a creep even more quickly than taking action with his cell phone company or calling the police would (especially if the offender was out of state or out of the country)!
The message on Plurk was clear: “Don’t mess with Plurkistan!”
Even so, while part of me took comfort in the “protective behavior” of the crowd– I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if the same angry mob had its facts wrong, or were mislead in some way. I thought about how easily it would be for many well-intentioned, and well networked people to be led astray — quickly. We know from history this can happen…and with new social media tools, it can happen faster now than ever before.
How easily could one person trigger the harassment of an innocent person or people? Take it to another level and how could the rumor mill impact companies, brands, stock market behavior…. as news spreads faster and faster through social media channels?
Thinking through this at another level, this incidence also forced me to ask myself well I know all the people we “friend” or “follow” online? With the answer to this, I also had to ask my often over-sharing self, how much personal information I should I really share in this new world where “friend” is a verb – but not necessarily a state of being anymore.
The reality of that makes me bit more sober about my own participation in social media. In the long run, I’m sure we’re not done hearing stories like this one. Just it might interest you and offer some food for thought!

My husband decided to take a road trip with our 17-year-old this summer. With gas at a national average of $4.10 a gallon, our SUV with a V8 engine would prove to be far from economical to drive. Our pickup truck would be equally fuel efficient and even less comfortable. Our ‘67 Camaro Pro Street Racecar with 750 horsepower wasn’t a practical option (although they would have gotten there fast!). Finally, our daughter’s car, while very fuel efficient, was probably not reliable enough for a hot, 14-hour journey.
So! We decided to rent a car with better fuel economy. Based on our calculations, even with the cost of the rental we’d save $150 in gas – a respectable amount. Since my hubby loves a road trip–he reserved a mid-sized sedan with 35-40 MPG and cruise control from Enterprise Rental Car several weeks in advance.
When my husband went to pick it up Thursday morning, the smiling attendant apologetically told him they were out of the car he’d reserved and handed him the keys to another car in the same “rental class.” Evidently, this was one tiny car– complete with 13-inch tires, no CD player and no cruise control. While it was fuel efficient, my husband stands over six feet and more than 250 lbs– so he was not happy with the tiny, gutless, box on wheels…especially for a 14-hour journey. He handed them back the keys and asked them what they could do for him.
The Enterprise people were very kind, offering him a complimentary “upgrade”– to a lovely SUV. He explained that he already owned an SUV — and had rented the sedan for the fuel economy. The representatives were perplexed. Evidently no one had turned down an “upgrade” before. After looking around a bit, they found a suitable sedan at another location …. only without cruise control – and offered to drive him out to pick it up.
It wasn’t a big deal. He and our daughter were on the road within a few short hours– However, as they left in the dark blue sedan, this incident got me thinking…
As a road warrior, in the past, I always wanted the upgrade–to the convertible, the SUV– anything but the car I’d reserved, usually! Today, however, I might think a bit more practically when offered the “upgrade”– especially if the expenditure isn’t a tax writeoff…
As for tomorrow? It is likely that we’ll be looking at an entirely different ballgame. Pundits predict the price of gas will escalate to $6 – $7 per gallon as early as this fall– a number that makes even me queasy and I don’t have a work commute…
This isn’t just about rental cars… it’s about everything. Fuel prices and food shortages are going to impact the price of everything else– and as this hits our wallets, we’re going to see more changes in every day consumer spending…. and in our perceptions of “value.”
Just last night, we went to get ice cream and saw an apologetic, hand-written note about price increases on the drive-through sign. This is happening everywhere — in nickels, dimes, and dollars — but it all adds up. While it may take longer to hit the thicker wallet, signs say it will impact most of us at some point.
As a result of these economic changes, the everyday consumer’s perceptions of value are likely to shift and change. What we have justified as “need” at yesterday’s price, just may become a luxury tomorrow.
An $6 per day Starbucks habit may dissolve against costs like $500 per month for gas, $400 per month for heating and $4 per pound for chicken breast. Unfortunately, as far as Starbucks goes, developing an active customer listening website or an extensive program to retrain baristas my not help the company with this reality, as evidenced by the recent closure of 600 stores.
And Starbucks, which I love, is just an example of one company getting hit by a changing economy.
The point is this: As business owners and marketers we can stick our heads in the sand– or we can think practically about how we’re going to address consumers in this new economy. We need to consider new dimensions of “value” that will shape customer behavior. We need to develop plans that address: