My third ever blog, August 2018, was headed "Facebook - An Omnipotent & Devious Priest"
It continued - "who takes confession from 2 billion users and sells their deep, dark secrets to the highest bidder." Courtesy of ex.Facebook Computer Scientist, Jaron Lanier.
They say that if you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.
Facebook, though, is still popular with the venerable, moribund sector that is estate agency.
Promoted by third-party services such as Property Webmasters that offer "dynamic, retargeting and prospecting Facebook adverts to help your agency achieve its goals."
Chris Kyriacou argues that estate agencies should have tracking pixels on their websites - the importance of which, he says, is that it is going to be collecting data for you. Facebook, he says, then already knows the people that are interested in your product - before you advertise to them.
Or, this from Nelly Berova at Art Division:
"Why Facebook is one of the best platforms for real estate."
I'd argue that Facebook is one of the worst platforms for real estate.
"The swamp of despair" as Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey, calls it.
Or, this from Wall Street analyst, Dan Ives - "Facebook has gone from a Ferrari in the fast lane to driving a minivan in the slow lane."
Nearly two decades after Mark Zuckerberg launched his social media empire, it has begun a slide towards irrelevance. Doesn't stop, though, those 3rd party digital marketing masterminds from promoting it.
TikTok, the rival platform, owned by Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance, is luring away millions of young users. And there seems to be nothing Facebook can do about it.
Their biggest concern, though, is a huge drop in advertising revenues, which has been exacerbated by Apple with introduction last year of its anti tracking software, App Tracking Transparency. A substantial hit since there are an estimated 1 billion iPhone users worldwide and 113 million in the USA alone. Most of whom do not want to be tracked by Facebook.
"If a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are no longer choices at all, then it.... deserves reform" - Tim Cook, CEO Apple.
There is an audible sucking sound of companies moving their ad spending to Apple and away from Facebook. The network effect compounds that move - why would any business advertise to a rapidly declining audience, especially if their competitors have already switched platforms?
Facebook won't disappear any time soon, but the question that needs to be asked is this: Are you happy that Facebook has an estimated 52,000 data points for every user? Facebook has algorithms that track what you like, watch and click on - and then passes that information on to its advertisers. Arguably the most complete profile of you that shows not only your behaviours on the site, but elsewhere in the online and offline worlds.
That's not the half of it.
Research shows that the number of malignant 'bots' on the web exceeds the number of genuine users. (source: Barracuda Networks). So there's a more than 50% chance that your advertising isn't going to be seen by a human being.
A 2008 study also found that 81% of people on dating sites lied, or misinterpreted themselves, in some way. I'm certain that isn't exclusive to the dating apps. Facebook, Instagram and TikTok won't be far behind when it comes to perfecting and polishing user profiles.
Who in the right mind, therefore, wants to advertise to people who aren't genuine?
Here's the paradox for realtors and estate agents.
They are more than happy for Facebook to have all that data on them; to build a complete profile and to sell that information to advertisers. Yet, they aren't prepared to allow potential clients even a glimpse of who they are and what they value. They are scared witless to embrace Personal Branding.
My heart bleeds for them.
What's the alternative?
I've said it so may times, but it bares repeating - Build A Media Company That YOU Own.
It's very low-cost to set-up; it's very effective and it puts you in control of your own destiny.
Blogs, podcasts, video, digital magazines are just the start. Building your audience that anticipates hearing from you. A local audience built on transparency and trust. An audience that you don't need to 'track' around the web - because you have a relationship that will stand the test of time.
Do away with your Facebook advertising - invest it in building your media company.
All you need social media for is to drive traffic back to the platform that you own.
Sorry (not really) that it had to end this way for Facebook, but uh, it is what it is. An omnipotent and devious Priest who takes your confession and sells it to the highest bidder.
Thanks for reading.
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