Word on the street is that Facebook is launching a new feature where in addition to tagging your friends in photos online, you will also be able to tag pages that have a fan page. My first thought is that Facebook will now become the interactive “Where’s Waldo” of spotting brands.
This new feature is obviously aimed towards attracting brands with a social media presence, but will it really benefit them? Smaller companies can reap the benefits of loyal customers doing free publicity work for them. On the other hand, I don’t think large brands like Coke will have an advantage at all.
From a solely social Facebook user’s perspective, I can see this feature becoming quite an annoyance as my News Feed turns into a list of advertisements. We are exposed to approximately 3000 advertisements for brands every day. I could care less about about what soft drink or cell phone my friend from high school who I never talk to is using. But you tell me fellow PRer’s, what are your thoughts?
Strategically Communicating 
I agree that after a while people will just end up ignoring this aspect of Facebook. It may seem cool and innovative but I think it is just clutter. People don’t really use Facebook to see what brands people are using. It kind of seems like an invasion of privacy and back to the creepiness we talked about earlier in the term. It is scary the things that technology can do and what it can learn from our so-called “private” social lives.
By: Dana Nicholson on May 23, 2011
at 1:06 am
I was thinking about this the other day when I was looking at pictures of my friends that go to Whitman. Their friends were wearing the cutest dresses, and all I wanted was to know where they bought them. As I considered commenting on the photo I realized how creepy that was. However, I think it would be one more thing to make my newsfeed that much crazier. Facebook is great, but it has become so crowded with friends posts, status, picture updates, and adding brands to a picture is just one more things to crowd my Facebook network.
By: hannakd on May 23, 2011
at 4:19 am