Facebook knows you’re gay before you do
americablog.com
Facebook knows you’re gay before you do
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Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do
#2I remember a while back that Target had to back of a similar approach when it began sending out coupons to women that they suspected (w/ apparently a high degree of accuracy) were pregnant. The main anecdote was about a father who found out his daughter was pregnant because they started to receive the coupons. Target eventually backed off this approach (at least for newly pregnant women) because many of their customers complained that the marketing campaign was creepy.
Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do
#3Can they predict how long before I finally am off the Facebook platform?
Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do
#4It's been about a year since I placed a FB ad but I was under the impression that whomever is placing the ad targets an audience not FB itself. If that is still correct then whoever was placing the "coming out" ad was acting more like an observant bartender mentioned in the article rather than an intelligent algorithm.
Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do
#5I remember a while back that Target had to back of a similar approach when it began sending out coupons to women that they suspected (w/ apparently a high degree of accuracy) were pregnant. The main anecdote was about a father who found out his daughter was pregnant because they started to receive the coupons. Target eventually backed off this approach (at least for newly pregnant women) because many of their custome…
I don't think they stopped it. Just adjusted it so the offers we're alongside random stuff (eg discounts on lawn mowers). That way people wouldn't freak out (presumably because they didn't know how much the company really knew about them)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.h...
Edit: Worth posting the whole quote (just found it).
“With the pregnancy products, though, we learned that some women react badly,” the executive said. “Then we started mixing in all these ads for things we knew pregnant women would never buy, so the baby ads looked random. We’d put an ad for a lawn mower next to diapers. We’d put a coupon for wineglasses next to infant clothes. That way, it looked like all the products were chosen by chance.
“And we found out that as long as a pregnant woman thinks she hasn’t been spied on, she’ll use the coupons. She just assumes that everyone else on her block got the same mailer for diapers and cribs. As long as we don’t spook her, it works.”
Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do
#6I remember a while back that Target had to back of a similar approach when it began sending out coupons to women that they suspected (w/ apparently a high degree of accuracy) were pregnant. The main anecdote was about a father who found out his daughter was pregnant because they started to receive the coupons. Target eventually backed off this approach (at least for newly pregnant women) because many of their custome…
I don't think they stopped it. Just adjusted it so the offers we're alongside random stuff (eg discounts on lawn mowers). That way people wouldn't freak out (presumably because they didn't know how much the company really knew about them) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.h... Edit: Worth posting the whole quote (just found it). “With the pregnancy products, though, we learned that some women…
Right (I forgot,) thanks for the link.
Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do
#7Can they predict how long before I finally am off the Facebook platform?
Almost certainly. I wonder what their churn management interventions are.
Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do
#8Can they predict how long before I finally am off the Facebook platform?
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Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do
#9The "Like" button is tracking users all over the web. Isn't it possible that their algorithms are correlating patterns in his web history for ad placement on FB too?
Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do
#10I remember a while back that Target had to back of a similar approach when it began sending out coupons to women that they suspected (w/ apparently a high degree of accuracy) were pregnant. The main anecdote was about a father who found out his daughter was pregnant because they started to receive the coupons. Target eventually backed off this approach (at least for newly pregnant women) because many of their custome…
Personalization feels like the SEO of 2013. In general, personalization is very hard in terms of "what customer wants" -- look at Amazon's "products for you." In the case of Facebook, this feels like an association algorithm based on affinity rather than personalization the way Target was doing it.
Here's a link to the Target story: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-targe...