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What Mark Cuban Really Thinks About Facebook

blogmaverick.com

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Re: What Mark Cuban Really Thinks About Facebook

#2

Post by gfodor »

One has to assume Facebook (the company) has thought of these questions, and as usual, decided to see what Facebook (the site) thought about it. While Facebook has a history of trying to force things onto new users, they're also a data-driven company, so if things are not working, they are going to back out. I don't think Facebook risks hurting itself, since it can see itself doing so by measuring the effects of the changes they make. What Facebook risks is someone else replacing them or popular culture moving on to the next thing, which is outside of their control.

Re: What Mark Cuban Really Thinks About Facebook

#4

Post by jjb123 »

>Doesn’t FB realize that is far easier for a user to opt-out of a feed by unliking a brand/person/page that has done a poor job of communication than it is to mess with all the account settings or for them to try to tweak their algorithm all the time to try to guess what people want?

Cuban's doubts of the efficacy of edgerank (or perhaps his doubts stemming from not knowing the purpose of edgerank) comes from him not really knowing facebook from the perspective of a consumer/user and only knowing it primarily as a broadcast tool (I've seen his posts - he's only there to broadcast). But before, I defend edgerank/facebook on this, it should be acknowledged that this guy and many like him (broadcaster for their brands) are the ones that pay the bills - and it will be interesting to see who Facebook begins to cater more to over the next few years... because advertisers' and users' interests, despite what facebook wants us to believe, will likely always be at odds with each other.

Re: What Mark Cuban Really Thinks About Facebook

#5

Post by hayksaakian »

Facebook is fully entitled to enforce edgerank. People consume content differently on FB than say twitter. Since twitter is more of a firehouse, its OK to simply sort by date since newness has much more value in that ecosystem. This is socially acknowledged given that tweets are firstly public. In contrast Facebook presents itself as a local social network. As such, your relationships on FB carry more weight. Social pressure nudges us to 'friend' mere acquaintances and 'like' things that are mildly amusing. You're expected to acknowledge important news in your social circles. Edgerank reinforces this behavior. If something is deemed 'like'able by your 'friends' you're encouraged to also like it, both by the algorithm and social influences, thus perpetuating the cycle to your own network.

Brands don't fit into this picture. You don't 'like' a picture of coca cola from a crazy party at mcdonalds' house. Your interactions on the comments of posts by a brand are probably one way, and with predominantly strangers. The rest of your personal network is unrelated.

Thus, sponsored posts work against edge rank. There are two big examples of sponsored posts. First is say, promoting a personal story or life event (it's a boy!). Second is corporate to consumer say, Best Buy is having a huge sale on something. In the first case if a story is truly important it would have been picked up by the algorithm and social forces alike. In the second, most people don't believe corporations are people, and their social interactions with them are typically unwelcome to their personal network. There's no social pressure to like a picture of Jones soda's new flavor as opposed to Jenny's new baby.

All in all, I think mark is right for the wrong reasons. FB's business model runs counter to its primary product offering. They're still experimenting and I hope they end up with something that makes sense to a social network.

Re: What Mark Cuban Really Thinks About Facebook

#6

Post by guelo »

Its been several years since FB changed the default sort order from 'Recent' to 'Top'. They made the change gently, first letting angry users change the default back to 'Recent'. In typical FB fashion the setting would randomly switch back to 'Top' if you weren't vigilant, and then after a while after angry users got tired of fighting it and others forgot how it used to be they took the setting away.

My point being that this has been in the works for a long time and is part of their long term strategy. They will continue to tweak their algorithm causing the occasional outrage, backing off, then coming back even more forcefully.

Remember, Zuck has stated that his mission is to train people how to share their info publicly. Expect that "training" to continue, including for advertisers.

Re: What Mark Cuban Really Thinks About Facebook

#7

Post by Swizec »

hayksaakian wrote: post #5

Facebook is fully entitled to enforce edgerank. People consume content differently on FB than say twitter. Since twitter is more of a firehouse, its OK to simply sort by date since newness has much more value in that ecosystem. This is socially acknowledged given that tweets are firstly public. In contrast Facebook presents itself as a local social network. As such, your relationships on FB carry more weight. Social…

The situation changes when a lot of your friends are from the startup ecosystem.

Suddenly that new product launch is as important as a new baby. And that new feature is something you're expected to like etc. etc.

How does that fit? They usually still advertise these things through a "corporate" page ...

Re: What Mark Cuban Really Thinks About Facebook

#9

Post by gfosco »

digitalengineer wrote: post #8

Make sure you read comment #3 by former Facebook (now twitter) employee "derrick503" http://blogmaverick.com/2012/11/19/what-i-really-think-about...

It's this comment, by Amar Anand, that is from a former Facebook (now twitter) employee. http://blogmaverick.com/2012/11/19/what-i-really-think-about...

Seeing all of the word choice and grammar mistakes by derrick503 made me cringe.

Re: What Mark Cuban Really Thinks About Facebook

#10

Post by fnayr »

guelo wrote: post #6

Its been several years since FB changed the default sort order from 'Recent' to 'Top'. They made the change gently, first letting angry users change the default back to 'Recent'. In typical FB fashion the setting would randomly switch back to 'Top' if you weren't vigilant, and then after a while after angry users got tired of fighting it and others forgot how it used to be they took the setting away. My point being t…

My FB still lets me change the sort order but randomly changes it back to top.
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