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Facebook may know you better than you do
By Chris Botterill
Mark Zuckerberg recently announced Facebook will soon release ways to express sympathy and empathy about a post, instead of simply being able to ‘like’ it. While this will be yet another way for users to show opinions, support for a friend or hopefully get their little sister to stop posting all those selfies, it actually will give Facebook a greater insight to each user’s psyche.
The majority of users on the site felt uncomfortable with how well the social media platform seems to understand them, whether it be through advertisements directly related to an upcoming vacation, the seemingly random friend suggestion of your high school sweetheart or recommended content directly related to that embarrassing recent Google search. What most people don’t understand is that this isn’t just coincidental; in fact, users unknowingly hand all that in-depth information to Facebook—and they do it eagerly.
Facebook is a business that relies on attaining more users and encouraging them to log in more frequently. The more users on Facebook, the more money the site is able to make through targeted advertising. This targeted advertising is why Facebook developed algorithms to provide advertisers with as much information about the habits, hobbies, interests and lifestyle of users as possible.
Tricking You Into Providing Valuable Information
When creating a new Facebook profile, users are taking the first step in giving Facebook a ton of personal information. The first steps typically include providing detailed general information about themselves, such as their name, gender, age, education and employment.
Users believe they are filling out information to let their friends know who they are—which is true. But they also are handing advertisers valuable information via Facebook that enables extremely personal direct advertising.
And there’s no way around providing very personal information because those details are only a fraction of the ways Facebook gets to know its users. In fact, even if false information is provided, such as an incorrect age or gender, Facebook still has an extremely accurate and intimate idea of each user’s personality. To gain even more information, Facebook tracks a person’s behavior on the site.
Tracking Your (Embarrassing) Habits
After a new user enters their personal information, they begin ‘friending’ people. All of these friends have something in common with the user, including personality traits, location, employment, interests and hobbies.
A user’s friend network is a key tool Facebook uses to determine who they really are. As a friend list is built, Facebook begins comparing personality traits to determine the personality traits a user has not directly provided.
Even more important is how a user interacts with others. Think you can get away with stalking your ex a few times a day week? Much like your mother, Facebook knows exactly what you are up to—including the profiles you look at and how often you look at them.
But even inactive users who don’t often write posts or status updates are targeted. Facebook provides advertisers with indicators based on the events, hobbies and interests of people in users’ friend network.
Once a profile is created and a friend network established, Facebook tracks a user’s activity and interactions on the site in three main ways.
- Your profile gives you away. The information a user shares on Facebook is a goldmine for targeted advertising because Facebook knows that content matters most to the user. If someone consistently shares political articles that are slanted one way, Facebook not only knows the user cares about politics, but it also starts to understand the person’s political beliefs.
- Watch what you click. The way a user interacts with Facebook also gives the site more information. Pages and posts users click to like, comment on, share or even “read more,” as well as the links to external articles users click on, are all tracked to gain more intel. Facebook then knows those topics, people or companies are important to the user—giving advertisers a greater ability to target users.
- Who’s stalking you? The activities others take on a user’s profile impacts the content that shows up on both users’ news feeds. This gives Facebook a greater ability to determine the best information to show a specific user to keep them engaged and coming back for more.
Nowhere to Hide
Facebook only makes money by attaining new users, understanding its users and keeping them on the site more often for longer periods of time. By understanding users’ personalities based on their profile and interactions on the site, Facebook is able to give advertisers unrivaled access to their targeted audience.
There’s no way to avoid it. Much like checking email or reading the news, Facebook has become such an ingrained part of most people’s daily lives. It brings people together, makes sharing events and photos effortless, and is an effective way to brag about that promotion at work. It’s not enough to simply lay low on Facebook; the only way to avoid being targeted is to delete your profile and stay off the site. But that would make it impossible to know what your crazy ex or entertainingly disastrous high school best friend are up to.
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This the first article in a four-part series about using Facebook to your advantage.
– Chris Botterill/Genex Marketing, Cranbrook – Chris Botterill is a tech-savvy, marketing expert who loves to talk websites, ad campaigns and anything else that helps you and your business grow. Since starting Genex Marketing in 2008, Chris has grown his business year by year, to become a successful entrepreneur. He started in virtual web design and is now offering full Agency Services to businesses local and abroad. Agency Service includes all types of marketing from web, social media, print, radio and creating business collateral. Chris and Genex Marketing know how to help you adjust to the radical change in the marketplace from print and word of mouth to digital, social and virtual.
