Internet Marketers are Stupid on Facebook
Published by Rodney Rumford December 11th, 2007 in Facebook.
I am going through my friend requests this morning (19) and something catches my eye. Someone I know from the real world (Todd) sends a facebook friendship request. Nothing special there. I friend Todd Sawicki, we know each other in the real world, he is a smart guy, we have 30 mutual friends on facebook. Friendship Request Approved. This is a fairly uneventful transaction.
But then I look at the friend request directly above Todd’s from some guy named Michael Roach. I don’t know this guy. His note says “Hi Rodney. I’m a copywriter. We have 16 friends in common at the moment.” The RED Flags go up! We have NO friends in common. He has used his crafty copywriting skill to try and trick me into thinking I should friend him because he told me we have 16 friends in common.
But there is one problem with Roach’s friendship request line. Facebook shows me how many friends we have in common. His copywriting skills have been exposed as not truthful. Facebook shows me a link with who our mutual friends are on facebook. Friendship Request Denied!
I am still debating on if I should report/block him. I actually can’t stop laughing at how some internet marketers don’t understand facebook and try to apply outdated tactics.
The facebook marketing lesson here: Don’t be a friendship Roach on facebook. Old school misleading internet marketing will not work on facebook. Take the high road and be honest on facebook. It is the only way to market (even yourself) on facebook.
UPDATE: People thought that I was overly harsh on this post. Possibly. But the point was made and people took notice about how they look at the friending process (which was part of the point). My main point here was transparency… in the spirit of transparency i chose not to make the post about an nameless person; and cite a real person. It made the point with more impact and showed a real world example. Also, the point is to also raise awareness that what happens on facebook can move other places (no different than a blog). Facebook is not a walled garden.
Technorati Tags: internet marketers, facebook
Hey Rodney,
I’m not sure why, in that friend request, Facebook is not showing any friends in common.
I linked to your profile from a mutual friend, Mari Smith. I saw you on her Top Friends list. I’m also on that list if you check. Although you might not see me right now as you have me blocked…
When I saw your profile badge, I clicked the link to view your friends. From there, I was able to filter the list to mutual friends. Facebook clearly showed me that we have 16 friends in common. Sorry that I’m not able to list them all right now — since you have me blocked, I can no longer see that list.
Anyway, I figured that it made sense to add you to my network.
I’m sorry for the confusion, but I really do not appreciate you slandering me on your blog. I was not being dishonest in my friend request message.
Regards,
Michael Roach
I don’t know what’s worse - old school marketers or FB noobs who invite you to every app. that exists, and their profiles take 5 min to load from all the apps. on them. I rarely accept app. invites anymore.
Hi Rodney,
Wow, what a surprising blog post from you. Sorry to hear you feel this way. Michael is a stellar individual and someone I’ve enjoyed befriending very much. I didn’t know him before Facebook, but am certainly glad to have met him online.
I believe this is the beauty of Facebook - the fact we can reach out and connect with new, quality, like-minded professionals. If we prefer not to accept a request, that is our prerogative… such as it is with a walled garden.
I love the fact we live in a “gate community” and get to choose who gets the gate code… and we can even change the “code” any time we like, e.g. unfriend or block people who turn out to be inappropriate friends.
But to make such a declined request public and point the finger at specific individuals is, in my humble opinion, distasteful. Even though I appreciate we live in good ol’ US of A and have freedom of speech and all.
Michael & Mari,
If i was incorrect then I apologize. All I can say is facebook says we have no friends in common in the invite area. This is not the first time that I have seen messages like this in my invite area, where people claim we have several friends in common (and I dont know who they are and have never met them).
delete my posts if you want big boy, but i’m gonna torch your sorry ass on my blog!
don’t do business with this pos of a blog, pull your advertising!
Rodney, this is a really disappointing post from you. I’ve nothing to do with Michael Roach but do feel that you have been everso harsh.
I normally read your posts through Google Reader which, as you probably know, doesn’t show any comments, but I was so taken-aback by this blog post that I clicked through to it to see if Michael Roach had responded to your criticism and I see that he has.
You say in your comment “this is not the first time that I have seen messages like this in my invite area” - perhaps then there IS something wrong with the FB mechanism?
Ikinda feel that this episode seriously weakens your credibility and, in my view, you ought at least add an “update” to your original post, bearing in mind that it is plastered all over the place… That is, assuming that you don’t decide to pull it altogether…
Cheers my friend,
Good points all (mostly) While I sympathize with Rodney’s point about the annoyance of spammy marketers, he took a great risk (backfired big time) in including Michael’s name on the post. No need to do that. Cover it up and you can be as harsh as you want…unless you goal was to actually OUT this particular marketer? Maybe the risk wasn’t obvious to Rodney at first but I’m sure it is now. On the flip side, michael should know better in sending such a vague friend request. While there are great friendships and professional relationships to be made on FB, Michael sorta put himself in this position by keeping his friend request as impersonal and spammy sounding as he did. I am not against friending people I don’t know but i expect a bit of effort in the request. Perhaps “Got your name off Mari Smith’s Top friends. here’s why I’d like to be FB friends” for example. Otherwise, why are you doing it? To have a really big friend list? None of this would have happened if you personalized the message. I have done that to CEO’s on their blogs and I almost always get responses. Give some, get some. Hopefully, you both kiss and make up.
Michael Roach,
Actually, I think you mean ‘libel’ - slander concerns the spoken word.
Just thought you’d want your lawyers to start out on the right track… Only joking!
Dan
Darly. Thanks for the feedback and sentiments. There is most likely nothing wrong with facebook in this area. Everytime I get messages that have a personalized greeting where they say they know mutual friends and such; we have no mutual friends. These types of messages come from marketers.
Post updated. I don’t pull blog posts… they are out there forever. There is no erase button on the internet.
Michael. Sorry if you felt personally called out; it was not meant to focus on you specifically. I wanted to show a window into a facebook experience and trend that I was seeing.
The good news is more people now know about your business.
Rodney, I’m not sure how increased exposure to my business is supposed to make me feel any better about being falsely accused as a liar, or dishonest “marketer”.
You choose to continue believing that there was no error made by Facebook — that we really had no mutual friends and that I just made that up.
How is it possible then, that we could both have Mari Smith as a friend, for one?
I understand how you might be frustrated with the original friend request, and the perception that I was lying at the time. I am equally frustrated by dishonest marketing ploys.
But now that you know I was not lying about having mutual friends — and it was exactly 16 at the time I sent you a friend request (I’m sure that’s verifiable somehow) — why can’t you admit that you were wrong in singling me out as a liar?
I admit that I could have been more clear in my friend request, but it still doesn’t change the fact that I did not lie to you in the one that I sent, as you clearly insinuate.
- Michael
OK Michael. Somehow this has become a huge deal. You say you were not lying; I take you at your word for that. Sorry for insuating that you were dishonest. That was merely my perception based on the way the data was presented to me on facebook.
“Post updated. I don’t pull blog posts… they are out there forever. There is no erase button on the internet.”
You’re going to have to look harder for that “erase button” as Mike’s got a clear case of defamation against you…
I don’t know the specifics and don’t know if you have common friends with Mike Roach.
I do know that it’s trivial to set up privacy so that friend request recipients don’t see your friends. Since the setting is shared with outgoing messages/pokes, I had it this way for a long time. A side effect is that any recipient of a friend request will see no mutual friends.
Facebook often conceals personal information for privacy reasons. When you *don’t* see something, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.
There now is a person who claims to be your mutual friend, commenting here.
Rodney,
I think you owe it to Michael and yourself to clear his name with an investigation. And update your post with an apology if it turns out you jumped the gun with a false accusation (which to me, it sounds like you did).
You say “Somehow this has become a huge deal” - calling him stupid, mocking/laughing at him, and publically calling him a liar - and all based on a quick judgement. Surely, you can see that this is a big deal to him. I don’t know Michael, but he obviously takes his integrity seriously.
You and Michael should work together to get to the bottom of this, and give him a chance to clear his name.
Just my 2 cents
Joe
I guess part of the issue is what is a “friend” on Facebook. After reading all this hopefully something good will come out of it.
Michael - will you be my friend?
Michael and I spoke on the phone today and discovered an unintended consequence of privacy settings and how it makes you friend request look different than 99% of the invites on facebook.
All is good now between us.
http://facereviews.com/2007/12/13/facebook-privacy-settings-negative-friending-consequences/