Facebook email Double Standard
Published by Rodney Rumford February 28th, 2008 in Facebook, Facebook Applications.Facebook email Double Standard: Do as I Say NOT As I Do! Facebook made a change to email messages that applications send out. Email messages are typically sent based on a very specific discreet action based on a friends action from within an app typically; which is good. A friend might send you a gift, greeting card or ask you to participate and respond to a question, etc. and you are notified vie email (outside of facebook). As a side note Bebo emails me friend birthday reminders all the time.
The change facebook implemented might seem very nominal to most people. They moved the opt out piece to the TOP of the email that comes from an app. Any experienced communication & marketing professional will tell you that this is the one thing that you NEVER do in email communication. I think it is smart to give people the option to opt out of receiving emails from an app. Facebook users can do it through the link OR they can do it in their settings when they add/modify the app.
Here is how an email from a Facebook app looks:
Here is how an email from facebook itself looks when it is serving their own interests.
This change can effectively lead to people clicking on the wrong link over 50% of the time or dramatically increase unintentional uninstalls since it takes users to someplace they are not expecting so they just get confused and uninstall the app.
I have had people tell me that they clicked on the link when they did not mean to. People are conditioned when they read email to click on the first link that they visually see.
I understand facebook wanting to clean up communication; but they are doing that with the limits that they are placing on apps. They should not be doing this in the top portion of a communication piece of email. Think about any newsletter that you are signed up for. There is always an opt out link to stop the emails at the BOTTOM of the email. This is in accordance with the CANSPAM Act.
App owners have a huge investment in developing, communicating and serving their users in the best possible fashion; don’t treat them like children/spammers and trump their messages.
I belong to countless social networks, subscribe to many professional newsletters and I have NEVER seen this where the opt out piece is on top of the content owners message. This is just plain wrong. Facebook knows this as; they have proved by their own emails that are sent on behalf of facebook Wall Posts, Notes, Video, etc.
Speaking with my user hat on, I would rather see a shift away from email generally when it comes to things sent by applications. If use of Atom or RSS feeds were encouraged instead, I could read new messages in very much the same way I read new emails.
With feeds, I have the added confidence that I can unsubscribe by simply removing the feed. It is done from my end, not the other end. Also, messages are automatically grouped by where they came from. I never have to wonder if my unsubscribe request was honored, or if my email address was shared with a third party.
Email should be mainly for people to reach me whom I have specifically given my email address because I was interested in hearing from them. I shouldn’t have to give it out for every kind of thing online that I might simply want to check out. The other things email is commonly used for can be better achieved with some combination of newer technologies such as OpenID, syndication feeds, etc.
As an application developer, I would emphasize communication by feeds, and include email only as an opt-in for users that actually want it. For content meant to remain private, neither email nor feeds are very good solutions - it is best kept on the website itself.
To follow this tangent through, I think it would be interesting to have an encrypted version of feeds - your reader has the key and everyone else who might check the feed sees ciphertext. That would be cool
Charlie,
All great points. I couldn’t agree more.
I would love to see facebook allow output in a rss feed format. the encrypted idea is interesting as well.
but you have to remember that the fastest growing segment of users on facebook are older people. I know i am making a blanket statement here; but many people still do not know how to use a feed reader…. true!
thanks for sharing your thoughts and insights.
happy coding!
Rodney nice post; I couldn’t agree with you more.
Facebook group to “discuss” this:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10928296982
No application should get a preference. Emails should allow for industry best practice.