Why the Cambridge Analytica Data Story is Getting Boring, and How Many of you Actually Followed Through with #DELETEFACEBOOK
Give your eyes a break, listen to the audio version:
http://www.einsteinmarketer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Cambridge-Analytics.mp3
Tattered shreds of Facebook Blue…
…and chunks of British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, are starting to settle.
The eye of the storm has passed…
…for now.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past month, you’ll know all about the data scandal.
It’s hard to remember a social media furor quite like it.
The saga’s had everything, $58 Billion, a US Presidential Election, Brexit, 50 Million Facebook Users, hidden camera videos, and a ton of Facebook abuse and Zuckerberg rebuttals…
…but we’re bored of all that now…
Smart Marketers Look After Their Data
Cambridge Analytica was found out because they acted shamefully…
…mining data without permission, ‘allegedly’ pushing fake news and using every dirty trick in the book to swing election campaigns.
Facebook didn’t behave much better. They knew Cambridge Analytica had this data and didn’t ban them!
Fortunately, we aren’t all like that…
… most marketers, entrepreneurs, and business owners would do anything to keep their lists happy. Manipulation is certainly not a way of doing that!
And, as for mining data…
…why would any smart advertiser want information about a ton of people who haven’t ever shown an interest in their business?
That’s just stupid marketing.
We grow our lists from qualified audiences, who are INTERESTED in what we have to say. Not pestering anyone with an email address (you’re probably reading this because either this topic or Einstein Marketer peaked your interest, and that’s how we want it to stay).
Of course, we know an election is different and Cambridge Analytica are dirty dogs…
…but we shouldn’t all be tarred with that same brush.
We use Facebook to market to people who have desires, needs, and problems.
We use information that we have carefully, and ethically sourced, and use it to provide those people with a solution that (fingers-crossed) improves their lives…
…and this means they’ll recommend us, share us, love us…
…LIVE BETTER…
…and we’ll GROW as a result.
None of that would have been possible without Facebook data. Nada.
Facebook Hate is Getting Boring
Social networks have positives, negatives and grey areas. Facebook is the biggest of them all…
…and with its size, comes HUGE points of debate.
Yes, inexplicably allowing Cambridge Analytica to act as they did, is a disgrace…
…but, if we judge them on one mistake, we’re making a huge error ourselves.
The world’s largest social network has brought people together, built relationships and generally, done a ton of good stuff…
…#METOO, #AINTNOCINDERELLA, #IWILLSPEAKUP, #HOWIWILLCHANGE…
…are just a few of Facebook’s trending topics from 2017, that made a huge difference to good causes.
And, let’s not forget…
…FACEBOOK IS FREE!
They don’t ask for joining fees, memberships or subscriptions.
People take this for granted and then whine about the service. If Facebook had decided to ask members to pay and made a success of it, all the other giants of Social Media would’ve (probably) followed their lead.
#DELETEFACEBOOK, did it Work?
More than 400,000 #DELETEFACEBOOK tweets were posted following the scandal…
…but did anybody actually act on it?
Einstein’s read a few articles about how 9% of Facebook users have already deleted their accounts…
…and then dug a little deeper into the story, to discover the results came from a survey (NO PROOF!) of 1000 people (NOT REPRESENTATIVE! There are over 2 Billion monthly active Facebook users).
These articles don’t tell the true story, because…
…during and since the scandal, Facebook’s Monthly Active Users has GROWN.
In fact, they’ve got more users now than they’ve ever had. There’s been a 4.5% growth in the UK over the last 90 days, a 4.3% increase in the US and a 12% spike in India.
So much for those #DeleteFacebook tweets, eh?
So, What’s Changed?]
People are more aware of the data they’re sharing…
…and are worried about their privacy.
As marketers, protecting this data should be one of our top priorities, and with the new GDPR changes coming into effect in 2018, there’s little room for complacency.
Be smart.
And don’t let Cambridge Analytica tar your image.
We aren’t all like that.
Did you enjoy this post? What do you think of the scandal? Leave a comment or send us a message and we’ll reply as soon as our social media manager has stopped being depressed about his gambling debts.
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Originally published at www.einsteinmarketer.com on April 10, 2018.
