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Adding Depth to Facebook Likes

The article “Facebook Has a Business Model Problem” was sent around the office email the other day and I was immediately struck by one quote in particular.

“Facebook’s long-term problem is that it is trying to make money via advertising, even though Facebook simply isn’t a very good vehicle for advertising.”

That’s funny, because I can tell you 6 of my friends like Samsung Galaxy and my Aunt Carol LOVES Chico’s (or so it would seem) since Facebook practically spams my newsfeed with this daily.   It seems to me that the vehicle is delivering the message but maybe it’s not the right message.

 Photo by Sean MacEntee via Flickr

I personally do not care nor am I surprised that my Aunt Carol likes Chico’s.  I could guess that just knowing the brand and knowing my Aunt Carol, they click.  And of all my friends and all of their likes I’ll never understand why this particular like by this particular friend continues to popup in my feed.  I just keep scrolling.

But now it’s Christmas and I’m racking my brain to figure out what to get my loved ones.  Cut to Aunt Carol-Chico’s.  I know where she shops.  It’s a safe bet if I get something for her from that store she’ll like it since I know she likes the store and I know that for sure thanks to Facebook.  But you know what would make this better?  A gift registry on Facebook of her likes, maybe she’s made it, maybe it’s made for her.

I would LOVE to be able to go to her page or anyone’s page for that matter and see a list of suggested gifts based on what a person likes.  “So-and-so like’s this store but they only like accessories and they’ve indicated they like this necklace and based on that we also think they would like this product.”

It’s a cross between Facebook likes, Pinterest, and MyRegistry.  It’s a marriage made in my heaven!

Photo by Carissa Rogers via Flickr

Facebook could do this to improve their business model or retailers could do this with their own feeds.  One of my favorite retailers on Facebook is Anthropologie.  Thanks to Anthropologie I get pictures of cute dresses, accessories, home goods that they are advertizing to me and I can like the pictures of the products I like.  Anthropologie could use this data to build a profile of me as a customer and link it back to my sales history (if they have the data) but also harness this Facebook data to advertize the products I’ve liked to my friends and family at holiday time or on my birthday.  If the technology to build these pages/apps on Facebook doesn’t exist yet, it should and I think it’s only a matter of time before it does.