Coke's the real thing--Facebook just sucks
The NY Times has a blurb this morning saying that Coke is maintaining a hands-off attitude towards Facebook because of privacy concerns (or rather waiting to see if there are any consumer concerns towards privacy.)
Facebook's recently turned on social marketing feature called Beacon has been a lightning rod bringing the wrath of consumer groups and political advocacy organizations like Moveon.org down on the social networking company's young and curly heads. Beacon, for some reason that I do not understand, tells your friends what you just bought from one of the advertisers, assuming that they will be more inclined to buy something that you've just bought. Even though Facebook implied that the service was opt-in, it turned out to be opt-out. The Washington Post detailed the case of a man who bought his wife an expensive Christmas present and Facebook "told" her with Beacon because she was on his friend list.
Great for Coke. I have always seen them as more of a marketing company than a beverage company and a very consumer savvy one, too. If they're nervous about a privacy backlash, then maybe they spot some kind of a groundswell that other companies haven't clued in to---yet.
Posted on December 03, 2007
