In a recent Fast Company article regarding online privacy and social media, the author, Farhad Manjoo, stated that “Control matters. Privacy doesn’t. And as long as we’re secure in the knowledge that whatever cool, new Web toy can be turned off, we’re fine letting the world peer deeper and deeper into our lives.” I would tend to agree. The amount of stuff (information) we’re willing to share on Facebook and other social media sites is truly amazing.
And people seem to be willing to share even more “private” information when given the opportunity to win something. At my previous ad agency we held a contest on Facebook that yielded excellent results for our client whose objective was to build its email and contact list. We went on to create some very effective targeted ads that delivered even more positive results and generated sales that almost certainly would not have happened without the contest.
And with new sites like Blippy, where ordinary people share what they have bought with with their credit card, and automatically push those transactions online for others to see and interact with who knows where we’ll draw the line on what is considered private?
Just be sure that whatever you share online (that is not https secure) is pretty much open to scrutiny and public view – but hey if we can win a free pass or whatever, then it’s okay right? For an advertiser its great.
Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/12/ok-you-luddites-time-to-chill-on-facebook-over-privacy/