Facedown with Facebook

Chunka Mui, writing for Harvard Business Review, applauds Facebook's decision to stop using facial recognition software to identify people in the photos you upload.

Facebook's decision comes after Ireland's data protection commissioner scolded the company for violating users' privacy.

The self-imposed ban applies only in Europe.

Facebook claims facial recognition eases sharing.

But critics like Mui think it will "accelerate the creation of a de facto photo identification database long before anyone understands the ramifications."

With such a database, retailers could identify you the moment you enter their stores and begin badgering you with offers.

"Facebook's conciliatory moves in Europe will not stop the erosion of privacy but will, I hope, slow it," Mui writes.

Twote the Raven

Once upon a Debate Night dreary,
Appeared on phones a Tweet so eerie,
'Twas hard to think it really real.
Nonetheless, the missive's source,
Not knowing he was truly coarse,
Had pushed it out like some football score.
It revealed a strange alliance
(the GOP and a kitchen appliance) 
Which no one knew of heretofore;
Only this and nothing more.

His firm moved fast to hit delete,
But not before the tasteless Tweet
Had whirled about the Twittersphere. 
The guy was sacked without delay.
Now he's polishing his resume;
Wants work as a Social Media Connoisseur.
But a big bird's Tweet predicted his chances
Of a future job and steady advances
Are worse in fact than very poor:
Twote the Raven, "Nevermore."

Re-Targeting

Facebook has begun selling ads to resellers who specialize in "re-targeting" Web ads.

A re-targeted ad presents a product you nearly bought.

Here's an example. 

You visit a retailer's Website, where you ogle a pair of boots. But you don't buy them, because you have unpaid electricity bills.

Meanwhile, the retailer has downloaded a cookie onto your tablet. In a language understood only by computers, the cookie says "she wants these boots."

The next day, the boots are pictured in an ad from the retailer on your Facebook page.

How did it happen? The re-seller's server found the cookie on your laptop and knew exactly what to do to tempt you. Or re-tempt you.

Re-targeted ads are so effective, they command three times the price of other Facebook ads, according to one reseller.

But critics say that retailers' demand for the ads is limited, despite their effectiveness.

That's because the re-targeted ads make consumers feel like retailers are stalking them.

You're Selling Hope

A new Bob Dylan lyric goes: "Night after night, day after day, they strip your useless hopes away."

Human lives circle around hope. But life gets in the way.

Above everything, people need reasons to believe they can reach their goals.

Offering hope and the reasons why you can reach your goals. 

Those are the essence of good copy.

When someone buys from you, he isn't buying your solution. He's looking past it to the hour when he reaches his goals.

He's buying hope.

Good copy paints a picture of the problem your prospect faces now. And the reasons why he'll reach his goals after he buys your solution.

The founder of Revlon famously said, "In the factory, we make cosmetics, in the store, we sell hope.”

That's what you're selling. Hope.

Greatest Generation

For a few hundred bucks, you can buy tens of thousands of Twitter followers from Websites like FanMeNow.com and BuyTwitterFollow.com.

The followers aren't necessarily real Twitter users, however.

As reported in The New York Times, for as little as a penny a piece you can buy “generated” followers (they're Twitter accounts that are inactive or that have been created by bots).

London-based social media management company StatusPeople estimates that 70 percent of President Obama's 19 million followers are generated.

Mitt Romney and Lady Gaga have also been accused of buying generated followers.

Twitter abets the practice in part because it doesn't require users to approve followers.