4 ms·

"Every time this LinkedIn commercial pops up on YouTube I am reminded of how low the company has fallen to." I recently thought the same when facebook started

"Every time this LinkedIn commercial pops up on YouTube I am reminded of how low the company has fallen to." I recently thought the same when facebook started advertising (to me at least) on silly mobile game (the ads those games show)

hgsyndrome 8y ago
I'm curious... can you post a link to these FB ads? Tks!
ForHackernews 8y ago
Wait, they're advertising Facebook itself? Like "Sign up for this new social network...it's called Facebook!"
- burtonator 8y ago
  As these networks grow they start exhausting normal growth strategies and often have to resort for paying for users. If your customer acquisition cost (CAC)is less than the lifetime value of the customer it's an obvious calculation. If you pay $15 for a user but they make you $100 ... do it!
- nkrisc 8y ago
  After the whole Cambridge Analytica thing I even saw physical facebook ads on the train, talking about how they weren't creepy and fake news is bad. It was strange to see.
  - pirocks 8y ago
    I'm still seeing these on the underground.
    - nkrisc 8y ago
      They were all over the L in Chicago, but I haven't seen them for quite some time. Though I think Facebook and Zuckerberg in particular might have an even worse image over there than they do here.
  - Notorious_BLT 8y ago
    These showed up in Chicago for months. It was a whole series, they said "Spam is not your friends", "Clickbait is not your friends", "Fake accounts are not your friends" and "Fake news is not your friends". It was funny to me, because it felt like they were reminding me of everything that made me hate (and subsequently abandon) Facebook in the first place. The whole ad campaign felt like a setup for the punch line "Facebook is not your friends.
- ben1040 8y ago
  Yes, I’ve recently seen ads that say things along the line of “Create your Facebook account and connect with your friends.”
  - hgsyndrome 8y ago
    2.3 billion monthly active users later??? That is truly ridiculous.. too much cash to burn in their coffers perhaps?
- freehunter 8y ago
  Well why does McDonalds or Coca-Cola need to advertise? It's not necessarily about getting new customers or raising awareness that McDonalds exists (everyone knows of the brand already). It's about keeping them at the front of your mind. It's called the 'mere exposure' effect [1] where customers increase the intensity of their opinion of your brand just because they're constantly hearing about your brand. It doesn't even matter the content, they can double-dip: if they run an ad telling people to create a Facebook profile the hit both the market of people who don't yet use Facebook and also hit the market of people who do have an account but don't use it as much as Facebook wants you to. Now unfortunately this does work both ways: if you hate Facebook, seeing a Facebook ad will make you more and more irritated with Facebook. But if you think Coca-Cola is good yet don't have strong preference Coke vs Pepsi, seeing Coke ads everywhere will make you think more highly of Coke rather than Pepsi. This is why Coke brands the most ridiculous things, like wall decor, decorative plates, toy trucks, even Christmas. People will gladly hang their ads on the wall and be constantly exposed to Coke advertising. Facebook is banking on people who don't hate Facebook seeing the ads, knowing that people who do hate Facebook are a lost cause anyway... or are being targeted by a different ad campaign to win them back. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect
  - ForHackernews 8y ago
    Coke is competing against Pepsi. Who are Facebook's competitors?
    - thibautg 8y ago
      People’s time and attention
    - freehunter 8y ago
      Facebook's biggest competitor is "not Facebook". There's tons of "not Facebook" that can hurt Facebook. Even other Facebook properties like Instagram and WhatsApp are "not Facebook" in the sense that they don't generate the same value of data that Facebook generates. "Not Facebook" includes other social media like reddit and Twitter and Youtube and LinkedIn etc, but also news sources like New York Times and BBC and Washington Post etc, and other OpenID login providers like Google and Github etc, and other messaging services like iMessage and Slack etc, and other sources of business information like Yelp and TripAdvisor and Foursquare etc. Every time you visit one of these "not Facebook" sites, Facebook loses. So Facebook reminds you that Facebook exists so you'll check Facebook first and might as well log into that site and app with Facebook and as long as you're here why not message your friends, oh by the way did you see this cool business near you and there's an event you just have to go to.

hgsyndrome 8y ago

I'm curious... can you post a link to these FB ads? Tks!

ForHackernews 8y ago

Wait, they're advertising Facebook itself? Like "Sign up for this new social network...it's called Facebook!"

burtonator 8y ago
As these networks grow they start exhausting normal growth strategies and often have to resort for paying for users. If your customer acquisition cost (CAC)is less than the lifetime value of the customer it's an obvious calculation. If you pay $15 for a user but they make you $100 ... do it!
nkrisc 8y ago
After the whole Cambridge Analytica thing I even saw physical facebook ads on the train, talking about how they weren't creepy and fake news is bad. It was strange to see.
- pirocks 8y ago
  I'm still seeing these on the underground.
  - nkrisc 8y ago
    They were all over the L in Chicago, but I haven't seen them for quite some time. Though I think Facebook and Zuckerberg in particular might have an even worse image over there than they do here.
- Notorious_BLT 8y ago
  These showed up in Chicago for months. It was a whole series, they said "Spam is not your friends", "Clickbait is not your friends", "Fake accounts are not your friends" and "Fake news is not your friends". It was funny to me, because it felt like they were reminding me of everything that made me hate (and subsequently abandon) Facebook in the first place. The whole ad campaign felt like a setup for the punch line "Facebook is not your friends.
ben1040 8y ago
Yes, I’ve recently seen ads that say things along the line of “Create your Facebook account and connect with your friends.”
- hgsyndrome 8y ago
  2.3 billion monthly active users later??? That is truly ridiculous.. too much cash to burn in their coffers perhaps?
freehunter 8y ago
Well why does McDonalds or Coca-Cola need to advertise? It's not necessarily about getting new customers or raising awareness that McDonalds exists (everyone knows of the brand already). It's about keeping them at the front of your mind. It's called the 'mere exposure' effect [1] where customers increase the intensity of their opinion of your brand just because they're constantly hearing about your brand. It doesn't even matter the content, they can double-dip: if they run an ad telling people to create a Facebook profile the hit both the market of people who don't yet use Facebook and also hit the market of people who do have an account but don't use it as much as Facebook wants you to. Now unfortunately this does work both ways: if you hate Facebook, seeing a Facebook ad will make you more and more irritated with Facebook. But if you think Coca-Cola is good yet don't have strong preference Coke vs Pepsi, seeing Coke ads everywhere will make you think more highly of Coke rather than Pepsi. This is why Coke brands the most ridiculous things, like wall decor, decorative plates, toy trucks, even Christmas. People will gladly hang their ads on the wall and be constantly exposed to Coke advertising. Facebook is banking on people who don't hate Facebook seeing the ads, knowing that people who do hate Facebook are a lost cause anyway... or are being targeted by a different ad campaign to win them back. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect
- ForHackernews 8y ago
  Coke is competing against Pepsi. Who are Facebook's competitors?
  - thibautg 8y ago
    People’s time and attention
  - freehunter 8y ago
    Facebook's biggest competitor is "not Facebook". There's tons of "not Facebook" that can hurt Facebook. Even other Facebook properties like Instagram and WhatsApp are "not Facebook" in the sense that they don't generate the same value of data that Facebook generates. "Not Facebook" includes other social media like reddit and Twitter and Youtube and LinkedIn etc, but also news sources like New York Times and BBC and Washington Post etc, and other OpenID login providers like Google and Github etc, and other messaging services like iMessage and Slack etc, and other sources of business information like Yelp and TripAdvisor and Foursquare etc. Every time you visit one of these "not Facebook" sites, Facebook loses. So Facebook reminds you that Facebook exists so you'll check Facebook first and might as well log into that site and app with Facebook and as long as you're here why not message your friends, oh by the way did you see this cool business near you and there's an event you just have to go to.