Facebook and Apple will fail as rapidly as AOL and MySpace did because they will not learn and make the same fatal error. They are fixated on a global dominance meme vs. helping people get what they want. That never wins for the long term.
Update Two, ZDNet's Emil Protalinski posted last year that FB arbitrarily launched an up to 1-month block for posts mis-identified as SPAM. They refused comment on this policy and their false attack on Rima Regas. http://www.zdnet.com/...
UPDATED: Numerous anti-NHS cuts activists here in the UK were similarly blocked this weekend. The Facebook system blocks any URLs, posting from @Hootsuite scheduler, Page Likes and/or posting on pages. And because I am raising this issue, when the ban in the photo expired today? They added four more days so I am now banned until Thursday at 11:35 am..
by Denis G. Campbell
As an early social media adaptor I saw Facebook and Twitter’s voice power. Utilising my marketing background, I learned to use Twitter and Facebook as consultancy growing, news development, book selling and audience building tools for this publication and our television show. With 6 Twitter accounts, 1 Facebook Page, 2 groups and 5 pages, it all worked marvellously.
That is until Friday. Friday morning I was banned from interacting until later this day because I was “sharing too much, too often.”
My response was likely the same as everyone else’s reading this… WTF? Sharing TOO much? On Facebook?
Now I start my business day the same way every day, I load up Tweets/Facebook posts for the next 24-48 hours and interact on FB ‘sharing’ photos and quotes of a VERY progressive nature that highlight the growing lunacy of America’s intolerant and gun-crazed right (this has been a bumper year). Normally I post 8-10, change my cover photo, interact with those who took time to send a Like or thank them for sharing something I posted or just engage in good old-fashioned banter.
Like many in public life, I deal with Internet trolls or those who engage in ‘more robust than normal’ debate. I’ve had to block some and enjoy ‘taking the mickey’ out of far too many of the intellectually unarmed.
On Friday though, I started getting weird ‘Captcha required to post’ messages which was strange since I’ve been with Facebook for six years and that restriction was long lifted on URLs. But hey, I just thought it was one of many temporary technical glitches of the last few updates and just kept on posting. BANG! Blocked for 48 hours. Really?
You let trolls run wild but those who generate an audience, spend money with you and attract people to your service… get shut down? And, as my good former Congressman friend said once warned me, do you really want to pick a fight with someone who buys ink (electronic or otherwise) by the barrel?
So OK, game on. I started to ask around if anyone else was having this experience and lo and behold, dozens of respondents said the same thing, with one woman saying she had been shut down for an entire month for the same reason(!).
How can that be when you, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, are on record saying you want to know everything about me so you can market to my everyone I know? How can that be, when you allow application developers to take over my entire Facebook computer. How can that be, when you charge me £0.70 pence ($1.00 USD) to message a non-Facebook friend friend with whom I wish to reinitiate contact after 20-years? So you get around your own friend rules at your convenience?
But, I get ahead of myself on this hypocrisy rant.
Shall we look at another case study? Apple computer has lost market share and 30% of its stock value in a very short period (as did you). Why? Because investors now see ‘one-trick pony’ closed systems for the death-trap spiral they are.
Apple is learning the hard way you have to take of customers, listen to them and innovate based on their needs, not the company’s. Do you think it’s a coincidence that both of your company share prices cratered? Or is it because the market is waking up and realising neither of the two company ‘emperors’ are wearing any clothes?
You both build proprietary, closed systems. And you will both eventually lose to open system providers. It is the oldest argument in the tech business and one you should know. But you chose to make money now and screw legacy! And PT Barnum said, “there was a sucker born every minute.” So you chose to sell those suckers expensive crap, get them hooked and like every flawed leader think they will stay with you forever because “we’re the biggest (& therefore only) game in town.”
But, your growth is slowing. People are leaving and even though you trumpet more than 1 billion users, how many never access their account but are included in your numbers. And I cannot help but feel like the mighty little ant Flick in Pixar’s A Bug’s Life here. “You need all of us more than we need you! And you know that, don’t you?”
You know the base is slipping away. Your only way to survive is to sell data. You want to know where I’ve lived, when I lived there, every job I ever held, my family members, closest friend and acquaintances. You want me to post everything about my life. You want photos, birth dates, anniversaries and where I went to school. You want me to find classmates, co-workers, past lovers and you even let folks stalk the ones who dumped them?
But if I post 10 progressive political posts from others from MY Newsfeed onto MY Timeline in a row you shut me down? You disconnect access to all pages via the Hootsuite scheduler and take a weekend of book revenues away since I only post about my books on Thursday-Sunday night when readers are active? And how do I know that? Because, I stupidly bought advertising from you when each book came out!
Well nice going Zuck. This now goes everywhere, not from vindictiveness, rather from questioning the lunacy of you going against your own business case and building an algorithm so stupidly inflexible, it makes a mockery of your site because it cannot separate the wheat from the chaff.
Although you will likely never see this article or a World View Show segment from safe inside your bubble, you hear it here first… The more difficult you make it for people to access and use your site, the faster your much deserved demise comes. Because when on top, everyone else is gunning for you and niche players are making movements on your flanks. You can’t shut us all down Zuck, so pay attention.
You and Apple will fail as rapidly as AOL and MySpace did because you will not learn and make the same fatal error. You are fixated on a global dominance meme vs. helping people get what they want. That never wins for the long term.
So let me be the first to say, ‘told ya.’
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go post some cat photos to Facebook since those seem the only politically correct thing on your website.