Mining Kids’ Preferences: Will Facebook Ads Turn it Into MySpace?

“Fan of Froot Loops? Facebook Has an Ad for You,” writes The Wired Campus’ Andrea L. Foster in this mini-brief on Facebook’s fall plans to push advertisements on teens based on hobbies, hangouts, travel tastes and faves…

Up until now, advertisers on the popular social-networking site have only used gender, age, and location…The new game plan for Facebook? Raise revs and go public for the big bucks. No secret, really, eh? This oxymoronic Wall Street Journal article says Facebook is “quietly working on a new advertising system'” (since when does WSJ media constitute quiet?) Ok, so let’s get real…

There’s tons of talk about “transparency” and authentic marketing when it comes to youth and their preferences…From Anastasia Goodstein’s YPulse Mashups in the youth arena (TEEN mashup 7-07 and in a few weeks, a new TWEEN mashup 9-07 in N.Y.) to Noah Kagen’s Community Next and new Platform events (coming up October 5-6)…The party line seems to be that kids don’t mind (and may even appreciate) new product info when targeted tactically, providing it’s real, useful, and tailored to them juuuuuuuuust right…

So what does that really mean Goldilocks? How will the three big bears of teen social media, Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace make the porridge a hot “value-add” instead of a nuisance that leaves kids cold? Time will tell, as Chronicle of Higher Education’s Andrea Foster sums up quite nicely…

“Perhaps Facebook should examine the recent backlash from YouTube fans before moving forward with the advertising scheme. IDG News Service reported Thursday that YouTube users have loudly protested a pilot program that encourages them to watch ads along with videos on the site.”

This young U.K. gent gives his own firsthand video reply, no doubt speaking for many YouTube video/music fans of all ages…

Mark my words:

If salivating sales people aggressively pursue the almighty greenback sans sensitivity to their media audience (not to mention ancillary folks like me)…

Goldilocks not only won’t bite, she won’t even come to the table to taste the porridge!

She’ll trot on to new forests where massive growth won’t eclipse the warm, sunny spots that made it worth her while to be there…Kids are smart like that. Gotta love ‘em!

In fact, internet savvy teens might even find YouTube’s InVideo ads as “sooooo last year,” much like VideoEgg pithily claimed in big bold letters on their home page at the time,

“Welcome YouTube, Seriously. We invented the video overlay ad about a year ago. We are delighted that the market is finally catching on to a vital new approach to video advertising.”

Ouch.

Meanwhile, parents like me are tired of their kids being pummeled by brands relentlessly, so ALL of these platforms need to tread lightly with circumspect care.

Already, there’s backlash on the MySpace blog about corporate infiltration, and Facebook made the cover story of Ad Age claiming ‘Half the biz is jumping on the Facebook fanwagon for research’ in this piece titled, “Would You Let These People Friend You?”

To give you an idea of corporate presence, Proctor & Gamble’s Facebook network is more than 6,400 strong, (only open to folks with P&G e-mail accounts, emulating the tradition where Facebook started only allowing those with a “.edu” collegiate site e-mail!) And Unilever has more than 5,300 members onboard…

Of course, I’m thinking kids will be saying “adieu”…Adults are taking over the sandbox. (and frankly, the whole dang playground…)

Yes, admittedly, I’m there too, enticed by my co-authors on behalf of The Age of Conversation who set up our Facebook group to promote our book. I’m pleased to say we just hit our mark of $10,000 raised for Variety, the Children’s Charity, woohoo!–Update post forthcoming!–(See? Marketers aren’t ALL opportunistic slime 😉

Besides, I recognize Facebook needs to make a buck to stay alive and all that…Heck, I’m still trying to figure out how to monetize THIS nonprofit blog of mine in a non-invasive manner via individual donors/angel investors, so I can relate!

BUT…(there’s always a but) —even though I see massive potential of doing good things via social media clubs and hubs, we all need reminded that the digital world crackles with energy at lightening speed, and shifts from one year to the next vulnerable to the whims of youth and ‘the next big thing.’

With poor execution or even market saturation, digital darlings can fall from grace in a nanosecond…

That also means a ‘safe site’ for kids may no longer be safe…An invasion of tweens can shift the conversation extensively (running industry joke is that MySpace has been taken over by 8th graders!)…And targeted new sites like PopTeen crop up positioning themselves as “a super-safe, girls-only site, where you can flaunt your style, share your secrets, discover fashion finds, and get a chance to be a Popteen Model.”

Sigh. Clearly, Facebook ads are a very small part of the big picture overall…n’est ce pas?

On a powerfully positive note, check out how social media sites like this one, Global Cooling Collective, created by a teacher in Korea, Clay Burell, is inspiring a student network to create global Earth Day concerts streamed online in “LiveEarth” style with local bands and green-minded students uniting all over the world to benefit the cause! (thanks to the Generation Yes blog, dedicated to empowering students through technology, who gave me this lead)

I’m also excited to see how the VERY promising social media network of the new Yahoo Teachers works out. I met their head honchos at the YPulse S.F. media mashup, and saw incredible ways to engage educators via open source lesson plan exchange to bring learning and innovation into the digital age and make teacher’s lives a bit easier to boot! Last, but not least, I wanted to mention how:

Librarians have found incredible uses for Facebook & social media…

As Brock Read, reporter for Chronicle of Higher Education notes:

“Facebook applications have been all the rage since the social network started letting people add accouterments to their profiles this summer. But librarians have expressed concerns that they’re being prevented from designing their own scholarly applications for the site.

Still, there are plenty of Facebook add-ons that librarians might find helpful, and iLibrarian is selecting its top 10 of the genre. In the first post of a three-part series, the blog profiles Facebook apps like Librarian – a tool, designed by a library student, that lets users vote on the value of reference resources. “

If you get a chance, take a peek at all the caveats/advice from the PhDs at Texas A&M and multiple universities in the excellent commentary section, good stuff!–If you don’t have a subscription, ping me here and I’ll get what you need. 😉 (Always the open-source queen…)

Hope this is helpful…what do YOU see happening with Facebook down the line? As a parent? A student? A biz? A cause-marketing guru? Sound off! We want to hear what you think about this advertising model…

In Related Teen Facebook News…

Social Media Highlights “WhateverLife.com” 02-Sep-2007
17-year-old girl who built a million-dollar website

YPulse Youth Talks: Episode One Podcast, Facebook vs. MySpace:
YPulse interviews teens about their preference of Facebook vs. MySpace in exit poll style from Forever 21, A&F, and Anthropologie…

LifeHacker: Whom Do You Friend on Social Networks
A Facebook poll…

Inside Facebook:
Tracking the latest Facebook news and apps

And on the nonprofit Facebook front:

Should Facebook Have Banished Ranger Rick?
National Wildlife’s favorite critter gets the heave-ho on his profile

Using Facebook in Your Nonprofit
Michele Martin spins the social media hub into a nonprofit opp w/links & tips galore

From PC World:
Facebook to Make Listings Public via Search Engines 05-Sep-2007
Changes to the social networking site will make the names and profiles of its members available to nonmembers.

Facebook Invites Users to Raise their Profiles 05-Sep-2007
Users will be able to choose whether their pages are revealed to outside search engines.

From Ad Age:
Would You Let These People Friend You?