True and basically that’s their only real source of income ! They have a terrible search engine too. I bet you that they will introduce a Facebook pro account with a yearly subscription with some extra useless frills in order to compensate

I have adverised on Facebook, waste of money ( for me at least). But then I should have trusted my instinct seeing as I have never clicked on a FB ad.

Not at all strange I reckon. They will reduce the price of the shares now, from the original stated price ($34-38 per share), and that will act as an incentive for more people to buy the shares in anticipation of the next big thing from Facebook. This ‘next big thing’ will then boost the shares value; then the punter would make a profit. Of course, that won’t happen, as the bubble appears to be bursting.
PS all of what I said, is just speculation. That’s what I think will happen :-)

The next big fine from Facebook?

Implosion

Thing, not fine

Dead right mark. Good short term investment though I would say alot of the politicians in the states will make a fortune with all the pre IPO stock they got in return for relaxing privacy protection for Facebook. It’s a bad long term investment, can see zuckerburg retiring in a year or two and hanging up his Facebook hat and putting on a investment firm hat instead.

People are goldfish where economics are concerned, Governments depend on that fact.

While the website might eventually fade into obscurity, I suspect the idea behind it will continue to grow.

Marketeers have always wanted information on consumers’ habits. Previously handing people questionnaires on the street was the best they could get. Now millions of consumers happily give detailed information on their likes, dislikes, locations, actions and friends. Gold-dust like this won’t be let slip away.

not so, he has cleverly created a scenario that he retains more voting rights than any group or individual share holding.

Not really, considering he’s retaining over 57.3% of voting rights as his are Class B shares compared with the Class A shares that are being offered and therefore ten-fold of the voting rights.

You don’t have to click on ads for them to be effective. Display ads can often be charged on a Cost-per-thousand-impressions basis, indicating that someone seeing the ad can be effective enough, even without clicking.

I had a look at reports from a few other media organisations and none of them report the claim that Facebook ads don’t work.
Could the author confirm if she made that bit up / was misled / knows some extra information the others don’t know?
This type of reporting could be considered defamatory if the claim is unfounded.

Hi James, Andrew.

Looking into this now. Thanks for your comments

Emer

Have you got a link, I clicked on both links and they both seem pretty clear. But I know there’s a bit of laziness (not to mention s**t stirring from time to time ) done by thejournal so ill approach with caution.

Facebook ads work but they are not even remotely as effective as other online ad formats. You receive a much greater return on investment from Google Ads that on Facebook. I’ve done a lot of online campaigns for businesses over the laalst 3 years and I find Facebook ones a money pit.

Jeez lads relax, I’d say of all the companies in the world, Facebook certainly doesn’t need private people defending it so vehemently!

Diarmaid, I’m more concerned about fair and accurate reporting to be honest. I want to know I can trust a media outlet to only report the truth. I have no interest in reading fabrication.
Obviously, mistakes can be made but I’m sure the Journal doesn’t want to get a bad reputation, and doesn’t want to be done for defamation.

It’s hardly defamation to point out that spending money on Facebook Ads is not the best thing to do with it, given the dire conversion rates (even just to get likes never mind sales) and the expense involved.

Fagan, the article has since been amended. It originally made a much stronger, untrue allegation.

Whoa everybody – looks like we got ourselves a ‘Thinker’

Aranthos, brand awareness is huge, most people that go into a shop, any type of shop will generally go for the safe option, if you have seen the brand name , either subtly, or in a more obvious way you will be more inclined to go for that product.
While alot of people hunt for value, most people just go with whats handiest and known.

In fact, most people dont even know why they are purchasing a particular product, as arrogant as that sounds, its actually true.

Brand awareness, same as why banks here, go all out to get students signed up. They are still continuing to spend 30mn on content for Facebook.

He will also be the toast of GM for making their brand a global talking story this month, every time the IPO is mentioned, General Motors page will be mentioned.

I reckon they’ll get a good few likes on the page as a result of all this.

They are the worst format for an SME. Google AdWords have a much greater conversion rate and are significantly cheaper. Facebook can be good for branding but have poor conversion to sales.

Most face book users are between 25-40. The fact that it is not for Kids is what has made it so long lasting. Myspace and Bebo were for kids, they were dropped when people left teenage years behind.