Facebook Bots Taking Over The World
Once again Facebook is in the news, well the news I read. This time not because they over priced the shares and screwed more than a few people over by doing it. Not that the share price isn’t going to drop more when the major share holders are allowed to drop some more on the market. No this time it is the bots.
The latest fun and games started with this
https://www.facebook.com/limitedpressing/posts/209534972507958
Some interesting things there, although someone did ask why , if they are so sick of FB, didnt they just delete their page and move on.
Linkbait maybe, if so it worked as that post is all over the place online.
The BBC also got in on the act by setting up an imaginary firm and using Facebook ads. It actually sounds like something the Mitchell brothers would have done on Eastenders!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18819338
Now to counter these bad news reports, someone made a blog post about how wonderful and useful Facebook ads were for him
http://irvinebroque.tumblr.com/post/28415393877/how-i-made-10k-in-one-day-with-facebook-ads-re-bots
Wonderful, but take into account that he promoted one event and it worked once.. He isn’t doing it week in and week out and making ROI. Also, now I am not one to be cyncial, but he does run a Facebook Analytics company (which I am going to look at when I get a chance as clearly we need more info if we are going to be using ads)
No today , Ed Dale is getting in on the act.
http://www.eddale.co/facebook/there-is-something-rotten-in-the-state-of-facebook
Ed has actually been mentioning something is wrong with Facebook for a while. If you read his FB posts and can extrapolate from the questions he asked you could tell he was seeing something, now we know what. I would say this is the best post out of them all, and not just coz I like Ed’s style!
Would You Use Facebook Ads Paul
Having read all these, and other bits and pieces.. My answer is yes I would. I would watch them closely and be ready to work them
-Change images often
-Try images with circles round, then squares , then red circles, then yellow boarders
-Think about the markets I am going for
-ROI is what I am after, if I spend $20 and make $30 that is cool, I dont care if the bots ate some of my traffic, I care for a positive ROI
I would not do ppc to start, I would not let them run when I am asleep to start, I want to have control while I am starting
Promoted Posts
No, not a lover of these..
I hope you find this round of interesting, What do you think about Facebook, ads, posts and anything else..Has it had its day for marketing?
I think Ed’s post is the most objective of the bunch I’ve read. The Limited Pressing guys didn’t share any real data, just accusations. The guy at the BBC basically admitted that the crap clicks were coming from other countries, even though he didn’t really come to that conclusion in the article. When he limited his ads to the US and UK, they dropped like a rock. And the record selling guy more than likely targeted his ads to people interested in records that were close enough to his location to actually show up.
There’s no question that there are a lot of fake profiles on Facebook. You just need to look at all the gigs on Fiverr offering a ton of Facebook likes – they’re probably all fake profiles run by the Fiverr seller.
I imagine the people running those fake profiles want them to look real, so they like stuff that shows up in ads, regardless of what it is. I think Facebook could be doing more to filter out the fake profiles, but I doubt they’re maliciously running bots to click on peoples ads.
I imagine there would be some pretty serious repercussions if they were caught, and they would probably be in the crosshairs for shareholder lawsuits over causing the share prices to tank (which they probably would).
I think Facebook ads can work if you target them well, but that’s no different than Adwords or anything else. If you just blast your ad out to the entire world with no targeting, you’re going to be left holding a pretty big bill at the end of the month, with not much to show for it.
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John that was my take as well from both sides of the argument. I didn’t see any data to back that up. As far I’m concerned, I’m going to keep using facebook ads but I will take extra steps to verify data.
Facebook has access to tons of people and the fact that youy can break your target down to demographics says it all
Thanks for your comment John
I agree about Ed’s being the most objective. But objectivity and honesty in posts doesn’t get links and go viral!
I can not see Facebook running the bots themselves, it would only take one upset programmer to spill the beans.
I laughed at the mention of share prices tanking, I think they already did?
Facebook ad targeting is indeed the most important thing, and they offer such good data it isn’t that hard to do.
Paul
LOL, that’s true. I guess I should say they might tank even further.
If it keeps going the way it has been, the shareholders are going to wind up owing money
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