Facebook Fast Becoming “Credible” News Service?

Russian billionaries aren’t the only new masters of the news industry. Facebook’s powerful network is also moving into position to become a heavyweight info portal.

Facebook’s creative marketers are now selling the Web 2.0 starship as “a powerful way to share credible news and information and tap into the implicit trust that people have with their friends.” What does that mean? Well, it’s Facebooks attempt to position itself as the primary filter for the news. Tools like Facebook Connect already allow users to log-in to other web-sites like CNN and CBS, a clever move by Zuckerberg’s camp to encourage people to find, digest, and discuss information primarily through Facebook. Icelandic twenty-somethings, 96% of whom are on Facebook, are using it organise social revolts and demonstrations; Egypt is now feeling the Facebook revolution during its tensions with Gaza. And according to Facebook marketing man Randi Zuckerberg: “When you get a news clip from a friend, they are putting their own personal brand on the line, saying ‘I recommend THIS piece of content to you out of all the content that is out there.’”

More importantly though, every minute web users spend searching for information through Facebook is a minute they’re not offering their attention to the Adwords of competitor Google. 

By tapping into to this virally driven traffic, journalists and newspapers could regain some of the mindshare lost as the web took over as the primary info hub. It’s also probably a more meaningful way to attract attention on the web than just trying to strong-arm your way up the Google rankings using the dark arts of SEO, and forcing your reporters to place popular phrases like ‘Britney Spears’ through your news articles. As a recent report by Reuters explained, chasing clicks and page-views both dilutes a newspaper’s image, as well as their appeal to advertisers. A rush to get clicks, rather than readers, “may in fact erode the distinctiveness of the brand and its connection to a specific audience.”

Facebook may have found a powerful way of changing that. It will soon advertise content, take people to that content, let advertisers know who is taking rides where, for how long, and how often. This social networking taxi-service would stay free, advertisers would be happy, the news industry and the world would be saved. Right? Except, in this taxi, as well as steering the driver would be furiously taking notes about everything you did and said along the way…

Posted by Mike Smith in Creative Economy | January 26, 2009 9:57AM |