Final Draft, Inc. is the perfect example of a company that is putting too many of it’s eggs in one basket. I’m talking about Facebook, of course.
Update: So is Blinkbox – promoting their exclusive Game of Thrones deal, a competition has been set-up just for Facebook users – joy! (facepalm)
I am absolutely sick to death with companies that run competitions only via Facebook, allow comments only via Facebook or communicate only via Facebook. To have such trust in a mega corporation (and one with 83 million fake profiles) is either admirable or completely stupid.
It’s a bit like thinking there is only one big nightclub or one big pub in town, and that if you’re not going to it, you’re an anti-social retard with the all the charm and sophistication of a dead walrus.
There are other social networks, some good, some bad – but overall I’d still say that if you’re going to run competitions and such, you should consider and take into account your entire audience and not just those that muck about on one particular service.
Why are you alienating those on Google+, Twitter, or just want to be left alone and NOT use any one particular social network? Running competitions or updates on a single large social networking site such as Facebook seems to be the lazy corporate’s way out of running a platform independent web site. God knows how many times Facebook changes their rules – and how does Facebook archive stuff for long term use? How do you retain a copy of your Facebook page for archiving purposes, emergencies, etc? You’re placing an awful amount of trust in a single company.
Facebook != (does not equal) the internet.
I’m not saying that companies should abandon Facebook completely; just ensure that you can reach to those that have no desire to sign up to it. Likewise for Google+ and Twitter. Do not penalise those people. Just because you might not want to handle incoming personal data and would much rather just get it from Facebook, or wherever, where it’s harvested and stored for you – doesn’t mean you should go running and screaming to the likes of Facebook.
So if I ever see, “Why not enter this competition on our Facebook page and like us to win fabulous prizes?”, my immediate reaction is “Why don’t you go bugger a badger”? (With apologies to all badgers everywhere)
Run competitions and comments from your own web site instead, you feckless fools.
