THOUGHT (aka Centric's Blog)

Ready to dive into social media? Great! But before you dive in, remember one thing: people treat profiles as their homes.

Let me repeat this: a profile is a home.

Would you like it if someone went through your home, looked at your stuff, and tried to sell you things based on what you have? Of course not. This is why Facebook’s Beacon technology was widely reviled. What we accept on Gmail—data scraping to serve targeted ads—is unacceptable in our home.

Keep the concept of “a profile is a home” in mind when planning any campaign, and everything will make a lot more sense.

• If you’re developing a widget or an app, ask yourself: Would I have this in my home? Because that’s what you’re asking people to do—to put something into their home.
• If you’re creating a profile on a social network, ask yourself: is this a cool home? Would people want to come and hang out here? A cool home is more than decoration and eye candy. A cool home is about stories, about the real people who live there, and about the other guests who stop by.
• If you’re going to be reaching out to people on a social network, ask yourself: am I comfortable knocking on my neighbors’ door? Do I have something to say to them if they open their door? Am I interesting enough to be invited back in?

Ask yourself these questions. And if the answer is “no,” rethink.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Ruminations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.