Gary Vaynerchuk (2013) in his book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy, Social World” argued that brands and their marketers cannot continue to ignore social media and he urged them to understand how to effectively use it. Social media platforms such as Facebook is able to gather data from its users to understand what their interests are based on the posts they like (among other data they track) and tailor information that appears in the user’s newsfeed based on these interests.
Some appreciate the use of these algorithms as they see things they would like to see in their feed, but recent news about the use of Facebook and possible manipulation of users’ information trigger some serious concerns.
A developing story in the news revolves around Cambridge Analytica, the political data firm that allegedly gained access to private information on 50 million Facebook users. Cambridge Analytica suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix, following a television broadcast where Nix was recorded suggesting that the company “had used seduction and bribery to entrap politicians and influence foreign elections”.
Cambridge Analytica offered tools that analyze personalities of American voters and influence their behaviors. Facebook argues that this is not data breach as it routinely allows access to user data for academic purposes. However, Facebook “prohibits this kind of data to be sold to any ad network, data broker or other advertising or monetization-related service.”
How much of social media can we really control — and how far would we allow it to control us?
One Response to Social Media: Are we in control or is it controlling us?