Why Fred Wilson and the Huffington Post Poll is wrong about Facebook

First off I LOVE Fred Wilson. His Blog www.avc.com has been listed on my blog forever. Even my old blog. He is genuine and he cares about Entreprenuers succeeding. If you visit his blog you know. He seriously responds to so many comments and his MBA Mondays is incredible for anyone without a Business Degree who wants to get into Business it is a must read. He will even respond to your emails directly very kind man.

Last year I wrote him this was Pre-Facebook Places, Deals, Open Graph but during the heyday of Facebook is not trustworthy and the start of polluting our network feeds and the mission to exploit us. But I wrote him because I love Twitter and I think we should pay for it. And he said Ad Support is the only way. I have a Finance Degree and 17 years of Business experience of all sorts. I realized based on comments Eric Schmidt made * when Google purchased Ad Mob and Fred's response to my email that having managerial experience and investing experience does not mean you definitely know business models, markets or human beings. You just know how to manage a business, pay for stuff, finance stuff etc.Fred is a visionary for investing. But it doesn't mean all his investments will be winners or last the test of time.

*please note the post on Ad Mob and Twitter trying to expose our location did not come to fruition. Twitter allowed me to turn it off and Ad Mob has never served me a relevant ad since getting my Droid2 last August.

So today Huffington Post asks would we pay to use Facebook. Well guess what over 95% said no. But why did they say no? Because we don't see value in Facebook anymore. It's why network usage per person per day is down over 30%. It is a dying network. But we have no replacement yet so it is hanging on. 

I wrote how these networks are platforms/operating systems not media: LINK 

I wrote that in OCTOBER! Now lets look at this argument about paying for Facebook. Today's Facebook SUCKS! It has a horrible user interface. It's clunky and they diluted what we liked it for. We just want to keep in touch with friends and family and do some networking. We do not want brands, places, open graph, deals etc. We just want a simple technology to communicate.  But now we have so much clutter in the feed we see so few posts that the value has diminished.

It's why only 20-30mil US users do anything on the network each day. Most people passively just look for posts from Friends/Family check out photos and nothing else. It is why we upload so few photos per person per month (less than 10), share less than 2 items per day, and watch less than 1 video each per month. (From Facebook's stats!)

So let me ask to be logical here. In exchange for letting Brands and Advertisers invade our personal space does:

Microsoft give us Windows for Free?

Does Verizon give me free Cell and Text?

Does Time Warner give me free Cable and High Speed Internet?

Does Apple give me a Free IPhone?

NO NO NO and again NO! So why is Facebook or Twitter choosing a different business model? Is the technology not good enough maybe? And if it isn't good enough to me that smells trouble and the end is coming. If we aren't willing to pay we sure are willing to leave right?

We would pay for a bitchin communication platform! Remember kids Social Media Networks are not Media:

They are a REVOLUTION IN INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES!

There is no Brands, Advertising or Marketing in that statement! And we pay for all the other forms of Technology that allow us to communicate. Here is my post from LAST MAY about Facebook charging. Why am I always so far ahead of everyone? LOL LINK

So imagine if Facebook when they had 400million users had charged $3/month. And just 200mil signed up. They would vault to number 314 in the Fortune 500 with 7.2bil in revenue yes they would of increased their revenue 600%! And they could made the network 100% private. Kicked out all brands all marketing all exploitation. They could of reinvested in the USER EXPERIENCE vs the BRAND EXPLOITATION EXPERIENCE! They could of been a threat to ATT, Verizon, even the Internet! But instead they got poor managerial and venture capital advice and here we are with a network no one would pay for!

We pay for great technology all the time why wouldn't we pay if it was GREAT TECHNOLOGY?

Lastly Fred Wilson has invested in some great companies. Tumblr. FourSquare. Twitter. Soundcloud. Disqus + More. And I am not stating every web property or network we would pay for. But I do feel we would pay for Facebook or Twitter or similar network if the value was such that we really want to use it.

Social Tuesday - Lockerz - Social Bribing

 If anyone isn't aware Plixi is now Lockerz - LINK

Watch the video. It is going to try to make up for Facebook's failings. The Chief Alien has always felt Facebook made a fatal error courting Brands and Marketing instead of building the best Person to Person communication platform out there. Something we would pay a monthly fee for. We have railed against all the failures that Facebook has had to date: Open Graph, Brand Pages, Facebook Ads, Places, Deals. We have also destroyed with their own stats how little sharing goes on the network, how few people actually do anything on the network, and how the live feed is so cluttered with white noise it is almost useless. 

There is a big reason usage per person per day is down over 30% in the last year from 55 mins a day to 38 mins a day. We posit using Facebook stats that there are only between 20million and 30million US consumers active on the network on any given day out of 250 million Americans 14 and over. Not a bad pool but you can see why activity is so low.   

Today as a Marketer 8 of 9 US consumers are unreachable via Facebook.

But Facebook never tried Bribery! Maybe that is all we needed to share more. Would we share more if we earned points like we do Airline Miles. Would be stay with a network that we invested time and effort and have something! We have NOTHING with Facebook. Remember all the Myspace Pages we tricked out and put blood and sweat into then left? We we have put in even less into Facebook.

Lockerz is interesting that for activities you earn points that can be converted into deals. When I watch the video some things I can get with. Others I am not so sure because of human behavior will play out. They give an example of sharing the Camera I bought with friends and getting points. Then if someone buys it I get uuber points. But would a friend want that exact Camera? What if I said 'It's great but wish it had this feature'. Would maybe it being Brand Specific vs Model Specific be best? 

And how much do we want to share. Based on the fact the average Facebook user shares only 1.7 items a day out of the hundreds we see or can...the answer is not much. We didn't want Beacon. And there is a level of sharing we want ie "Cherry Picked Good Stuff...Gems...Steals etc' but we do not want to know everything everyone is buying, watching seeing. That becomes massive spam. Imagine if our Facebook feed was loaded with just 20 things each 'friend' did today. We would leave the network.

But what if the bribe was so incredible we put up with it? Would we just share without participation just for the points. It could be a gold mine of data for someone but maybe not quite the network they envision.

Fun Friday - The Do Lab!

If there ever was an Art Collective you might not know of...but probably know it's The Do Lab. From creating ridiculously crazy art cars for Burningman to their Sea of Dreams New Years Spectaculars to Lucent L'amour Valentines to Lightning in a Bottle to hauling their Alice in Wonderland Stages to festivals around the world such as Coachella Music Festival how can you not enjoy their creativity and vibe.

I first met them in 2005 at Burningman when they had this crazy Flower moving around the Playa and they have been part of my LA/West Coast Social Network since then. Some of my really good friends are part of the Collective as Resident DJ's to helping create and build their elaborate fantasy events and worlds.

Here is an incredible video from Lightning in a Bottle 2010. BTW ask @the_swedishfish how it was. He was there 8) Oh and the music is by The Glitch Mob  who will be in a future fun friday. Buy Drink the Sea on Amazon today! Drink the Sea MP3  and don't miss their summer tour! TOUR DATES

The LA Weekly just did an awesome coverage of their Stage and DJs from Coachella and while I might ridicule Coachella for having lame headliners (my view) the fact they have the Do Lab create a stage and bring underground music to the masses keeps them in my semi-good graces. There is also free music in the following article.

LINK

And here is my friend Patricio's amazing live set also downloadable for free on Soundcloud:

Patricio Coachella2011 by PATRICIO_LA

In fact if you go through the Coachella 09 video and search Soundcloud for those DJ's they all have free music you can get turned onto and just maybe you will find yourself at some rave party at 4am dancing wondering just how you got there 8)

You just need to do a search on You Tube or check out their site www.thedolab.com or fan them on Facebook or Twitter You just much catch one of their events or find out where they are bringing their stage to various festivals. Great people and amazing art!

All Points West 2009 New Jersey Patricio + Jupit3r

View from behind the DJ Set Up (Chief Alien's always have all access passes!)