Internet Marketing Blog

Facebook’s FoodFight: A Marketer’s Data Dream Field

October 11, 2007 – 4:48 pm

So we all know the biggest news in social networking. That’s right, it’s Facebook, the site whose clean design and safety features have made it the fastest growing, if not largest, hot spot on the web. Students love it (professionals too) and with 43 million users posting unprecedented levels of personal information, it’s also a marketer’s data dream field.

There’s a problem, however. Facebook’s safety features, while neutralizing most malicious users, also have made it a nasty chore to gather anything besides a consumer’s name and network information.

The result was a challenge: how could the market’s brightest innovators create a model for gathering data? One young entrepreneur, according to the latest issue of Business 2.0, thinks he’s found the answer. Using Facebook’s open platform for programming design, California’s Seth Goldstein in collaboration with David Gentzel created a series of applications, including Happy Hour, (fluff) Friends, and FoodFight under the startup SocialMedia.

Click the links below to get a glimpse of these popular Facebook applications.

How do these goofy applications, users in FoodFight throw (shocker!) food at friends, make money for Goldstein and marketers? The answer is surprisingly simple: to earn virtual money, with which digital food or drinks can be purchased, users must answer questions posed by marketers. Goldstein sells the data to marketers, who in turn receive valuable information direct from the lips of America’s consumers. Goldstein has even begun to specialize and sophisticate the process. Certain products, like poop in FoodFight, are exceptionally popular (it’s the sophistication that’s key here, really), so users must answer more questions to earn it.

In the few months since Facebook’s platform was opened up, Goldstein’s applications have attracted a whopping 13 million users. Marketer’s are (and should be) drooling, and there are a few ways YOU can get in the action.

Is an employee in your tech department excited about Facebook’s open platform and audience of 43 million? Get them to write an application for you, which will incorporate advertising for your site. Simple is better here, and MySpace (let’s face it) is a good source of ideas. Many of Facebook’s most popular applications have been based on programs originally designed for the MySpace crowd (MySpace was, in fact the first social media site to offer an open platform, but they failed to present programmers with the option to profit from it see The Facebook Economy). Other good sources for ideas include your other Facebook friends, younger siblings, cousins, and/or children.

Another way to capitalize on the popularity of Facebook apps: Swallow your pride and purchase that data from Goldstein or one of his fellow entrepreneurs. It’s good, hot, and specialized. Keep in mind the demographic of people you’re purchasing data about. (Don’t assume Donald Trump and his colleagues laid it all out for FoodFight’s poop).

Buy ad space on a hot application’s home page. Beware, though, that these users probably signed up for the application because it was free. Selling an image or a free product (Blog news, free newsletters, free advice) may be most effective. Relate the product to the game itself, and try to look as little like a banner ad as possible. Most users (i.e. myself) have been scarred at one point or another by a scamming banner ad.

Hip, interactive, innovative: Facebook has everything the modern social media marketer needs.