Internet Marketing Blog

Social Media Marketing: Lessons from a Matchmaker

January 8, 2008 – 12:41 pm

Match.com is the latest Corporation to try it’s hand at the the world of Facebook

Match.com’s latest attempt to generate a wider social media user base has made big news, but faces even bigger challenges. In what objective social media experts might call a match (har!) made in interactive heaven, Match.com has created a Facebook application which pulls user data from a Facebook profile and, with help from Match.com’s algorithms, identifies potential matches. 99 cents unlocks the user data and contact info for those matches (”Match.com Integrates with Facebook“).

The devil, or potentially devastating flaw, for this program is in the details. The application fails to stipulate whether it matches you with other Facebook users or other Match.com profiles. Then, when the application sets you up, it pulls little or no data from your profile. Email address and name are automatically picked up, but most meaningful data must be manually entered. It also costs money to contact potential matches using the application. As other Facebook application writers have discovered, wildly popular Facebook applications are intuitive, simple, easy to implement, and FREE.

Little Black Book’s branding design and programming development is also seriously flawed. The logo is a lipstick smudge with the words “Little Black Book” scrawled across it in Match.com’s corporate font (feminine targeting in a totally 50/50 industry….hmmmm….). The technical e-commerce programming, according to some comments left on an internal Facebook page, is shoddy and has already damaged profits because it is incompatible with Mac web browsers and Mozilla Firefox. Match.com also fails to explain Little Black Book’s competitive advantage over other, FREE, matchmaker Facebook applications (or, for that matter, just using Facebook’s “Advanced Search” option).

That said, one must also admire this foray by a dating site into the world of social media networking and application design. The irony, really, is that it has not happened before. Facebook’s 50 million+ users blow the 17 million users on leading online matchmaker site eHarmony.com, as well as Match.com’s own 15 million users, out of the water (”Little Love Among Matchmakers“). Access to such a wide user base of people, clearly comfortable with posting ridiculous amounts of information about themselves online and connecting with others, has unlimited potential. The question is, how can profit-making companies mesh corporate ideas with the loose independence, fiery passion, and evolving world of Facebook’s primary users (let’s face it, the entire operation is being run by a 23 year-old college drop-out and even he has a hard time knowing what will fly on his site and what won’t….see “Facebook Dims the Beacon Spotlight“).

At 53 users per day, Match.com’s little Facebook app has a long way to go before it is reaching the number of Facebook junkies who are hatching eggs, sending drinks, or throwing food. But, the application is new and, like many other corporations, right now Match.com is just trying to feel out the landscape of social networking on Facebook. As the social media world continues to evolve, a success here could mean exponential returns in the future for both Match.com and a myriad of other social media sites seeking a broader user base.