The Blog

This is an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook and the rest of the Facebook team.

First, I have to say I’ve nothing but admiration for the way you have laid the foundations for a whole new way of connecting with people online.

Facebook is so appealing because it effortlessly allows me to communicate with people I know in real life by recreating a fairly accurate virtual representation of my connection(s) with them.

I’m hardly a power user, as you can probably tell. As founder of a self-funded UK startup, I haven’t a great deal of time to spend on Facebook each day but I enjoy what I use of the service.

The status updates of far flung friends are a joy to receive and news feed niceties about how someone’s day is going are… fantastic.

All that real-time feedback, genuine and personal as it often is, is awesome and makes my time on the site worthwhile.

All the same, as a start up founder myself; I understand the very real pressure to generate revenues you are now under.

It is almost unfair; a funding injection from Microsoft pitches Facebook as an Internet heavyweight valued at $15 billion dollars and expectations are now running incredibly high, fever pitch, in fact.

Yes, you have to find out a way to make money somehow. I respect that. Planning for each user to bring up to 100 new Facebook users onto the network (as I read somewhere) must be a logistical nightmare and probably very expensive.

And I’m not saying that as someone who doesn’t understand how hard it is to do something genuinely new. My company is also doing social media but from a slightly different perspective. We are about distributing professional content online directly onto sites like YouTube and Bebo, with the consent of the content owners, potentially bypassing traditional TV networks in the process.

So… I recognise disruption when I see it because I am living it. ;o)

However, tempting as it is to offer up my virtual connections with others as a tool for advertisers to invade my social circle on Facebook, I strongly advise against it.

I just don’t think it will work. That’s not how it works in real life.

I know of a handful of people who incessantly tell me about products they like because they are paid to and I don’t want to be one of those people.

And on Facebook, I won’t even be paid to. Not that I would want to anyway. Not for stuff I like. And the thing is, not everyone I like, likes the things I like. But that’s a different topic altogether…

Don’t get me wrong. The elegance of a beautifully-executed online representation of people’s real-life connections with each other, coupled with real-time insight into those connections and communications is a fantastic idea and a venture well worth millions, maybe even billions of dollars in its own right.

So I am piping up to say that I have personally derived enough value from Facebook’s recreation of my social graph that, even with my relatively nominal use, I am willing to pay for the service as it is now. Without Social Ads.

I’m probably not the only one.

My suggestion: use the Radiohead model and ask. Find out what Facebook users are willing to pay to use the service as it is now, without Social Ads.

Is it worth asking? I think so. You’ll never know unless you try…

The value in Facebook for me is the recreation of my social circle (or ‘social graph’ to use the correct term), at least that part that I choose to recreate online.

I would like the option to be able to pay for this service as it currently is – in return for the right to have none of my data used to sell advertising to me or indirectly to people connected to me.

Why? Because the value I get from Facebook is in the recreation of the authentic, physical relationships I have with my social ‘circle’ online. For ads, I can visit most online video sites. I recognise and accept the value exchange in place on those sites: my attention, in return for good content.

And how much would I pay for a Social Ads-free version of Facebook?

I’ve considered this too.

I currently pay an average of £7.50 a month (around $15 a month) to insure both my mobile phones numbers in the UK. This means that I retain either mobile phone number should anything happen to either of my handsets. The handset just gets replaced.

Essentially, I pay monthly for the convenience of not having to contact everyone I know to inform them about a new mobile phone number if I ever have to buy a new phone because one was lost or stolen.

You probably have a similar service in the States.

My point is, I’ve had one of my mobile phones for over six years and I keep paying that phone insurance, month in, month out. All my friends know that my number is effectively mine for life.

I would gladly pay around the same amount monthly for a service like Facebook for the convenience of using it as it is now, without the added distraction of advertisers bombarding me with special offers just because a friend shared what she had for breakfast.

Apologies if that is an oversimplification of Facebook Social Ads. This is how it currently appears to me.

My primary concerns with Facebook Social Ads are that I cannot see why my friends would really want to notify me about their affiliations with advertisers in their news feeds. I don’t see what’s in it for them other than just to spam me on behalf of those advertisers.

In addition, I’m not convinced that the advertisers on board have enough Facebook application developers working for them to make my experience of their ads enjoyable, engaging and non-intrusive.

Of course I might be wrong.

And so, just in case Social Ads turn out to be totally compelling, I ask that you consider offering another option.

I would like the option to be able to choose between the two:

‘Facebook without Social Ads’ or ‘Facebook with Social Ads’.

To summarise, if introducing Social Ads is considered the only way for Facebook to generate revenue then I would happily pay a monthly subscription and be spared the Social Ads until I know how authentic and engaging they are.

This is a fair exchange to continue receiving the service I enjoy now. And I am not even a power user. I am probably not even an ‘active’ user…

I don’t mind paying a regular subscription to allow Facebook to continue executing on a brilliant vision by concentrating on building a better service that:

• enhances my understanding of the social graph
• gives me full control in how I let others access my social graph
• encourages advertisers to become fans of me first and not the other way round. ;o)

Finally, thanks for persevering to make Facebook what it is now and for making it freely available. Those two factors alone would have involved making some tough decisions at some critical stage early on and I respect you for having been bold enough to have made them.

Keep up the good work.

This is an open letter. Anyone can respond…

Sincerely,
Chi-chi Ekweozor
Founder
Real Fresh TV

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2. The Future of Social Advertising: Social Media and Social Experiences
3. A Fresh Beginning… and Facebook is worth $15bn and you know it.
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5. Real Fresh TV hosts the UK’s first Facebook Q&A tomorrow, Join Us!