Ep. 9 The Real Business of Facebook – and how you can benefit

Listen or watch the full episode below:

SUBSCRIBE + LISTEN TO SMART AF ON:

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION –

(transcription is auto-generated)

SAF 09

[00:00:00] Torie: I will tell you that I get these advertisements for really comfortable men’s underwear. I guess there’s something about cupping the balls or something.

Hey, welcome to Smart AF I’m your host Torie Mathis. We’ve got a great show for you today. So let’s get started. Something I think that a lot of people don’t realize, and I realized this when people were shocked that Facebook sells data or attention to people, to advertisers. I don’t think people realize what business Facebook actually is.

[00:00:43] Sean: I gotta make money somehow they do it.

[00:00:45] Torie: It’s not a non-profit, it’s not, and it’s free. Facebook has to pay the bills. So how does Facebook make all this money? Well, Facebook is in the business of collecting data. Now they’re not actually giving your data to anybody, but what they’re actually doing is collecting every piece of information about everything you do online, say you enjoy gardening. So you look up things about tulips and you look up things about gardening trips. Then they’re going to know that if somebody wants to attract an audience of gardeners, they can use you and people like you to show them advertisements and people will gladly pay lots of money to show you things that you like because that’s what Facebook is.

[00:01:29] Sean: Okay. All of a sudden, you’re going to wind up seeing the top of the line lawn seeds available in your new battery powered lawn mower and all this stuff. And it’s no mistake either. You looked up something or saw something. And now Facebook knows that you may have even a little tiny bit of an interest in it. And they’re gonna, they’re gonna start shoving this stuff down your throat so that the companies that are paying money to show that to you. Yeah, it’s going to be worth it. 

[00:01:56] Torie: Shoving it down your throat. I say sending me stuff and showing me things that I like. I like seeing things that I like. And in a way, I think that it’s a good thing. It might be because I’m a marketer. So I kind of understand how the backend of it’s working. But I think to me, it’s a good thing. It, it, it keeps you more interested, which interest is definitely what Facebook is all about. I always explain it to people as Facebook creates your own utopia, things that are all about you. Why? Because Facebook wants to keep you on Facebook as long as possible. And that is really true. If I ever accidentally go on your Facebook Sean, because your Facebook does not look like mine. It is a totally different experience. It’s all cars, but isn’t that funny when I’m like, oh, did you see this thing? And you’re like, no, I’ve never seen anything about that at all. 

[00:02:49] Sean: No, it’s funny is you’ll see, you’ll see different sponsored ads or even the ones that we run and do. You’ll get comments on there and they’re like good luck. I don’t know why you keep wasting your money. Sending me ads.They don’t realize it’s not perfect, but you can make your own Facebook feed a little bit better and hide the ad.

If it really has nothing to do with you. And somewhere, the algorithm is just a little, not correct for you. Hide it and say, it’s irrelevant and you’re not going to see any stuff like that. And it, I mean, you’re not gonna you’re always going to see ads in your news feed, but maybe they’re going to, you can make it so that they’re a little bit more interesting to you at least are not.

Something that you we’re completely against because somewhere along the line, you looked at something and it told Facebook that you liked something, for example, Teslas, right? Not everybody loves him. I see a lot of ads for Tesla accessories and all that kind of stuff. And every once in a while you can wind up seeing a few comments on there and they’re like, I can’t afford a Tesla, or I hate Tesla’s, you know, They’re not green vehicles at all.

They’re, you know, whatever the negative thing it is that they’re saying, meanwhile, little, do they know that they’re making it stronger for them to show more? Because now it’s like, dude, you don’t want to see it. Just hide the ad, say its aroma and you’ll never see it again. But instead, they feel like they got a comment on it, which just confuses Facebook’s algorithm.

Because you think you don’t want to see it, but Facebook says now you not only want to see it, you’re going to engage with them, which means you’re gonna see it more often. 

[00:04:32] Torie: Yes. The more you engage, the more you comment, the more you share, the more you look upon anything, whether it’s your hatred for, or your love for Facebook is going to show you more of that.

[00:04:42] Sean: Do not engage in anything you don’t like. 

[00:04:44] Torie: Otherwise it will show you more because that’s what Facebook is doing is trying to purposefully show you things that you like, things that you’re interested in, things that you want to engage in so that you stay on the platform even longer. 

[00:04:57] Sean: I was showing Torie all these sponsored ads that I was seeing that were four different running challenges. And like, Hey, you can get a metal for this or a badge for this. And it’s just, it’s crap. You do on your own that you then say you did. And then this company sends you a badge. I wound up seeing those all there’s just a ton of different companies selling these different badges. Metals and all these different things you can do for, I have no intention of doing this.

I just looked at it once to show Torie I hid it. I don’t see. 

[00:05:29] Torie: There’s a lot of opportunity for any business though. Even just looking at that because Facebook’s algorithm and Facebook’s data collections able to see that you looked at something one time showed a little bit of interest and all these other companies that were similar to that company were then able to say, Sean is interested in, in badges for running back, you know, awards for doing sportsmen like activities. And then they were able to direct the ads towards you. I still get ads for running shoes. And how long ago were you looking at running 

[00:05:59] Sean: shoes? I never looked at running shoes, but it has to, it has to do with running. 

[00:06:07] Torie: There are ways inside of ads. And I do think that, like you said, people make comments like, oh, this isn’t for me. People do make the mistake of ads of trying to show them way too broad, which makes you think that the Facebook algorithm doesn’t work, but it’s more that there’s just some marketers out there that are really trying to fine tune, or just try to find their audience and that shotgun approach doesn’t always work because I will tell you that I get these advertisements for really comfortable men’s underwear.

Like, I guess there’s something about like cup in the balls or something that makes them more comfortable. They’re very hunt funny and be very explicit about how comfortable they are. And I have never looked at anything around that at all. So I’m not sure where they’re targeting. 

[00:06:48] Sean: They, they must, they must be like going towards married women or something because the women are more likely to purchase for their husbands or something versus directly trying to target the guys. May or may not really care. 

[00:07:03] Torie: Sometimes we fall into a bucket too, that maybe we’re not usual for like a veteran. Both of us are veterans. So if people targeted veterans, you being a veteran is different than targeting me as a veteran, but we would both fall under that same thing. So you know, there’s a little wiggle room in there.

So knowing that Facebook has this utopia for you is a way that any business can go on there and try to target people that would want their business. And if you don’t like what Facebook showing you, like Sean said, you can easily hit the three little dots. Say why is Facebook showing me this ad and hide the ad, stop complaining about it.

[00:07:39] Sean: You can make your Facebook feed as clean as you want it to be.