Facebook Launches Tacky Presents "Gifts" App - FAIL!

Here's another crappy Facebook app that I don't think is going to fly. I mean, if you care enough about someone to buy them a birthday present, you certainly aren't going to buy some trash from Facebook (unless, of course, you also think buying birthday presents at 7-11 is OK!)

 

Give a gift with class... 7-11 wine or Facebook chocolates or socks!

Stuff.co.nz has the story in Facebook Users Can Send Presents:

Facebook is rolling out a service called Gifts which, as its name suggests, lets users send chocolate, coffee, socks and other real-life presents to one another. 

Facebook Gifts launched Thursday to a subset of users in the US and will roll out to more over the coming months as people begin to send gifts to each other. 

Users will be able to click on a "gifts" icon on their Facebook friends' pages on Facebook's website or on Android mobile phones. (iPhone and iPad versions are coming soon.) 

The icon will also show up on the right side of users' Facebook pages with the notifications for friends' birthdays, weddings and other life events. For example, if your friend's birthday is coming up in two days, you'll now see a "give her a gift" link and the gift icon next to her name and photo. 

Clicking the icon will display presents users can buy, such as a Starbucks gift card, cupcakes or a teddy bear. 

The recipient will be notified through Facebook to enter a shipping address for the presents. In some cases, they'll be able to select their own cupcake flavours or size and style of socks. They can also exchange gifts for other items if they don't like chocolate or don't wear socks. 

This is desperate.  I mean, getting a Facebook "Happy Birthday" notice is bad enough as it is, but actually ordering presents through Facebook? Then the recipient has to enter their mailing address to received a gift? Now there's 26 things to hate about Facebook!

Doh! Now why in the world would I give someone a present if I don't care about them enough to even know their mailing address?! And, if I receive a "presents" notice from someone who doesn't know my address (and didn't call me or send me an email to ask) does anyone think I'm going to input my mailing address into Facebook?!

You guys are kidding, right?

This is tacky and, I predict, another Facebook FAIL!

Facebook is a Failure as a Marketing and Sales Tool - Here's Data!

Marc Sheffner posts an incredibly interesting article at the Searching For Accurate Maps blog about how Facebook is actually a losing proposition when it comes to marketing and promotion. 

Actually, I suspected so. I'm glad Marc put up some real numbers for people to get into.


Please refer to End of Facebook?

Ad Age, a six-week study of Facebook’s Fan pages showed a mere 0.45% of fans engaged in any way beyond clicking “Like.” This indicates that Facebook fan bases and actual engagement aren’t the same thing.

The average engagement for the 10 brands with the largest fan bases (like Harley Davidson, Nike and Porsche) was 0.36%. The highest engagement was in the alcohol category and the lowest in laundry detergent, social platforms and apps.

In other Facebook marketing news, my colleague Brian Croner reports that “world famous Sun Valley Ski Resort here in Idaho, invested their entire $950,000 ad budget in Facebook advertising in 2011 and it bombed. It bombed so bad in fact, they fired their marketing director. Last year they had more snow than they knew what to do with and still couldn’t pack the hotels after using FB exclusively.

Read more at Accurate Maps. 


Looking at how badly Groupon is dropping, refer to Groupon Shares Fall Off a Cliff, Down 42% Since IPO, Facebook had better IPO as soon as possible because I suspect that the actual value of these social networks could be close to zero. I already know that Facebook is losing money. 


Don't forget that, just a few years ago, Myspace was the King of Social Networks... Today? They closed their office in Japan last month.


Could Facebook be a few years behind Myspace?