Retail Social Strategy Fear: Facebook Data May Be Short-Lived
Written by Evan SchumanMay 27th, 2010
It's a rare retail long-term strategy meeting where social networks do not come up. How far do we go in sharing information with social networks? What's the best way to proceed? Usually, that discussion comes down to some variation of "how much should we use existing sites—such as Facebook—and how much should we do on our own sites?"
The big challenge with trying to answer those questions is that the established social sites are moving targets. Facebook, for example, on Wednesday (May 26) announced it will be offering tighter controls over consumer information. Where will this option lead six months from now? Your operation may put in a huge amount of cash to develop a spectacular site on Facebook, only to later learn that the site won't permit you to track user activity--even in your page clicking on your products. Facebook might prohibit you from knowing anything someone does in your site short of making a purchase.
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
I have strong reservations about the 'individual' certification and posting of that information for merchants. Can you imagine the potential employee poaching that might occur? The implications when competitors can look up how many are certified with each of their competitors? 
-Christine
