Is Facebook Dying? Yes, and Here's Why

welcome back it's good to see you my name is Mike Gaston and in this episode I want to take a minute and talk about Facebook and what I believe is their biggest problem now it's important to talk about this for a couple reasons first of all Facebook's in the news it's something that we hear about often it's something that we use regularly whether directly or indirectly most of us are interacting somehow with the Facebook platform we could be interacting as business owners driving social media campaigns we keep interacting as users of the platform trying to keep in touch with friends or organize the latest get together at the bar down the street regardless Facebook has become an integrated part of everyone's life these days whether we like it or not so I want to talk about the biggest problem that they have right now what they're doing wrong because I think it affects us all but I also want to talk about because I think that there's a lesson to be learned I think that the thing that Facebook is doing this primary mistake that they are making gives us an opportunity to learn something it's a classic mistake I think that it can be instructive and it's something that we can take and apply to our own businesses to avoid the problems that Facebook is having avoid the potholes and pitfalls and cliff that Facebook seems to be driving off at this moment [Music] now there's been a lot said around Facebook and people said look they need to do this they need to do that it's time to fire Zuckerberg it's time to fire sheryl sandberg let's get some new management in there and I would agree with some of those sentiments I think Zak and Sandberg have done a terrible job running this company there is almost like a systemic arrogance within this business in the way that they treat their users and that really gets at the core issue of what I think their main problem is now firing them may or may not happen regardless but I think the one thing that Facebook needs to step back and take inventory of and be honest with itself is to say how do we treat our users do we respect our users I think that is at the core of the issue beleaguering Facebook I think not respecting their users is their biggest problem now when I say this I'm not making the mistake of saying they're not respecting their customers let's make a differentiation here ask yourself who is Facebook's customer now we all run around acting like we think that we are their customer the personal users of Facebook we're all screaming about our privacy our right to say what we want to say in the platform our right to see the content that we think we should be able to see and we kind of raise our fists and grab our pitchforks and torches and we want to march on Facebook's headquarters saying hey we're the customer we're always right you should treat us better but the fact of the matter is you and I the the personal users of Facebook we are not their customer in fact we are what they are selling we're the product we are the eyeballs you see Facebook has to create a large audience and once you've got an audience just like newspapers and televisions and now YouTube with video you can sell eyeballs you can sell ad space and so Facebook's business model is really about selling ad space to its customers well who are those customers those are the advertisers that want to take out space on Facebook and advertise their goods and services so let's not make the mistake of saying that we're the customer and we should be treated better it doesn't excuse Facebook for its behavior but if you look at the model the customer is that business government not-for-profit whoever it is that wants to get their message out that buys advertising space that's the customer and you and I unfortunately are the product to me Hatcher you gotta tell them Charlotte we are the thing that the customer wants to get access to were the ones that they want to sell to so even knowing that about the model though we have to ask the question why is it that Facebook treats its users people like you and I with such disdain now what are you talking about Mike I can say that Facebook treats us with disdain well if you look at the scandals over the last number of months and over the last couple years you look at Mark Zuckerberg being called up before Congress to answer for his behavior and the way that the company has treated the data of Facebook users you look at things like the Cambridge analytic a scandal you look at things like even your feed your newsfeed it is indicative of Facebook's attitude towards you why is it in our newsfeed we can't just see the posts from our friends and family in chronological order in the order that they happen why is it that Facebook takes it upon itself to curate the feed for you why does it decide who you get to see and who you don't get to see out of your friends well there's a reason for that they want to control the experience they want to make the experience better for you maybe ultimately what it is it's a lack of respect for your autonomy in your ability to make good decisions for yourself Facebook doesn't trust you to make decisions for yourself what does that say about Facebook's view of you and I if I connect with cousin Sally on Facebook well I want to see her in my feet I want to see the latest trip to Hawaii and I want to see pictures of her grandchildren because she's family and I connected with her but Facebook looks at that and says you know Mike doesn't need to see cousin Sally what does facebook show me it doesn't show me at cousin Sally it wants to show me some trip that some guy from second grade that I haven't seen in 40 years made to Sedona with his biker gang buddies for some reason Facebook thinks that's more interesting to me and of course it's not true what I want to see is just a stream of information posts content in chronological order from everyone that I'm connected with and I'll do the sifting I know how to sort and sift and skim and kyun on things that I think is important another example of that is Facebook's virtue signaling around how it's doing so much to eliminate fake news it's telling you that you and I are too stupid to really understand what's true and what's not true and it will moderate and curate the news for hours it'll show us news that it has deemed to be true and authentic and worthy of our eyeballs and ultimately our minds and hearts now I understand that you can couch all this in a desire to do better for your customers and create a better experience but I feel that Facebook's cross the line they're not thinking for me trying to give me what I want they're give me what they think I should have and there's a big difference there I think when you and I look at our users or our customers our audience and we dictate to them what we think is best for them we're being patronizing we're being arrogant we're assuming that we know better than our customers we know better than our users and the fact of the matter is we don't necessarily we should respect the autonomy of those that we do business with we should respect the autonomy of those that we have relationships with and business is a relationship you and I have some sort of relationship with Facebook it probably started out really good and you love that relationship and you couldn't wait to sit down and spend time with your favorite social media platform but that relationship has soured over time as Facebook is taking you and I for granted and as they have belittled us and dehumanized us and decided that they know best for us it's almost like the parent that just won't let the child grow up they just always know better at what point do you and I get to spread our wings at what point do we get to exercise our autonomy what Facebook seems to be doing is stripping more and more autonomy away now this isn't a rant against Facebook because I have a chip on my shoulder this isn't really about politics and I don't agree with Sandberg and Zuckerberg politics and all that kind of stuff we could talk about that that would be an interesting video but I think there's a lot of that content out there but as a business person an entrepreneur and a marketing person I can't help but look at this and comment on the fact that Facebook does not respect its users and it's that disrespect that is going to undo it they can treat their customers as good as they'd like to treat them they can be great to the advertisers give them great deals put together great interfaces to make it easy to advertise with Facebook but ultimately if they don't treat you and I well if they betray our trust which I believe they have done numerous times they will end up shooting themselves in the foot they will end up with a business that isn't able to produce the results that used to and for a simple classic reason they didn't respect their users so as you go about your day as you look at your business maybe your marketing campaigns maybe your products and services think for a moment does this approach does this product as a service does this marketing campaign does our brand does this messaging respect the user am i showing respect to their autonomy am i showing respect to the fact that they're not a means to my end they are an end unto themselves is what I'm doing respectful to my customers and to my users if you can answer that and the affirmative then you're fine but like Facebook if you can't you've got to take a step back take a good hard look at what you're doing and what is it that informed that disregard that disrespect that overlook that seems to be happening when it comes to users guys thanks for your time I hope you found this useful if you are someone that is interested in branding and marketing strategy if you're someone running a business and entrepreneurship and you care about those kinds of things do me a favor hit that subscribe button I share content that will help you grow and scale your business folks I love you all and I will see you in the next video [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Mike Gastin

Views: 17,676

Rating: 4.7923875 out of 5

Keywords: is facebook dying, facebook dying, facebook is dying, facbook in trouble, social media, facebook, social media trends, the death of facebook, facebook trends, what's wrong with facebook, marketing, users, customers, mark zuckerberg, sheryl sandberg, facebook is dying out, facebook scandal, cambridge analytica, facebook cambridge analytica, mike gastin, gastin, mike, digital marketing, digital advertising, facebook ads, facebook advertising

Id: OZrJ4G948qo

Length: 9min 41sec (581 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 10 2018