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Social Media Club St. Louis -- A Recap

By: Ashlyn Brewer | 06/01/2010

A couple weeks ago I was able to attend a Social Media Club St. Louis event along with one of my fellow new additions to the Standing Partnership team, Nick Sargent. A room full of social media enthusiasts from the St. Louis area ventured to Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood, Mo to hear a lively debate on the issue of Facebook privacy. I'm a huge fan (or is that "liker?") of Facebook, but I found both sides of the argument interesting. The rest of the crowd also seemed to thoroughly enjoy the discussion and attendees frequently interrupted the debate to ask questions or make comments.

Brian Schwartz , interactive director at Spoke Marketing, took a position in favor of Facebook. Two of his arguments were:

1.        Marketers using the information collected by Facebook aren't being malicious, they're trying to ensure that consumers see advertisements that they are likely to be interested in, which improves both the consumer's experience and the marketer's success rate.

2.       On the Web, the best policy is to not share information that you don't want out there. Users should rely on yourself, and not any website's privacy policy to protect your personal information.

Matt Ridings , president and CEO of MSR Consulting, took the stance that Facebook has gone too far with its open stance on user privacy. His main arguments were:

1.        By forcing asking users to opt-out rather than opt-in to the sharing of their information, Facebook overcomplicates the process of protecting the information you share on the site.

2.       Is user reluctance to leave Facebook really due to their trust in the site, or is it just that there is no viable alternative with the features Facebook provides? When Ridings asked, most of the room said they'd be willing to try a new social networking site that provided the same features but offered better privacy protection. However, that alternative does not currently exist.

Overall the night provided interesting discussion and friendly debate between members of the social media scene in St. Louis and allowed us the chance to examine the issue of Facebook privacy from the perspective of both a marketer and a consumer.

Related links:

• A response to the privacy debate written by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and creator of Facebook.
• Another attendee blogs his take on the social media club event.

Posted in Digital Communications