Play Things : Facebook

Become a model for Facebook. Or not.

Sidin Vadukut — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:54:00 GMT

A curious thing happened a few days ago when Cheryl Smith's husband was browsing through Facebook. He suddenly saw one of those dating ads they show you on the website. You know the type. "This hottie wants you right now! And we are not thinking platonic! Wink! Nudge! Ok click now."

You know how it is.

But the only catch was the hottie in the picture in the advertisement was... Cheryl Smith. Thankfully Cheryl's husband laughed it off. (No doubt wondering to himself what would have transpired if the vice versa had happened. Shudder.)

Apparently Facebook has a setting that allows you to permit (or not) the social network to use your image in advertisements. Cheryl tells you how in her blogpost:

If you don’t want to show up in your friends’ FaceBook ads, go to:

Settings
Privacy
News Feed and Wall
Click on “Facebook Ads”
In the “Appearance in Facebook Ads” box, click “no one” (unless, of course, you actually want to tell your spouse to check out hot singles)

Don't tell us we didn't warn you.

(I am currently working on a modeling career. So I am seriously hoping they use my image in that 'Hot Singles Now!' ad. Or 'Passably Decent Looking Singles Now!' ad. Or anything really. I could use any breaks.)

Image courtesy: Culturesmithconsulting.com

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Vodafone Zoozoos on Facebook!

Ayeshea Perera — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:17:00 GMT

Zoozoos these days it seems are everywhere. The antics of these egg headed strange white humanoids have been entertaining millions of IPL viewers during commercial breaks for some weeks now. And now, these new Vodafone ambassadors have their own facebook fanpage, which is growing (even by facebook standards) at amazing speed. At around 11 am, the page had roughly over 26,000 fans. Barely five hours later, that number was over 30,000.

The page creators are clearly facebook savvy. They have uploaded albums, shared links and even created innovative zoozoo type products based on popular trends on facebook. That ludicrous “tag your friends into this sheet of cartoons depicting personality stereotypes” craze for instance.

They have created two (admittedly very cute) pictures various zoozoos depicting personality stereotypes for people to tag. Hats off. Not only are the page managers homing in on a popular trend on the social networking site, they are also pulling off a clever piece of viral marketing.

As more and more people get tagged on these photos, they tag others in return, ensuring visibility of that particular photograph across thousands and thousands of profile pages. Now assuming that each of those profiles have at least 200 friends, that is a LOT of eyeballs for the zoozoos and vodafone.

The page itself is bustling with activity. The “wall” is full of fan comments ranging from “They are cho chweeet” to “what would happen if I boiled one?” Fans have also quickly come together to give each other (and the world at large) more information about zoozoos. They have posted links to interviews, put up any information that they may have read or heard and have even posted fan photos and discussion topics. Page admins (presumably) also keep jumping in, to either corroborate or contradict information and do a good job of keeping discussion going.

The one source of frustration for them seems to be however, the fact that some fans are trying to leave the “official fan page” nest and build other fan sites. There have been several attempts to dissuade, either by trying to discredit these sites by stating that they are not “official” or entreating people to stay within one page and not dilute the community. And this could be their undoing. In a community hypersensitive to anything they see as “protectionism” or “propriety behaviour”, the zoozoo creators might well be setting themselves up for an Internet backlash.

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Australian couple sued via Facebook message

Sidin Vadukut — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:56:00 GMT

So what is common to both Hotel California and Facebook? Answer: You can check out any time you like. But you can never, ever leave.

A couple in Australia who hoped that absconding from home and refusing to check email would prevent them being served legal papers were thwarted by the eponymous social networking site. The BBC explains:

Mark McCormack, a lawyer in Canberra, persuaded a court to allow him to use the unusual method after other attempts to reach them failed. The couple's home is being repossessed after they reportedly missed payments on a loan of over A$100,000 ($67,000; £44,000).

The lawyer used her personal details on Facebook to prove that it was, indeed, her. Her partner was found amongst her friends list.

The court agreed provided:

In granting permission to use the social networking site, the judge stipulated that the papers be sent via a private email so that other people visiting the page could not read their contents.

What's the point of the "social" in the social network if you can't observe legal proceedings is what I am thinking...

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Facebook demographics revelation: Indian men like Sex And The City

Sidin Vadukut — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:06:00 GMT

Well around a thousand of them at least.

Facebook boffins will do well to check out the Facebook Demographics analysis tool that is available hidden deep inside the ubiquitous social networking website. While reaching the tool is a pain, it is well worthwhile as hours of fun and frolic proceed forthwith. These are some of the key learnings this blog was able to attain after spending much of this morning with the tool:

1. No. of people on Facebook in India: 808640

2. No. of Indian males: 441,480

3. No. of Indian females: 317,520

4. No. of Indian Facebookers with mysterious ambiguous genders: 49,640

Now the cool stuff: (All for Indians on Facebook.)

5. No. of men interested in women: 160,060

6. No. of women who said they are interested in men: 37,740 (Ah... women. Sigh.)

7. No. of men interested in men: 2,160

8. No. of women interested in women: 1,980

Now for the really cool stuff:

9. No. of married women interested in men: 2,080 (Oh??)

10. No. of married men interested in women: 26,560 (Oh yeah baby!)

11. No. of married men interested in men: 140

12. No. of married women interested in women: 280 (Disclaimer: They may have been looking for company to go to the restroom.)

13. Indians on Facebook between the ages of 50 and 65: 11,080

14. No. of men who like Salman Rushdie: 120

15. No. of men who like Baywatch: 340

16. No. of men who like Sex And The City: 980 (Holy Ralph Lauren and Manolo Blahnik!)

And then of course we decided to search for the holy grail of male, geeky, online social networking: the ideal geek babe:

As Shakespeare himself once did not say: "Nay shall ye abandon hope fair geek brothers. For thy bullet-time loving maidens exist verily!"

For more fun and frolic on your own time, reach the Facebook Demographic tool like so:

1. Go to Facebook.com

2. Click on the Advertising link at the bottom.

3. Click on Get Started

4. Create a dummy ad. Click Continue

5. Enjoy! If Facebook is not blocked in your office then this shall be your poison for today.

p.s. Fact that will much please editor of this newspaper: 7120 Desi Facebookers like Obama. Less than three hundred like McCain.

All statistics are approximate. As you can make out from the wavy lines in front of them numbers. Do not base expensive marketing campaigns on them.

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