Until August 2011, Randi Zuckerberg was the voice of Facebook. The sister of the Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg acted both as the company’s spokesperson and its director of market development. Since then she has struck out on her own with Zuckerberg Media, and on Nov. 26 she’ll be in Toronto to promote her two new books: Dot, a children’s story about unplugging from devices, and Dot.Complicated, a non-fiction look at the intersection between social life and the social web.
Ahead of the talk at the University of Toronto, Marketing spoke to Zuckerberg about privacy on social networks and where brands fit into the social web.
In Dot.Complicated you write a lot about privacy and how it fits into the social world. What happens to privacy when consumers share almost everything on sites like Facebook?
In real life, there’s public information and very private information. In the middle of that is personal information, the stuff you might share with your parents or your book club. On the internet, there is only public and private. We lose personal information.
As a Facebook employee, you got to see how the site is built and tweaked from the inside. How does the privacy debate affect the way social networks like Facebook are built?
Privacy is so important, it’s on consumers’ minds all the time. I’ve seen in my years at Facebook and from watching what other social media companies are going through that [social networks] have to take privacy into account with every new product and every feature they build.
These sites are free and voluntary for people to sign up for, so the only thing keeping people on your service is their trust. The second you violate that, it’s really easy for people to go and use another service.
How have privacy expectations changed in recent years?
In the last few years people have certainly gotten more comfortable sharing more private information online. You see that with people’s comfort with online banking and medical health records. People feel more comfortable putting that stuff online then ever before. Similarly, with sharing, people are also getting more comfortable. It’s now almost becoming a de facto part of life that you share things, connect with businesses and connect with acquaintances online.
Are some consumers moving in the opposite direction – to wanting more privacy and sharing less?
No one is forcing you to use any of these social media sites. The number of people on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube is growing and growing. Even if people have those concerns, their concerns are obviously not great enough to stop them from going to these social media sites in droves.
Your book covers many aspects of social life and how it connects to the social web. Where do brands fit in?
There’s more opportunities than ever before for brands that are willing to get a little creative and do fun things, especially now that visual sites like Pinterest and Instagram have come to the forefront. It’s opening up so many possibilities.
Every brand needs to think of themselves as a media company. No brand is just creating a product or putting a service out. Even if you have four fans on your Facebook page, you’re a media company and you need to think about putting out content to delight your fan base.
What are some of your favourite brands to follow on social media?
Diane Von Furstenberg. I love how every time she launches her new collection, she does a Google Hangout where you can shop the collection with her. I also loved how at the Super Bowl Oreo jumped on pop culture when the lights went out. My favourite ever – and this was years ago now – is the Old Spice guy making custom YouTube videos. Those are great examples of successful brands thinking of themselves as content companies and not as just a product.
Your children’s book, Dot, follows a young girl both using technology and exploring the outdoors. When writing it, did you think at all about how advertisers are also following children online and targeting ads to them?
It’s an interesting conundrum. As a parent, these sites are voluntary to sign up for. You have to understand that nothing is totally free. If you’re leveraging a free service and getting enjoyment out of it, there’s going to be ads. People are okay with putting their child in front of a television that has ads on it. I think you need to be very diligent about monitoring and talking to your children about what they’re doing, what sites they’re visiting and helping them understand they might see ads or messages on their screen.
