Can Facebook make huge profits from its users' huge egos?

As if there were any more reasons to boost our generation’s gargantuan egos, Facebook has given them yet another outlet for self-obsession.

A new feature appeared recently with relatively little hype, offering the opportunity to “promote” a status on the site. Upon posting “what’s on your mind,” the option appears to give that status a particular extra significance to the world.

After selecting such an option, a new prompt appears, this one for your credit card number. For a small fee — only $7 — you can put your status at the top of your friends’ news feeds, essentially calling attention to it above all of the other crap that accumulates on the draincatch of the internet. There are many seemingly attention-starved people on Facebook in the first place, and if they begin feeling particularly desperate, this model of cash for increased affirmation could end up gaining some success.

First of all, this opportunity to “promote” oneself is indicative of many of the business challenges Facebook has recently faced. Ad revenue has not been nearly as successful as hoped, and the marketability of the stock was not as high as was originally predicted. To ensure a continued flow of revenue, the website had to find alternative ways to get people to want to pay to use the site, a site whose success in the first place was partially due to its free use.

While Facebook claims it will always be a free social networking tool, it does not claim it won’t find new ways to use the money its users willingly volunteer.
Plus, with all the extraneous, useless and often false information that infiltrates a person’s news feed, it wouldn’t hurt to be able to put the important stuff at the top.
Nobody cares which meme is trending most on the Internet or that your uncle just planted a row of corn on Farmville.

To be able to put the important things where they belong and let the cream rise is not
opportunistic. When actually used for good, salient information, the “promote” tool could be beneficial to everyone involved.

This is a big step by Facebook, demonstrating a willingness to try different business models. This is a site that is truly one of a kind and, in terms of experimentation, has yet to prove exactly how it will support itself financially.

The owners are also smart enough to take advantage of the lack of a real alternative at this point on the market. They have the monopoly on their unique form of social media.

Sorry, Google+.

Facebook has all the freedom in the world to try and potentially fail until it gets it right.
It isn’t a bad call to throw this out and see if it floats.

Now, it is up to the consumer to decide whether it will.

It is a steep fee to be willing to put those important — or so you think — thoughts at the top of friends’ Internet worlds. I don’t know the exact regulations surrounding the use of the tool, but in an interesting twist, it might not be your typical broke college students who choose to do it. Instead, it might be businesses and advertisers. That, too, could be an interesting opportunity for revenue.

We shall see.

The real question, then, becomes who is to deem what is and is not truly important.
If only all of the important people were willing to pay the $7 and all of the unimportant people weren’t, then the system would be great.

Unfortunately, the world doesn’t always work this neatly, and sometimes it’s the fools that shout the loudest.

If that’s the case, this could be just another opportunity for the ignorant and oblivious to have their 15 minutes of fame.

At least among their 976 Facebook friends.

­— azoot@indiana.edu