Wise & Young: The nuances of Gen-Y marketing, branding, advertising, trends, & more

Since 2005, I’ve been a huge evangelist for Facebook, I loved the simplicity, speed, and the privacy. Furthermore, the thing that made me glued to Facebook compared to the other social networks was the ability to keep on top of all my relationships.

I’m one of those types that only adds Facebook friends that are truly my friends in the real world, which helps me keep connected to everybody and relish in their recent experiences. Anytime I see one of my friends, I always have something to bring up; for example, “Scott, how was that trip in Idaho? I saw the photos on Facebook, looked a lot of fun!”

This was all great and dandy, until Facebook released their ad network system. I understand what they’re trying to do, make ads that resonated with me and my life and made me feel more connected to brands — they thought they found the holy grail to internet advertising.

Blah.

It’s just one giant mess, which I feel seriously hurts Facebook the website and the brand. They are interrupting my Facebook experience, my human experiences, and my life in general. It’s like a noisy bee that you swat away. I finally turned it off, but now you have branded pages showing up and noisy marketers trying to get you to buy something.

Their authenticity has certainly taken a beating and I must say Facebook made a wrong-turn, and better flip a “U” and get back to being that quiet, respected social network who allows their users to make the decisions and not corporations. What do you think Facebook should do? How would you fix the mess? Do you think they messed up?