Could you Buy or Sell Social Media Profiles like Business Assets?

I have been thinking a lot about social media and brand management lately, with the rise of Google’s SearchWiki and growing commercial interest in Twitter and other social media sites, focusing on how to capitalise on or simply monetise this medium more.  Just think how many global social media sites reach right across cultures, countries, languages and interests, 1000’s are out there…

This also got me thinking that Social Media has been used for a whole lot of purposes regarding marketing online, and what appears to me to go a long way is the people who are deeply embedded into that specific social media site; those authority members who go straight to number one because of their credibility. Now, this says to me that this is essentially a huge benefit, an asset, maybe even a commodity that could be traded…without knowing anything more than that I did a couple of searches and voilà, there have been instances of social media profiles going up for sale. So why is this?

The commercial value of social media and credibility

An interview with a anonymous top Digg user suggests that companies / organisations are willing to pay up to $1,200 submission and promotion fees for the privilege of having access to this Digg users reach. OK, so this means that this Digg user, after just 2 years of membership, can take a very respectable income as a return for his credibility in this community, benefiting quite obviously for his participation. But it’s this obvious commercial affiliation that worries people so much.

Selling social profiles is not popular but happens

The sale of online community profiles raised a number of negative responses from the community of bloggers and social media proponents…but why? Here’s a couple of the responses, before I go onto expand that point…firstly, a more response on the selling of Facebook profiles by Social Media Butterfly:

Let me be abundantly clear - this is not what social media marketing is about. If you have to be sneaky about your brand, then something is wrong with your product!

There are a whole lot of responses to this comment, one might be that social media marketing like all forms of marketing is about exposure and there is a very good business case for this practice to occur. Or how about the remarks made by the Blog Herald, regarding another twitter profile for sale:

Personally, I find the whole thing insulting. I hate it enough when my favorite blogs change editorial hands. But to sell a profile or account, that people have chosen to follow, is just weak. I would immediately unsubscribe; and I have a hunch I’m not alone. Hence, making a potential buyer, pay the price.

Well the reasons that it’s not popular are quite obvious, but that does not mean to say it doesn’t happen.

Playing devils advocate, selling social media profiles is no different to buying an established website or business

We don’t like it when our favourite sandwich shop changes hands, we worry that the sandwiches won’t have the cucumber cut to the ‘right’ thickness or they add a splodge of mayo instead of a splidge…we don’t trust the newbie. In business though this happens, and so often consumers are unaware that a company has changes hands. Is this deceptive, in the same way a Twitter profile might change hands?

A social profile as a database for market research

We all know that famous saying ‘information if power’ and we know that consumer information has a real value across most markets, and information and databases are bought and sold, built-up and merged, very legally and legitimately.

This is a business interpretation of why this so freely happens:

• Businesses wish to learn about consumers in their market or future markets.
• By understanding their customers they can provide better goods and services
• We as the consumers potentially receive better goods and services as a result.

Christopher Penn raises the issue over social media profiles as databases of information for marketers, but any information captured online can become a database. My background in marketing leads me on to think about other examples of multiple forms of market research that occurs, sometimes unknowingly to the customer…

• Customer profiling using data in your shopping cart and contact forms
• Prospective ‘ideal customer’ research in high streets
• Keyword research, competitor research, off-site competitive analysis, trend watching
• Emails and telephone correspondence - use of language, requests, FAQ’s, etc
• Website Analytics, e.g. visitor loyalty metrics and site usage
• Website / blog polls
• Newsletter sign-up pages

…naturally, there are a wide variety of methods in which data is gathered on and offline. Is it consistently made clear that this data will / could be used for marketing purposes? Unlikely. So how is this explained to users, maybe via a passive privacy statement, P3P adoption, *small print? It’s not always too clear, is it?

Ethical buying and selling of social media profiles?

Now attaching this notion to the sale of information / profiles it becomes unclear as to whether this is indeed unethical, or maybe it happens all around on a degree already that it has become the norm?

However, can you sell these networks/relationships/connections that have been built (possibly) un-commercially or at least unknowing that the your online friendship will be sold to another with more commercial interests…there’s certainly something seedy about that.

So, as personal information is unknowingly being sold, is this one step too far?

T & C’s and ethical consequences of exchanging data via social profiles

The terms and conditions of many online communities and social media platforms typically disallow, either directly or indirectly, such practices and as soon as such profiles are put up for sale they are removed, hence devoiding their value as they simply don’t exist! This essentially means that this practice will, and probably has already, been driven underground.

Now, a point to promote a little paranoia in online communities…If a member of your network starts behaving a little oddly, maybe they’ve had their profile taken over by another party, but how would we ever know?! Just imagine if Guy Kawasaki sold his twitter profile, currently hovering around 30,000 followers and supposedly valued at about $10,000…he puts out a wild mixture of content, he’s always updating, would you really notice a mild change in links, ideas, content that hit’s the updates if it continues to be remarkable enough?  Paranoia alert!

Blackhat Social Media Marketing: the underground sale of social profiles

With so many articles discussing leveraging social media marketing as part of your online marketing tool kit, it’s no wonder that there is a market for pre-established social media profiles that carry so much weight.

So…..

Having run through this debate in my head, so many times now, it is the nature of the transaction that bothers me…the method in which the credibility and trust is sold. If the intention is made clear and public, I see this as less of a blackhat / greyhat exercise, but in doing so the profile fails to exist.

It will therefore occur underground, and unknowingly to the followers / social network that supports that profile. This deception of trust over a personal profile and associated network seems to me to devalue the respect of your target audience, and in doing this makes it unethical. I personally don’t follow the mantra ‘the business of business is business’, as that discounts far too many ethical principles. Businesses who don’t respect their target market ultimately loose out in the end.

If the profile is run on behalf of a business and exchanges hands as part of the sale of the business, I would not expect the same rules to apply. An example of this is that people’s intention to follow CNN are not following a personality but rather a global brand…this maybe automatically updates / non-personal updates, and is unlikely to offend if it were to change hands. Maybe there are better examples but I think people are likely to be more offended if they are following a person.

BUT, with all blackhat marketing activity a cost-benefit analysis will take place making the decision for them, i.e. the risk is worth it for the reward.

Possible other points of discussion?

Knowledge of what personal data is used and how - People and websites can naturally participate in the P3P policy programme as advocated by W3C, but my understanding is that consumer awareness and website adoption is very low (does anyone have any stats on P3P adoption as I couldn’t find any reputable / current statistics?).

P3P adoption has been very low, so does this mean that we as webmaster are less motivated to promote the use of visitors information than we are to cry out about the use (neither my site currently has adopted P3P as an example [it's on my list of jobs along with privacy policy], or the sites I quoted above…raises an interesting debate, I feel.

Google Analytics Data for sale - I also did a few searches for selling or buying site log files / Google Analytics data…this could add a great deal of value in the right hands, especially for instance a non-ecommerce site selling their Analytics data to an ecommerce site.

Would you sell you site Analytics data? If you were losing interest in Twitter, would you sell your profile (I’m not asking to buy it from you!)? Have your websites complied with P3P?

Can of worms

You may disagree and regard this practice of selling personal profiles as reasonable, and and even whitehat in nature? Many aspects of data are collected in the contact us forms, polls and web analytics  without the knowledge of consumers, so why not treat profiles as databases?

I realise I’ve picked up on a MASSIVE topic, colossal in fact, it is no wonder that I am struggling to keep this post short, as so many points can be expanded, and in this lack of detail there are a number of points that I could clearly add to. Maybe you would like to pull me up on some points; I’d be happy to hear your thoughts…