User Backlash Causes Facebook About Face

There was quite a stir in the social media-verse this week when Facebook announced changes to its Terms of Service, which said the company controls all information stored on the site-even after its users close down their accounts. (And all of the college graduates who deleted those photos of Spring Break for fear a potential employer would come across them cried out in unison.)

Today, however, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg said the company would be going back to their previous TOS while they figured it all out.

It’s been the buzz on Twitter as “Tweeps” joke about Facebook owning your soul. But there were a couple of comments that feed directly into what we’ve been writing about on the blog for the past week or so: customer/user requirements.

Here are some of those comments (excuse the punctuation – 140 characters or less is hard to do):

@MattDickman: “Facebook has rolled back its TOS to the prev version. They waste so much time by NOT asking their community. Ironic” … “And they keep doing this over and over. You would think they would learn. When a social network ignores the network, FAIL!”

@MackCollier: “I think it sets a dangerous tone, that FB will TRY to make the changes they WANT. Says they have THEIR best interests in mind.”

When customers, or in this case, users, see the company they use steer into a new direction seemingly without care for their desires, it feels like a violation of trust. And many will not stick around long enough to figure out whether they can live with the change. Many I spoke to or saw comments from planned to cancel their Facebook accounts when they heard the news.

Facebook is a powerhouse, but it’s up against a plethora of competitors who want a piece of the social networking pie. What about your company? Can it afford not to keep the customer in mind?

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Originally published in 2009 by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title User Backlash Causes Facebook About Face. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted with attribution only. www.bizmanualz.com