“Friend of the Day”, “What 60’s Movie Star Are You” or “Which Candy Bar Totally Represents Your Entire High School Career”- Facebook quizzes are all the rage. Polls have always been a way to find out about audiences for marketing and Facebook is no different. The big one going around right now is called “My Friends On Facebook” The basis is it takes all of your friends’ stats and it breaks out the information into pretty shiny pie charts and percentages- 19 of my friends are Virgos and 69% are Democrats!
Here is the amazing part about this and all quizzes on Facebook- you give it permission. You say ALLOW and this little unassuming quiz suddenly collects immense amounts of geographic, demographic and psychographic information about you and your virtual social circle. And who is it that gets this info? Well, my guess is based on the 20 second spot right before you get your results is Mobil 1. Yes Mobil 1, the worlds leading motor oil, suddenly has information that the US Census is jealous of.
Now most likely reading this you are not surprised by this or at least you shouldn’t be. I think the most interesting part is what are they doing with this data? Are they creating fan pages to bolster brand loyalty? Are they finding geographic areas that match their target demographic and bumping up Internet or broadcast spend? If your company or group is using Facebook polls to target your marketing efforts tell us if it’s working or what challenges you face in this social media space.
