Email the Editor    Email a Friend    Print this Page 

Dennis Yu, CEO of social media ad company BlitzLocal, says it's easy to trick people on Facebook into downloading an adware-driven toolbar, giving up their e-mail address, or surrendering their phone numbers.

Method #3, getting their phone number, has been the most lucrative thing on Facebook, even more than the fake weight loss offers, for the last 2 years. As an ad network, we were at the mercy of what the game developers want -- more money. Here'swhat ad networks struggle with- - to either run what ads make the most money or else be forced out by other ad networks willing to be shadier than them....Publishers (game developers) chose whoever makes them the most money.

Yu also says this period of social media scammishness will be short-lived. As advertising on social networks gets more expensive, low-rent advertisers will be forced out by cash-rich companies that (hopefully at least) will take the higher road to connect with potential customers. We'll see about that.

As for Facebook, MySpace, and the others? They create rules and talk about "advertising ethics," per TechCrunch, but at the end of the day money talks and good intentions walk.

(FYI, the SEO Blackhat site points out that TechCrunch itself has been known to run some less-than-entirely-legit ads. I haven't seen any of them myself on the site, but I can't say I'd be surprised to find

You could, of course, opt to simply not use social media. But that's like opting to not use a cell phone. Ten years ago you could have gotten away with that; today you'd seem a little weird.

Even if you never sign up for Facebook or the hundreds of other networks just like it, social media is ultimately unavoidable because it's going to be baked into everything you do on the Net. The key is to use it intelligently.

Do you really need to play stupid games or take yet another bogus IQ quiz? Surely there are better ways of wasting your time. Like reading more Cringely blog posts or taking more InfoWorld quizzes, for example. It won't do a thing for your FarmVille status, but it will make you smarter, thinner, and more appealing to those hot Russian gals. Trust me.

share: