All of this talk about Facebook’s privacy policies, Twitter’s incorporating sponsored ads into streams and audio commercials appearing in Pandora stations has me wondering – what are consumers’ expectations when using free services? I’ve seen tons of complaints of Twitter ‘selling out’, people blogging about how they don’t want to hear ads on Pandora and, of course, the world appears to be up in arms over Facebook and privacy.
My question is – what is selling out when those companies need to pay their workers, cover their expenses and ideally turn a profit? How can we, as consumers of a free product, service or tool, expect these companies to oblige us when we’re really not ‘customers’ of theirs at all?
I’m reminded of my time as Director of Advertising Sales at BlogTalkRadio. If you’re not familiar, check them out – BTR is a terrific service that gives anyone, anywhere the ability to host their own talk radio show in real time – including taking phone calls and utilizing a chat room…all through a browser and a phone. It’s completely free for both hosts and listeners. And, when the live shows finish airing, it is automatically uploaded as a podcast and archived.
When I joined the company, we began inserting pre-roll commercials in the podcasts…and the outcry was immediate. People were incensed that we would ruin their shows and ‘sell out’. I spent hours responding to emails from hosts – explaining to them that we would only work with appropriate advertisers and do everything we could to match sponsors with relevant content. While I understood those hosts concerns over the shows they put their hearts and souls into, I couldn’t help but wonder what they expected…when they were using BlogTalkRadio’s FREE service to reach their audiences and promote their businesses.
So, how much is too much? How many search ads will you see in your Twitter stream before you say enough is enough? (And, where would you go as an alternative?). Pandora does have other more competitors which gives listeners choice. And Facebook…well, they had competition once, before MySpace became irrelevant. What do YOU expect?
