Further to my last post, where I mentioned the difficulties Facebook has faced in monetising its offer, yesterday Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg backed down on proposals to revise the Terms of Service, following strident protests by members.
The revised terms would have allowed the site to keep a record of users' details and updates even if they left the network, which raised privacy concerns.
Facebook continues to face the conundrum of how to offer advertisers the benefits of access to over 175 million consumers worldwide without raising the hackles of its members. Its recent foray into user polls may still be a sticking point. AT&T and CareerBuilder.com have experimented with polls on people's home pages and the service is something Zuckerberg is keen to expand.
Marketers can also use Facebook Lexicon to track the topics users are talking about (e.g. via public posts on the Wall).
I think Facebook is potentially a fantastic source of market research information. But Facebook users are characteristically militant and prone to protests when they feel advertisers, or the Facebook founder, infringe on their liberties. It is their site, after all.
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