Facebook Pays $25 For User Testing; We’ll Double That For Leaks

March 11th, 2008 at 7:47 pm

Good for Facebook, and the community.. social networking isn’t all about freebies..

March 11th, 2008 at 8:05 pm

Facebook’s probably trying to get Craigslist users to help them create a Facebook version of Craigslist.

All joking aside, go Arrington for the balls to pay for the leaks! That’s some good journalism!

INQdrop

March 11th, 2008 at 8:29 pm

#5 (airj1012) nailed it… i think.

@#6 (Mike) …. how about off the record? how much for the goods? hehehe

March 11th, 2008 at 9:04 pm

@8 - nice inline graphics with comment.. would be great if general commenters (or, authenticated commenters) can do the that as well, say for a restricted size imagelet..

March 11th, 2008 at 9:14 pm

Michael, There going to see you coming and turn you away (maybe even make you more of the exposure)…or maybe they will let you interview Mark Zuckerberg. I think you’ll do a better job then his interview with Sarah Lacy.

March 11th, 2008 at 9:35 pm

Typical Facebook Focus Group:

You enter a room full of your friends and a few people you kinda know. Then a vampire jumps outa no where, freaking bites you. Someone creepy you’ve only talked to online like once or twice…pokes you. Lastly your latest activity and recent purchases are broadcast via loudspeaker.

Then a survey and a gift card.

March 11th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

facebook has been looking for users periodically for quite some time. the same area they ask for users from has the going rates for useablity: $25 for a 25 min phone interview, $50 for 45 min in person (includes travel time to you) and $80 for 75 minutes.

facebook is grossly underpaying.

the users we’ve talked to often say they’ve done them and that as user testers, it’s not worth it.

for the record, we prefer to get people “outside the valley” because they test too much, know too much, and don’t reflect target users. i was surprised to see this starting last summer from facebook, but apparently, they think they are so cool, they can underpay, and get locals, and get good results.

i don’t believe it.

March 11th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

@yikes - just seeing the cool graffiti on the walls and how everyone is ok with working in the semblances of a dormitory is more than enough payment for feedback

i have a hard time believing they are going to reveal anything special to anyone who provides feedback. when i interviewed with them and signed an nda, they were hardly forthcoming with anything special.

March 12th, 2008 at 12:41 am

I don’t think I can make it. I live in New Zealand

March 12th, 2008 at 3:50 am

@Mike: Perhaps you could wear a cunning disguise. Try dressing as a journalist, they’d never suspect it was you.

Anyway, got to go, Frankenstein Labs down the road is offering £50 for people willing to donate their liver to medical science. Sounds like a good deal, I mean, I’ve got two of those.

March 12th, 2008 at 6:00 am

They really should have hired an outside focus group company to handle this task if they are serious about getting non-biased comments. Nothing like having study participants sit around your office with facebook propaganda right before they give their opinion.

$25 I agree is pretty low for a 30 minute focus group. I would say a rate of at least $50 would be more appropriate.

March 12th, 2008 at 7:58 am

Hope their looking elsewhere as well for participants. At that rate and in that location, they’re looking at a very narrow demographic.

March 12th, 2008 at 9:38 am

They’re testing various methods to push, promote, and sell music and videos, you heard it hear first. The biggest problem Facebook has, as we all know, is that their audience ignores ads and doesn’t buy anything from them (the $1 icon gifts sell about as much as sand on a beach). They consider the deal with Apple and iTunes to be promising, but they’re still trying to find out a good way to actually get people to buy - keep in mind their margins are also extremely slim on this, Apple gets the vast majority of available profits.