YouTube wasn’t the only Internet company making a splash at the World Economic Forum at Davos this last week. Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg was busy bringing a dose of reality into the elite discussion sessions.
Zuckerberg arranged for Facebook polls to be conducted during twelve key sessions. In one poll, during a session called Advice to the US President on Competitiveness, Facebook users were asked if the stimulus package is on target. 120,000 responses were recorded in twenty minutes. 59% of respondents said “no,” 15% said “yes” and 26% said unsure.
The poll results were displayed prominently above the panelists, including Rupert Murdoch (CEO News Corp.), Ellen Kullman (CEO DuPont), Duncan Niederauer (CEO NYSE Euronext), David Rubenstein (Managing Director, Carlyle Group) and Ronald Williams (CEO Aetna). The panelists largely approved of the stimulus package in their comments before the poll results came in. Facebook users obviously disagreed (the entire session is embedded below).
World Economic Forum officials I spoke with yesterday were delighted with the polls, clearly excited that they could bring in direct, real time feedback to the sessions.
Facebook polls can no longer be created by users, but Facebook continues to use the product directly. Perhaps their experience at Davos will convince them to re-open the product.
Wow yes, i really want Facebook members taking part in complex political and economic discussion via facile Facebook staff generated questions. That’s the way to solve these sorts of problems.
FRIST PLOL!!!
Lots of critical comments so far, and I agree. To be honest, superimposing the results of a Facebook over the heads of these giant personalities says a lot. Who cares what these guys think when thousands of Facebook users disagree!
Right because the CEO crowd has been doing such a cracker-jack job on their own.
Whether you embrace or not FB is developing into the hub of the Internet. As it moves beyond sharing just photos and messages with friends it will truly connect the world with immediate answers and information. Currentlty Twitter is the ‘Reuters of the people’ but I think FB could generate a more multimedia experience. I predicted within the year they will allow for their status update to be public and that people can post items out of their network as they please. You will be able to follow people without being ‘friends’. I know it is a fine line. I am really interested what the near future holds for this type of medium and what other people think about it. Post your thoughts. Cheers.
Nonsense, Facebook is far from the “hub of the Internet.” Honestly, if you are looking for something, where do you go? I go to Google, not Facebook. Facebook has no search features, and you are limited to 5000 friends, so having the ability to “reach out” to them is severely hampered.
Clearly Google is the hub of the Internet. There is no denying that. I forgot a very important word when describing Facebook. “Hub of the *social* Internet”. It may not be very apparent today but I do believe FB will make the web more social. They have the platform and the user base to make big things happen. We’ll see how they execute on this so called social Internet. It could end up like Beacon but I think it will have more success. Ironically I am not even signed in using FB Connect
Seems to me they need to open the product up back to users in a two-tier approached:
AD Sponsors could get a special full feature enable done by paying and the plain user could get basic polls enabled with basic features.
Interestingly, many economists (such as Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman) seem to agree with the majority of those polled on Facebook, i.e. long-term projects should not be thrown in with short-term stimuli.
At least in this case, crowd sourcing seems to agree with the greatest minds. Whether it is the right course or not, only time will reveal.
Remind me, why did they take down the polls?
Was the demographic information of voters available? I’d like to see data on education levels before I listen to their opinion.
Sell out now Zuck, before “Generation Z” decides that social media is retro!
@ Michael
I’m not sure who’s the greater fool; the idiot mob that is the activist facebook crowd, or the bespoke suit types.
David Rubenstein, perhaps even moreso than Schwarzman, Kravis, or Bonderman, epitomizes the Private Equity fantasy that shit won’t actually get that bad. Of course, back in the realm of reality, it will get “that” bad, but far be it from my plebian self to inform the former bourgeoisie, and I’m a polar opposite of a populist, yea…
It’s a pity a Yes/No/Maybe answer doesn’t reveal the understanding of the Facebookers answering the question, so it is hard to tell whether the answer is based on an insight into the economic problem, plain ignorance, or self-interest.
The question asked when wondering why facebook pulled off its polls from public use is answered by the recent turn of events.
With a gigantic social graph of over 20 Million users, it now has the ability to morph itself into a bigger force than ever – by bringing in input for the likes of WEF discussion boards.
No wonder they don’t want to give away such a powerful device away for free when they have the chance to use it to make facebook bigger and more credible than ever.
Just keep drinking the Koolaid there…
Man, take a break. We’ve all got money riding on it: http://www.hubd..._blogging_break
While the traditional poll might not be the key to Facebook’s monetization, I probably will at some point depend upon user feedback.
The key is asking good questions. “Should countries protect their domestic products” is ambiguous. If that means by imposing protectionist tariffs and destroying the only free lunch there is in economics — free trade — of course not. If that means by reducing burdens on producing products domestically — for example, by fixing a tax system that penalizes exports — of course!
Bill Buckley’s idea about trusting random people selected out of the phone book more than the Harvard faculty comes to mind. I’d trust the Facebook crowd over the Beltway crowd, and I just spent 12 years inside the Beltway.
Twitter is “The Reuters of the Internet”? Facebook is “The Hub of the Internet”? My god, how far up your own *sses do you guys have your heads? Twitter is to Reuters what a drunken illiterate inbred truck driver is to Woodward and Bernstein. Facebook may be the hub of the internet for 12-20 year old boys & girls, but not the rest of us; ever heard of Google?
I’m so tired of people falling head over heels whenever Facebook does something new. Polls are old and have been done (fairly well) by quite a few sites, Hubdub and Predictify, for example. I’m sure Facebook will find a way to screw it up just like they have their ad revenue stream.
>> KyNam Doan
>>Was the demographic information of voters
>>available? I’d like to see data on education
>>levels before I listen to their opinion.
I´d rather like to see the TRUE agendas of the _panelists_ before hearing _THEIR_ opinions…