Geotargeting Content on Facebook NPR's Experiment in Local Engagement Keith Hopper
The Facebook Experiment that could Make a President
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Transcript of The Facebook Experiment that could Make a President
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FACEBOOK EXPERIMENTTHAT COULD MAKE A
PRESIDENT
THE
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This story takes place on
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
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The day of the 2012
United States Presidential
Election between
Barack Obama & Mitt Romney
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Spoiler:
Obama Won.
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But America faced a problem
on election day…
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Voting isn’t compulsory in the U.S. and
over the past few decades voter turn-out
on election day had been in decline.
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decided they
wanted to
help out‘sup guys. I hear you
need a hand with some
democracy?
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So they selected 1.9 million U.S.
Facebook users at random to receive this
voting reminder on their newsfeed
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When a user voted, they were
encouraged to press the
‘I Voted’ button.
This would then be shared
automatically with their friends
list.
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The message to ‘get out
and vote’ spread
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By the end of the experiment, Facebook data
scientists noted that the number of users who had
seen the notification & voted had increased from
63% 67%to
340,000Which equated to approximately
additional votes being placed
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GREAT!Voter turn out is low.
Facebook is helping democracy.
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But wait just a second…
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But wait just a second
while I go and put my tinfoil hat on Let me go and put my
tinfoil hat on
And yes, this is Dave Grohl
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Facebook has A LOT of information
about its users.
Here’s a sample of some of the information a typical Facebook account hands over:
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• Name
• City of birth
• City of residence
• Phone
• Current employment
• Previous employment
• Relationship
• Anniversary
• Previous relationships
• Previous names (aliases)
• Screen names
• Address book
• Family members
• Birthday
• Religious views
• Bands you like
• Movies you’ve seen
• TV Shows you watch
• Video games you play
• Food you eat
• Your Favorite Athletes
• Restaurants you’ve eaten at
• Activities you participate in
• Websites you visit
• Apps you’ve downloaded
• Games you’ve played
• Pages/Businesses you’ve
un-liked (when)
• Videos you’ve watched
• Comments you’ve liked
• Websites you’ve visited
• Articles and websites you’ve
commented on
• Level of online engagement
• When you changed jobs
• How long you stayed in a job
• Credit card details
• IP Address
• Device you’ve accessed the
Internet from
• Exact Geo-location
(longitude, altitude, latitude,
time/date stamp)
• TV, Film, Concert you are
currently watching
• Book or publication you are
currently reading
• Audio you are currently
listening too
• Drink you are currently
drinking
• Food you are currently eating
• Activities you participate in
• Advertising you interact with
• Profiles you interact with most
• Locations you access Facebook
• Locations you access web
properties connected to Facebook
• Surveys you’ve filled out
• Companies you like
• People you’ve been tagged with
• People you frequently hang
out with
• Friends you’ve requested
• Friends you denied
• Friends you’ve un-friended
• How often you are online
• Apps you Admin/created
• Pages you admin/created
• Your current mood
• Sports teams you support
• Your Favorite Sports
• Inspirational people
• Favorite Clothing brands
• Places you’ve visited
• Events you’ve attended
• Events you plan on attending
• Address
• Website
• Email address(s)
• Sexual preference
• Gender
• Languages spoken
• Friends
• Books you’ve read
• Events your friends are
attending
• Major life events
(location, dates, who)
• Photos
• Pokes
• Wall posts
• Private messages
• Groups you’ve joined
• Networks you are a part of
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And of course, information that can
identify your political preferences.
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Barack Obama has
nearly 43million fans.
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It’s pretty safe to
assume that they
won’t be voting for
Jeb Bush next year.
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So, if targeting a reminder to vote
to 1.9million random people can
encourage 320,000 additional
votes…
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…what if that reminder was
targeted at one particular group of
people, yet avoided another
group completely?
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Target & encourage
supporters of one
party to vote.
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But don’t target the
supporters of the other party.
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This kind of simple targeting could literally
encourage more votes for one party, but avoid
doing it for the other.
Which can be a VERY big deal.
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Of course, deliberate targeting to influence political
agendas is not something I am suggesting that Facebook
are currently doing. Nor am I suggesting that they would
do something like that.
But I guess what I am suggesting is…
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…they’ve proven they can.
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This is a SlideShare version of the article
‘The Facebook Experiment that could Make a President’
by Daylan Pearce.
The full version is available here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/facebook-experiment-
could-make-president-daylan-pearce
For more words I’ve put in an interesting sequence or to keep in touch please visit
http://daylandoes.com or via Twitter on @DaylanDoes