Why are the big guys ditching Facebook?

BY CHRISTINA GWIRA

I know, I know… I keep talking about Facebook, but it’s with good reason! I truly believe that Facebook will continue to be at the center of discussions regarding technology, finance and business for many years to come. They are one of the world’s largest social media companies, headed by one of the world’s wealthiest men, which causes them to be continually in the public eye. The latest news to hit Facebook is this: a wave of companies and advertisers are boycotting the platform. A select group of conglomerates and businesses are stopping or greatly restricting the money that they are spending in advertising with the media giant. Their reason: hate speech.

It is the belief of these companies that Facebook is not doing enough to curb the tide of fake news and hate speech that appears on their platform. They have titled their 30 day boycott the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign. Ironically, this campaign comes on the heels of the renewed strength of the Black Lives Matter movement, sparked by the senseless murder of George Floyd.

Some of the well-known brands that are currently participating in the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign include:

• Starbucks
• Best Buy
• Adidas
• Coca-Cola
• Microsoft

News of the campaign caused Facebook’s stock to tumble during the last week of June 2020, just as the world was beginning to show signs of life after the thralls of COVID-19. Another social media network that these same companies are targeting is Twitter. Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey has been under fire in the past for the lack of “control” that Twitter has towards white supremacists and racist remarks on their platform. While the companies haven’t turned their sights fully onto Twitter, some have started to also express concerns as to how Twitter treats its users and hate speech as a whole.

While the campaign is set for 30 days, some of the bigger conglomerates – namely Unilever – has put a temporary pause on spending on any of Facebook’s platforms, this includes: Facebook itself, Instagram, as well as lesser known Facebook property Whatsapp. Unilever’s biggest competitor Procter & Gamble hasn’t pulled the plug on their social media spending as of yet.

Here’s the kicker: Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to mind, not even a little bit. Why do you ask? It’s possibly because most of Facebook’s ad revenue doesn’t actually come from these big-name businesses. It comes from small businesses like you and me. For the first quarter of 2020 (we’ve just started Q3) Facebook made over $17 billion in revenue; even with winds of COVID-19 in the air. Facebook being unphased by this move by the big guys definitely will leave them feeling a pinch, but not one big enough to impact real change… maybe.

Since 2015, Zuckerberg has been in the crosshairs of the media. The way in which Facebook handled their various data leaks, fake news and “the bots” left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth, that we are still feeling today. Trust has been a thing that Facebook really hasn’t been able to win back from consumers, and this distrust seems to have reached those with deeper pockets it looks like.

My prediction is that Facebook will somehow find a way to appease their larger clients, but at a cost. Similar to how the rules and regulations that they approved in the 2015 election caused waves that we are still feeling today, Facebook could be robbing Peter to pay Paul. My outlook is that the little guy will get mixed up in all of this. This does spell good things for us the small businesses and brands though: right now, the playing field is at a partial level ground. With the big boys out of the pay, CPC (cost per click) has drastically reduced. This means that you can potentially receive more bang for your buck when you spend money on Facebook ads. But like I said, this could be a simple wrinkle in time before Facebook decides to do something big… again.