subject: Paul Marsdens Thoughts On The Facebook want Button [print this page] Trend-watchers are going crazy over the announcement that Facebook, in its continued effort to woo advertisers, has recently announced that it is experimenting with a "Want" button. This new Want button is going to be similar to its popular Like button, but is intended to take a user beyond just liking a Facebook posting to actually expressing a desire to own something mentioned in the posting.
And whats more, users now not only have two buttons to click for every post Like or Want they also get a third button titled Collect, whereby if they would like to add all the things they Want to a Collection they can then share their Collections with friends. Taken together the Want button and the Collect button seem to be working at proliferating social commerce via Facebook. People will be enabled to buy products from retailer websites if they have added Wants to their Collections, or they can even buy Wants listed in friends Collections. The experimental use of these new buttons is being tested out by retailers like Victorias Secret and Neiman Marcus. For the time being Facebook does not receive a fee although that functionality is not far off.
Facebook has explained the whole idea by saying: Weve seen that businesses often use pages to share information about their products through photo albums. Today, we are beginning a small test in which a few select businesses will be able to share information about their products through a feature called Collections.
Users of Facebook seem to have shown some initial interest in the idea but also some scepticism. Many seem to say they are not entirely comfortable with the idea of a Want button because this reeks of a visible push by the social media giant to turn a profit. Till now Facebook has been such a success as a business and a product because of how subtle it is about making its profit. Even though its main revenue source has been advertising, most ads are discreetly tucked to the side of the screen, allowing the user to freely socialize. With the Want button that socializing space users valued seems to have been invaded by pushy commercial intent.
As one user put it: Facebook is a place to talk with friends to share pictures, our thoughts and whats going on in our lives. We want to feel like individuals on the site. We dont want to feel like a dollar sign.
What the Want button would look like on Facebook was itself the subject of intense speculation when the idea was first announced in the media. Tom Waddington, a software coder, accidentally chanced upon a piece of code from Facebook (when he once got an error message), and he discovered and publicized the information that the prototype of the original Want Button actually included a small shopping bag with a star motif on it, clearly signalling Facebooks intentions for the Want Button to directly lead to ecommerce.
Eventually however, Facebook seemed to have dropped the visual of the shopping bag and only retained the star motif (perhaps so that the button does not overly shout purchase).
By far the best description of the Facebook Want button and its impact comes from Paul Marsden, one of the best-known social psychologists and digital ethnographers. He has summed up his assessment as follows:
Following in the footsteps of social commerce software pioneers Payvment, 8thBridge and others Facebook has launched a native Want button. The potential commercial appeal to businesses of the Want button is clear its a clear sell to me invitation if youre selling whats wanted. But from a user perspective the value of the Want button is less clear and there is good reason to believe that Facebook users will not want the Want button (a Dislike button to dislike the Want would have been a far better idea, opening the doors to lucrative sentiment and reputation analysis opportunities (Facebook what are you thinking????)).
As Jim Stoneham, ex-Yahoo and now CEO of Payvment (sponsor of SCT) noted yesterday in a thoughtful post, the Want button is less easy to click that the Like button since it implies intentionality it implies a future commitment to saying yes if the product is offered. As basic psychology shows, we feel a psychological pressure to conform to public commitments (such as saying we want something), so we avoid making them. The Like button, on the other hand, implies no personal commitment. The Like button is about now, and the Want button is about the future; or more graphically, the Like button is like a one night stand, and the Want button is like a long term relationship.
