I deactivated my Facebook account almost four weeks ago. With over 2000 friends, the volume of messages I was receiving on Facebook was unmanageable, and I didn’t want to keep the account open and give people the false impression that they would receive a response to their messages.
Apparently, I deactivated my account a few weeks too early; last week, Burger King announced a promotion where they would give a free Whopper to anyone that would “defriend” ten people on Facebook.
With over 2000 people to choose from, I’m sure I could have easily found ten people to delete. Alas, now with a deactivated account (zero friends), there’s no free Whopper in my future.
Jason Kottke’s been having an interesting discussion on his blog about the value of friendship on Facebook when compared to Whoppers. In his most recent post on the topic, he talks about a full “buyout” on social networks:
You might be able to get someone to part with 10 “junk” friends for $2.40 but could you pay them $22 more to essentially shut down their Facebook account for good? I don’t think so. It’s going to cost much more than that…and for some intense users of the site, the “buyout” amount might be surprisingly high.
Which got me asking: how much money would you need to receive to shut down your account on some major social networks?
I tried coming up with numbers, and it was a harder exercise than I expected. After all, I may have deactivated my Facebook account for free, but that wouldn’t mean I’d go back and delete the account again for the same price.
Social Network Buyout
Here’s what I came up with for now. All numbers subject to change on a hourly basis:
- Dopplr: $100
- Facebook: $500
- Flickr: $500
- GigPark: $100
- Last.fm: $500
- LinkedIn: $50
- Momentile: $20
- Tumblr: $2000
- Twitter: $2000
- Upcoming: $20
- Vimeo: $50
- YouTube: $10
So how about it? What would it cost to “buy you out” of your favorite social networks?
(That awesome photo of Frankenstein eating a Whopper was taken in Niagara Falls by cmiper.)
I find it interesting that you value Twitter 4x more than Facebook. I understand why you deleted your FB account, but I’m wonder if you were more selective about who you added as a friend, would you have found it more valuable?
Although I don’t use my Facebook account as much as I used to, (thanks to Twitter) it connects me to real life friends and family. My Twitter deals more with the exchange of ideas with people who are primarily strangers. Even though I spend more time on Twitter, the mere fact that Facebook connects me to people important in my life makes it more valuable.
Don’t me how much though, I can’t even begin to think how I would calculate a social networking site’s value. It goes beyond how much time you spend on each site.
Sadly the offer was discontinued as well…
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/whopper-sacrifice-de-friended-on-facebook/
However - I empathise with the facebook issues - I have been finding it quite demanding lately… but must agree with Andrea about exercising selectivity in who you authorise as friends.
I think there is a structural problem with social networks as they are.. .. in fact this idea is steadily forming in my head so expect to see a post at http://www.silentthinker.com on the subject this evening!
I deleted my FB with virtually zero friends compared to your numbers. It was aggravating seeing people joining/playing one stupid group/game after another for no good reasons. But above all, I refuse to watch advertisements from a platform which isn’t providing me any satisfactions.
As for dropping other social networks. I have joined no two networks which does the same thing and I’m happy about it.
The Whopper offer was also only for residents of USA
I use Facebook for sharing family photos and news. I have my real address, phone number, etc. on my profile page. I only add those who I want to have that info. Someone who hasn’t met me in person would have no interest in the stuff I have on facebook, but the connection it gives me to far-flung family and friends is something I think it would take a lot to give up.
Twitter and LinkedIn are actually giving me potential business/employment contacts so that actually has significant financial value.
The others wouldn’t bother me to delete for money but I wouldn’t think it’s worth the hassle of actually doing it for less than a few hundred
The problem I currently have with facebook is that I’m using it for more ‘business things’ as well as social things. I’ve found that this is putting more pressure on my time spent on facebook, when I log on there are several groups that I feel I need to check and respond to, as well as messages in my inbox and on my wall. It’s great that Facebook offers that chance to do all of those things in one place, but it has changed my perceptions of facebook.
Last year I didn’t actively follow groups or write on group walls, my inbox was filled with messages from groups/ circulars.
Fast forward 12 months and I’m involved with groups on facebook, in fact, I currently use facebook for the groups more than the friends, most of whom I have mobile numbers and email addresses for. Plus my inbox now has mostly personal mail in it. My friend list used to be exclusively people I know and want to keep in contact with, but now there are people who I need to have as friends for the future usefulness.
Maybe one reason for that is that more and more people are using facebook, it’s not solely for use by university students now but school kids and parents have an account, so there are more useful contacts I can have on my facebook account. This makes it more useful, and potentially more financially useful, although it can feel that there is more pressure on me because of it.
By the way, I absolutely love all this, it’s really thought provoking and might help me shape some dissertation ideas.
Gotta say, it would be much harder for me to give up Facebook or LinkedIn. Much more useful for me for business and personal use. I’m surprised at the value you give to Twitter - I’m still trying to find a business use. I also suspect that Twitter is more useful to the mobile workforce. I’m at my desk all day, so would rather either blog or do updates on FB.
Excellent conversation going on here! Now that you are no longer a Facebookie, how am i suppossed to wish u a happy birthday? (one of the best things about FB was their bday reminders!)
Enjoy Washington tommorow!!
Twitter without a twitter-client is worthless. You got to have either a Twitterfox, Twihrl or something in order to be effectively using it. And yes, you can use Twitter without being mobile.
I’ll never understand twitter….it seems even more of a waste of time than facebook. I’ve cut down a lot on facebook though. Mostly because I really don’t care what people are doing for the most part. do we have to get a day to day account of your pregnancy/ your child’s development/ which club you went to last night?
I like that i can find people i haven’t spoken to in a long time, but that’s it I think….and yes I agree with KK…the birthdays are good to have too!
Some great thoughts everyone. I really guess it’s a matter of how you use each tool — I’ve always been one of those people that tends to connect with a lot of people on social networks, and quickly suffer from volume issues. Maybe I need to re-evaluate that approach.
Colin Chan asked a pretty good question over on Twitter: “It’s one thing to give up one social network because you can just migrate to others. But how much to give up online SN entirely?”
It’s not even cutting down that’s the issue as much as segmenting. e.g. Facebook for family and friends, LinkedIn for professional contacts.
I had no problem finding 10 junk friends to delete. In fact, I just got my coupon in the mail yesterday. I will enjoy it. I’m also disappointed that the campaign was discontinued, now that I’ve told people it was legit.
$500,000 for my Facebook account.
Too many people I love on there that I would probably have a hard time keeping in touch with if I didn’t have it. Besides that, I like being being able to keep up with what’s going on in my friend’s lives…for example, I’ve seen two of my roommates’ wedding pictures, Diana’s first baby, Aaqa’s first baby, etc. It’s nice.
Diana had a baby? Wah? When was that? (I knew about Aaqa, but the Diana news is completely new to me.) I need to get back on Facebook!
Seeeeeee???
I had a point!
Apparently, a year ago (I just saw the 1st birthday pictures. I swear I thought it was still a newborn…I can’t believe it’s been that long already).
For me, Flickr and Vimeo would be at the top of the list - right below GigPark :). This is because I have so much content on those sites. Flickr, for example, has the last 3-4 years of my photos. Giving that up would be hard!