Guest post from Dion Anthony (@dion_anthony) – a member of @SportsGeekDI program
So by now, you're probably all aware that everyone's favourite social media website, Facebook, has undergone some privacy and “check-in” changes. After only just releasing Deals less than 6 months ago, Facebook has plans to switch it off due to it's severe lack of popularity.
On top of that, the social media site has updated the privacy settings surrounding profiles, letting users keep out who they want to keep out and making it easier to untag those photos that you don't ever what to see the light of day!
What do you recommend?
One of the main changes that is being rolled out is recommendations. This new feature will allow users to recommend venues on Facebook similar to Yelp. For a venues such as ANZ Stadium, the move will be brilliant, allowing fans and visitors to recommend the stadium for anything from last round's Sydney Swans game to next years John Farnham Comeback Tour!
Real Madrid hardly recommended behaviour
Of course with the good comes the bad. Unfortunately for Real Madrid C.F., they have decided to use the recommendations feature as a way for fans to express their feelings about the Spanish super club's latest on-field result. Doable? Yes.
Effective and correct use of the addition? Hardly.
A simple comparison between the numbers of fans that “44 were here” will attest to that.
For a full list of changes that have been made to Facebook, click here.
Sports Geek's take
We saw this post when Dion was at Sports Geek HQ on Monday. Sports clubs need to look hard at whether they should have there address on their Facebook page. Do you want your fans leaving recommendations after a loss or opposition fans leaving “so-called” recommendations? We can see what Real Madrid are trying to do but agree with Dion not terribly effective.
Additionally Facebook is changing it's focus with regard to location, does this bring Foursquare back in the frame for sports?
What do you think?
