Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

NYT: Is It a Day to Be Happy? Check the Index
Facebook, the social networking Web site, has developed a happiness index based on the number of times people on the site use words to covey joy (like “happy,” “yay” and “awesome”) and unhappiness (”sad,” “doubt,” and “tragic”).

According to data from Facebook, there is a “9.7% increase in happiness on Fridays compared with the worst day of the week, Monday.” This is based on analysis of over two years of 100 million FB users status updates. We also seem to like holidays.

First – all together now – WELL, DUH! Like these are startling new data points upon which to base a marketing strategy.

Cameron Marlow, head of FB’s 10-member research department, says that FB “‘has one clear advantage over Google – its material is much richer than mere search terms…’The type of things that people reveal on Facebook are the kind of things that sociologists have tried to collect through surveys for decades.’”

James Pennebaker, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin (one of the people responsible for the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count dictionary), thinks it’s a incredible resource, (maybe, it’s early days) BUT notes that the index also has

“the potential to turn ‘creepy,’ with computers managing to probe deeper into our minds than any person could.

‘I could imagine it would allow us to look at a group of people, get a sense of what their concerns are, how insecure they feel,’ he said. ‘It could be an advertiser’s dream. Yes, it is creepy from a government perspective, but it is even creepier from an advertising perspective.’

Two sanity checkpoints from an old market researcher (me):

1. People lie – even on Facebook. They also may spin things, posting a lot of status updates to – ahem – demonstrate status. We’re busy, busy, busy - speaking at big conferences, publishing books, doing BIG, BIG things. (Which always makes me wonder – if those big-time folks are so incredibly busy, how do they find time to post about it 20 times a day?)

2. The act of observation affects the results. This is the vexing reality of experiments with everything from quarks to lab rats with tiny little drug-addled brains, neither of which post on FB. So, one can only imagine what happens on the “social web.” I posted that I was Happy, happy, happy that it was Monday. Now, of course, I’m one of what FB claims is 100 Million…but it could – gasp – go viral! Pretty soon, we could all LOVE Mondays and hate Fridays….and the TGIF restaurant chain would have to change all those signs…;-)

So, while the data could give you some ideas…I wouldn’t recommend building a whole marketing strategy around it.

Y’all have a grand and glorious, deliriously joyous Monday, now, ya hear? I’m off to post the link to this post on…Facebook.