
Internal Facebook Note: Here Is A “Psychological Trick” To Target Teens - tortilla
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facebooks-teens-tbh-psychological-trick-memo
======
taneq
That One Weird Trick:

> We eventually identified a psychological trick:

> 1\. Set the app’s Instagram profile to Private.

> 2\. Set the bio to something mysterious, e.g., “You’ve been invited to the
> new RHS app—stay tuned!”

> 3\. Follow the targeted users.

> 4\. Wait 24 hours to receive the inbound Follow Requests. (They were curious
> about our profile so they requested access)

> 5\. At 4:00PM when school gets out (The Golden Launch HouseTM), add the App
> Store URL to the profile.

> 6\. Finally, make the profile Public

> This notified all students at the same time that their Follow Request had
> been accepted—and they subsequently visited our profile, looked at our App
> Store page, and tried the app.

What Happened Next probably won't Shock You!

~~~
imron
Students hate them!

~~~
8_hours_ago
* _Teachers_ hate them!

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freetime2
> TBH noticed that teens often list their high school in their Instagram bio.
> So, using a private Instagram account of its own, the company would visit a
> school’s location page and follow all accounts that included the school’s
> name.

The idea of a company targeting and following individual high school students
on instagram does feel a bit "off" to me. If facebook or any other billion
dollar public company were doing this, a bit of public uproar would not be out
of line, even if it is perfectly legal.

But it sounds like TBH stopped doing this after they were acquired by FB,
claiming that the methods were too “scrappy” for a big company. While facebook
is of course now ultimately responsible for any actions that TBH took in the
past, trying to make a big stink about it after they have already stopped (and
using misleading headlines to boot) feels a bit disingenuous.

EDIT: I initially missed the fact that TBH was essentially pretending to be
affiliated with the school of the kids they were targeting, by creating a new
account per school and saying things like "You’ve been invited to the new
<school name here> app—stay tuned!" (A fairly dumb oversight on my part as
that's essentially the whole point of the story). This is indeed hugely
deceitful and having re-read the article it changes my opinion entirely.
Facebook should be banning companies that pull stunts like this instead of
buying them out for millions. I would like to see Facebook issue a statement
clarifying their position on these kinds of marketing ploys, update terms of
use if necessary to prevent them, and also probably issue an apology.

~~~
phoneyphone
Isn't that how Facebook got started: by creating networks based around
schools? I don't see the big deal, especially if the school isn't developing
new communication tools for students.

~~~
Disruptive_Dave
I think OP's beef is high school vs college.

~~~
TomMarius
Are highschoolers considered not able to make their own decisions in the US?
In my country, high school means you're 15 and up, and that means that you're
basically an adult, with some exceptions (both de facto and de iure); then
depending on how much you actually act as an adult, you're allowed to do
_things_. E.g. it's possible to ask a judge to allow you to start a company;
all contracts you enter are legally binding if it's reasonable that you
understood them, etc.

~~~
reaperducer
_Are highschoolers considered not able to make their own decisions in the US?
In my country, high school means you 're 15 and up, and that means that you're
basically an adult_

In the U.S., high school is 13+, depending on when the student was born.

Age of adulthood is 18.

~~~
fabricexpert
I thought age of adulthood was 21 in the US? You can't drink till then or
enter a lot of places alone?

~~~
Karunamon
You stop being a minor at 18 for legal purposes, but there are still random
restrictions on what you can do (like drinking or buying handguns) until 21.

It makes about as much sense as it sounds like.

~~~
ConceptJunkie
Yeah, at 18 you don't have enough sense to drink alcohol responsibly, but you
are allowed to vote. This shows how little this country thinks of voting.

~~~
reaperducer
I think it has to do with 18 also being the age you can be drafted and sent to
war. Theoretically, it keeps the politicians who send people to war answerable
to those people.

It's also worth noting that until recently the drinking age varied from state
to state. I grew up in New York and it was 19.

The uniform 21 age didn't come about until pressure groups like MADD went
after the politicians. I believe that the feds ended up tying a 21 mandate to
highway funding. (The same trick that's used to keep the public schools in
line.)

And since we're on driving, the driving age varies from state to state, as
well. It's as low as 16 in South Dakota. Most states it's 18, but lowered in
"hardship" cases, like farm families where the kids might need to drive a
tractor across a public road to get from field to field.

In South Dakota you can get a permit at 14.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver%27s_licenses_in_the_Uni...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver%27s_licenses_in_the_United_States)

~~~
mifreewil
Most states allow driving by yourself without an adult at 16, but usually have
some sort of restriction like curfew until 18:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver%27s_licenses_in_the_Uni...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver%27s_licenses_in_the_United_States)

------
toast_coder
This seems fairly benign. What's giving it the coverage and negative feedback
here is the fact that somebody call it a 'psychological trick'.

Is an ice cream truck playing music and slowing rolling down your street on a
hot summer day also a psychological trick we need to guard against? Accounting
for human congregations and 'appealing to their curiosity' is a part of the
human existence.

Downloading junk is also a life lesson, they will learn.

~~~
kartan
> Downloading junk is also a life lesson, they will learn.

Mega-corporation - with deep pockets, professional advice, etc - stalks
teenagers and does targeted personalized campaign, it is teenagers fault to
fall for it... I see a "blame the victim" attitude here.

> Is an ice cream truck playing music and slowing rolling down your street on
> a hot summer day also a psychological trick we need to guard against?

The truck guy does not know my name, the school I go to or any other data
beyond that I am in the neighborhood and can hear the sound or see the truck.
The truck is fishing.

Facebook is collecting personalized data, creating profiles and targeting
unsuspecting minors that feel "special" for being chosen without knowing the
reasons.

> TBH described its methods as “too ‘scrappy’” for a big company.

So the same company that had the idea has the same concerns about it.

There is somethings that are not-so-bad (but bad) when done in an small scale,
but become horrible at a bigger scale.

~~~
DarkWiiPlayer
> > Downloading junk is also a life lesson, they will learn.

> Mega-corporation - with deep pockets, professional advice, etc - stalks
> teenagers and does targeted personalized campaign, it is teenagers fault to
> fall for it... I see a "blame the victim" attitude here.

You're really extrapolating quite a straw man from the original statement
there. There's a lot of people out there that want to (and will, if given the
change) scam you. Arguing that it's better to learn that in a way that at
least doesn't lose you any actual money is not the same as blaming people who
fall for it and/or implying that they deserve it.

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chrischen
The irony is that this article is using a psychological trick to get us to
read basically a non-story about how a startup tried to acquire users using
not really a psychological trick.

"Facebook's Teen App" really means "Third Party App Facebook Eventually
Acquired"

~~~
hanspeter
It's Buzzfeed. Their entire existence is based on psychological tricks. Ironic
indeed.

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newscracker
I don't think this practice is shady in any way or manipulative like what
Facebook has done in several instances. They used some techniques to raise
curiosity and get some engagement. That's just Marketing 101, with the
execution method being different for this target.

Also, so much fluff to get to the point? Buzzfeed, these articles could be
much better reads with some editing to cut down the length, avoiding repeating
points a few times and getting to the crux of the matter quickly.

~~~
coolso
> Also, so much fluff to get to the point? Buzzfeed, these articles could be
> much better reads with some editing to cut down the length, avoiding
> repeating points a few times and getting to the crux of the matter quickly.

Buzzfeed's "News" Articles Used Psychological Tricks To Make Teens Think They
Were More In-Depth and Professional Journalism-y Than They Actually Are

------
moonrobin
The entire field of marketing is hinged on applied psychology. The way that
this article frames basic marketing techniques in a negative light simply
because Facebook used them is the pinnacle of sensationalism.

~~~
FussyZeus
I don't disagree, but I think it commands a certain level of "is this really
good for us long term?" to ask if the fact that hundreds if not thousands of
PhD holding scientists have had their collective efforts devoted to making
people buy as much, download as much, consume as much, watch as much, etc. as
they possibly can?

I mean marketing is marketing and always has been, but where it is today the
Mad Men era marketing guys couldn't have DREAMED of having. You can now target
demographics with laser precision and choose the exact sort of message that's
going to hit the hardest. I mean I'm all for marketing fluff and a certain
level of salesmanship, that's what capitalism is based on. But you've got
actual scientists putting their best foot forward to get Joe Everyman to buy,
download, watch, play, stream, etc. and all the discussions I see about this
paint it as even odds. That's laughable. Joe doesn't stand a fucking chance,
and we all know it, and we all just keep acting like that's ok.

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caiocaiocaio
Every time I see an article condemning Facebook, there's always a Facebook
share button visible.

~~~
egfx
And now you can even get them on Twitter! [https://2fb.me](https://2fb.me)
what a time to plug my app to the unsuspecting HN crowd.

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bm3719
In order to reduce the likelihood my child is victimized online by
questionable corporate behavior, I've redirected facebook.com to infowars.com
in /etc/hosts.

~~~
smt88
I can't begin to express my horror at the idea of a well-meaning parent
funneling their child into a pit of abhorrent fear-mongering, bigotry, and
conspiracy theories. I sincerely hope this was a weird joke.

~~~
userbinator
I bet it was a weird joke in the hacker sense --- however "not even wrong" the
content of InfoWars is, you have to admit that it _is_ a lot more thought-
provoking than Facebook.

~~~
smt88
I don't disagree with blocking children from Facebook. Replacing it with
InfoWars would be a medicine that's worse than the disease.

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saudioger
The trick itself isn't very shitty, but some of the mentality is:

"Our team obsessed with finding ways to get individual high schools to adopt a
product simultaneously."

Seriously? getting a bunch of kids to adopt a product is what you want to
obsess about? How about helping companies make a product that's not shit so
you don't have to trick kids into using it.

~~~
amf12
To be fair, all the toys/consoles have been similarly marketed to a bunch of
kids (for example during after school hours) for a long time without anyone
getting pissed off. It's just marketing. This doesn't really seem like a
"psychological" trick to me.

~~~
saudioger
Toys are marketed so you buy something that's (hopefully) fun.

Apps are marketed and given away for free to collect data on how to influence
children. In many cases they're designed to be habit forming or addicting.

~~~
amf12
But we are talking about the marketing aspect of it here and not the utility
of the product.

~~~
saudioger
The utility of the product is data harvesting

------
stemuk
It always amazes me how long Buzzfeed can hold off the actual content of the
article with useless banter without seemingly losing readers. The title
mentions 'a psychological trick', but delays the actual explanation of the
'trick' until the very end of the article.

~~~
ConceptJunkie
As someone said above, the title of the article is a psychological trick
itself.

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phoneyphone
So they did grassroots marketing? Like when a barber shop creates an Instagram
profile to get the word out..

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c3534l
Talk about a rag. That article is 95% priming you what to think and 5%
information. The audacity to to call out other media companies for
psychological trickery is astounding. The phrase the pot calling the kettle
black doesn't do it justice.

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jeremylylebrown
How do kids have a shot at a non-fragmented attention span when companies
target them like this? I'm not suggesting this is anything new in marketing,
but having social media app 1 feed into social media app 2 feed into etc... I
fear it's harmful to society on a whole in the long run.

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ramblerman
Given this article is on 'buzzfeed' is definitely a case of the pot calling
the kettle black.

------
adtac
The irony of Buzzfeed talking about psychological tricks lmao.

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adultSwim
Hilarious that this is being reported on by BuzzFeed

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znpy
Parents, uncles and grandparents getting on Facebook and other social media is
basically the end of social media for teens/youngsters.

The one true thing teens want is freedom from parents and other relatives:
they mostly represent a repressive force (positive or negative is not the
issue) and they want to interact with other teens freely.

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golergka
Articles like this make me want to switch from engineering to marketing -
there's so much innovation and potential for creative solutions in this field
that not may people are actually aware of.

By the way, what's Facebook Quick Promotion that they mention? Is this a
special kind of ad on Facebook?

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LinuxBender
Everything about FB has been psych tactics since day one. This is not unique
to FB, though they do have a fascinating resemblance to all the tests I took
in the military, broken down into smaller pieces which I think the military
could learn from.

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joezydeco
I guess we all forgot that time way back when Gmail was invite-only and you
had to beg someone for a way in.

------
Froyoh
What a dirty trick I must say.

~~~
sebleon
What makes it dirty?

~~~
GuiA
Information asymmetry.

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godelmachine
I see they have not mentioned the methodology of the said psychological trick
anywhere

