Social media platforms and behavior is sure to change in light of Facebook’s latest scandal. (ICYMI: Cambridge Analytica scraped personal information from nearly 50 million Facebook users.) With the social media juggernaut’s security brought into question, it’s certain to raise eyebrows and affect user behavior. In response, Facebook has already been updating policies and taking additional security measures that will impact a number of social listening and management platforms.

Here is an interesting article about Facebook’s advertising data that highlights it’s incredible power. This five-minute read shares an anecdote about the ability of Facebook and Instagram Insights to propel a toothbrush start-up to stardom. Consequently, that same targeting prowess that landed Quip ads under the thumb of interested consumers also led to Facebook’s recent scrutiny.

The intellect of Facebook’s algorithm and the library of information they hold on individuals is staggering and quickly coming to the forefront. A recent study shows that with 300 Facebook likes, AI can predict your personality judgements better than your spouse. It doesn’t help that people think Facebook is listening to them or reading their minds.

The blowback from this breach has created a heightened awareness of personal information vulnerability and it is making users increasingly more wary of the information they share via social media. A possibly worrisome stat for social media marketers is the decline of daily Facebook users in the US and Canada fell for the first time ever last year. The latest algorithm update also had a strong impact on this. Even more troublesome, record levels of people are deleting or uninstalling Facebook. And, remaining users are evaluating what apps are connected to Facebook and, therefore, what information they could be granting access to.

Although some suspect that this could be the downfall of Facebook, it’s doubtful the social network will ever disappear. Especially since Facebook-owned-Instagram has not taken a hit from the scandal. Nonetheless, it’s crucial to keep a close eye on social behavior and closely monitor Facebook engagement as we can likely expect an increase in spend to maintain previous benchmarks.

Sources:
[1] http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/01/07/1418680112
[2] https://www.fastcompany.com/40551487/this-startup-built-its-brand-on-facebook-now-it-can-never-leave?partner=feedburner&utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feedburner+fastcompany&utm_content=feedburner
[3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyswan/2018/04/02/does-the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-mean-facebook-is-doomed/