This morning I woke up and logged into my email as I do every morning.
I Was Quoted in the Los Angeles Times About Facebook Ads and Bon Jovi
In April 2011, Los Angeles Times reporter Jessica Guynn included me in a story about Facebook ads, user data, and the very obvious trail left by my lifelong Bon Jovi obsession.
I found out the way many good blogging surprises used to arrive: I woke up, opened my email, and wondered why so many people I had not heard from in ages were suddenly writing to me.
Read the story behind the story
How I Ended Up in the Los Angeles Times Talking About Facebook Ads
This morning, I woke up and logged into my email the way I did every morning.
I was still half asleep when I noticed I had more messages than usual. Naturally, my first thought was, “Oh, spam.”
Then I started reading.
There were messages from people I had not heard from in a while. Friends were popping up. People were congratulating me. My inbox had suddenly become far more interesting than the sleepy morning routine I had expected.
What a beautiful thing that turned out to be.
Reporter Jessica Guynn had written a Los Angeles Times article titled Facebook Looks to Cash In on User Data, and she had included me in it.
Yes, me.
And yes, Bon Jovi was involved.
The article examined the way Facebook was using information people shared about themselves to help advertisers reach highly specific audiences. In my case, Facebook did not have to work very hard to figure out what might make me click.
I had been obsessed with Bon Jovi since I was a teenager.
I talked about Bon Jovi. I followed Bon Jovi pages. I clicked on Bon Jovi things. I was hardly leaving mysterious little breadcrumbs across the internet. I was practically building a four-lane highway with a sign that said, “Send Bon Jovi this way.”
Then the ads started appearing.
At first, I loved it. Videos. Photos. Fan pages. More Bon Jovi.
Eventually, though, the light bulb came on.
Facebook knew exactly what would get my attention because I had spent plenty of time telling it exactly what I loved.
That realization became the part of Jessica Guynn’s story that made my friends start filling my inbox.
“Facebook is reading my profile, my interests, the people and pages I am ‘friends’ with, and targeting me. It’s brilliant social media but it’s absolutely creepy.”
More than a decade later, that sentence still sounds very much like me.
Readers also read: My Bon Jovi history goes back much farther than one newspaper interview. You can read how my Bon Jovi obsession began and the story of turning 40 with a little help from Jon Bon Jovi.
The Bon Jovi Part Was Completely True
Of all the things I could have become known for in a national newspaper, landing there because of Bon Jovi feels oddly appropriate.
This was not an interest I had casually clicked on once or twice.
Bon Jovi had been part of my story since I was a teenager. The music followed me through years, milestones, motherhood, birthdays, concerts, and enough stories to make it perfectly reasonable that an advertising system would eventually look at my online activity and say, “We know what she wants.”
It did.
And apparently I had made myself very easy to read.
I even wrote about seeing Bon Jovi rock the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, because some loyalties do not fade simply because you grow up and become responsible for things like children, bills, and remembering where you put the car keys.
Why Seeing My Name in the Los Angeles Times Felt So Surreal
The internet felt different then.
Blogging felt smaller. Social media felt newer. An unexpected email could still lead to something that made you sit up straighter in your chair and call everyone you knew.
That morning, I was not expecting a media mention.
I was expecting coffee.
Instead, I discovered that a conversation about my Facebook experience had become part of a much larger story about personalized advertising and the information people shared online.
There was something wonderfully strange about seeing my very ordinary habit of clicking on things I loved become part of a national newspaper story.
It was exciting.
It was funny.
And, just as I told the reporter, it was a little creepy.
What the Experience Taught Me About Social Media
The most memorable part of this story was not simply that an advertisement knew I loved Bon Jovi.
It was the moment I realized how much of ourselves we reveal online without really thinking about the complete picture.
One interest here. One page there. A comment. A click. A conversation.
Individually, those things can feel tiny.
Together, they can say quite a lot about us.
That realization changed the way I thought about what I shared online. It also became part of my continuing curiosity about how social media changed the ways families interact.
This post is a personal archive of what happened to me in 2011, not current Facebook privacy guidance. I am keeping it because it captures a particular moment in social media history and an unforgettable moment in my own blogging life.
Perfect with a little Bon Jovi nostalgia: Start with the story of how my Bon Jovi addiction began, then come back and appreciate just how inevitable this Los Angeles Times appearance really was.
Why I Am Not Reprinting the Full Los Angeles Times Article Here
The original version of this post included most of the newspaper article.
I am doing things a little differently now.
This page is about my experience: waking up to the emails, realizing I had been included in the story, laughing about the Bon Jovi connection, and remembering what it felt like to see my words in a national newspaper.
For the complete reporting, context, and original article, read Jessica Guynn’s Facebook Looks to Cash In on User Data at the Los Angeles Times.
That is where the full article belongs.
My story belongs here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Julee Morrison really quoted in the Los Angeles Times?
Yes. Los Angeles Times reporter Jessica Guynn included Julee Morrison, founder of Mommy’s Memorandum, in an April 2011 article about Facebook advertising and user data.
Why was Julee Morrison interviewed about Facebook ads?
I had noticed that Facebook repeatedly showed me ads related to my longtime Bon Jovi obsession. That experience became an example of how personal interests and online activity could be used to target advertising.
What did you say about Facebook ad targeting?
I described the targeting as brilliant social media while also admitting that realizing how much Facebook could infer about my interests felt creepy.
What did Bon Jovi have to do with the story?
Everything, naturally. My longtime Bon Jovi obsession made me an easy target for fan pages, videos, photos, and other ads I was very likely to click.
Can I read the original Los Angeles Times article?
Yes. The full article is still available from the Los Angeles Times and is linked above.
Related Posts
If you landed here because the Bon Jovi part of this story made perfect sense, read Turning 40: Thank Heavens for Jon Bon Jovi and my Bon Jovi concert story from Charlotte.
For another look at the way the internet worked its way into everyday family life, read how social media changed the ways families interact.
Final Thoughts
I started that morning expecting an ordinary inbox.
Instead, people I had not heard from in ages were writing to tell me they had seen my name in the Los Angeles Times.
All because a reporter had noticed something I had already begun to suspect: give Facebook enough clues about what you love, and it may become very good at getting your attention.
In my case, the clue was Bon Jovi.
To be fair, it was never a subtle clue.
Then I started my process and people I haven’t emailed in awhile were there.
What a beautiful thing!
Turns out, Jessica Guynn wrote a great article on Facebook Looks to Cash In with User’s Data, and she included me! It is about my naive first few months on Facebook and my obsession with Bon Jovi.
If you get a chance, check it out!
Facebook looks to cash in on user data
Reporting from Palo Alto — Julee Morrison has been obsessed with Bon Jovi since she was a teenager.
So when paid ads for fansites started popping up on the 41-year-old Salt Lake City blogger’s Facebook page, she was thrilled.
She described herself as a “clicking fool,” perusing videos and photos of the New Jersey rockers.
Then it dawned on Morrison why all those Bon Jovi ads appeared every time she logged on to the social networking site.
“Facebook is reading my profile, my interests, the people and pages I am ‘friends’ with, and targeting me,” Morrison said. “It’s brilliant social media but it’s absolutely creepy.”
For years, the privately held company founded by Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room put little effort into ad sales, focusing instead on making its service irresistible to users.
It worked.
Today more than 600 million people have Facebook accounts.
The average user spends seven hours a month posting photos, chatting with friends, swapping news links and sending birthday greetings to classmates.
Now the Palo Alto company is looking to cash in on this mother lode of personal information by helping advertisers pinpoint exactly whom they want to reach.
This is no idle boast.
Facebook doesn’t have to guess who its users are or what they like.
Facebook knows, because members volunteer this information freely — and frequently — in their profiles, status updates, wall posts, messages and “likes.”
It’s now tracking this activity, shooting online ads to users based on their demographics, interests, even what they say to friends on the site — sometimes within minutes of them typing a keyword or phrase.
For example, women who have changed their relationship status to “engaged” on their Facebook profiles shouldn’t be surprised to see ads from local wedding planners and caterers pop up when they log in.
Hedgehog lovers who type that word in a post might see an ad for a plush toy version of the spiny critters from Squishable.com.
Middle-aged men who list motorcycling as one of their hobbies could get pitches from Victory Motorcycles.
If a Facebook user becomes a fan of 1-800-FLOWERS, her friends might receive ads telling them that she likes the floral delivery service.
Marketers have been tracking consumers’ online habits for years, compiling detailed dossiers of where they click and roam.
But Facebook’s unique trove of consumer behavior could transform it into one of the most powerful marketing tools ever invented, some analysts believe.
And that could translate into a financial bonanza for investors in the 7-year-old company as it prepares for a public offering, perhaps as soon as next year.
But privacy watchdogs say Facebook’s unique ability to mine data and sell advertising based on what its members voluntarily share amounts to electronic eavesdropping on personal updates, posts and messages that many users intended to share only with friends.
“Facebook has perfected a stealth digital surveillance apparatus that tracks, analyzes, and then acts on your information, including what you tell your friends,” said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.
“Facebook users should be cautious about whether the social networking giant ultimately has their best interests at heart.”
Bon Jovi fan Morrison has removed some information from her profile to make it more difficult for advertisers to target her.
“I thought, ‘Wait a minute, I didn’t give you permission to look into my life,'” she said.
Facebook says it does not disclose information that would allow advertisers to identify individual users but filters them based on geography, age or specific interests.
It also lets users control whether companies such as 1-800-FLOWERS can display the users’ names to others to promote products.
But any information users post on the site — hobbies, status updates, wall posts — is fair game for ad targeting.
Facebook’s first experiment with paid ads was a flop.
In 2007 it rolled out Beacon, which broadcast information on Facebook about users’ activities and purchases elsewhere on the Web without their permission.
Facebook pulled the program after settling a lawsuit brought on behalf of Facebook users.
This time around, company officials appear to be proceeding more cautiously.
David Fischer, Facebook’s vice president of advertising and global operations, says Facebook delivers ads that are relevant to users’ lives.
“This is an opportunity for brands to connect with you,” Fischer said.
“When someone likes a brand, they are building a two-way conversation, creating an ongoing relationship.”
A lot is riding on getting it right. Last year, online advertising in the U.S. grew 15% to $26 billion, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau.