Hiding in the Spotlight
5th October 2011
Riddle me this Riddler. Where can you hide a famous person in front of 750 million people?
Facebook Live.
George W. Bush published his memoirs in October 2010 and went on the standard media tour, hawking his book, Decision Points. As part of that tour, he did something remarkable for its lack of notice and impact. He did a one hour live interview with Mark Zuckerberg broadcast through the Facebook Live channel.
Literally: Who knew?
I can find no evidence of any Facebook effect for sales of the book which is the point of the exercise. There are reports about comments on Facebook, but those indicators are, politely put, pathetic. Hey, Facebook has 750 million accounts. Imagine the impact.
The event is shaping up to be a big one. Facebook’s announcement yesterday of the event has been “liked” by over 7,000 people. The post also has over 2,600 comments, as of this writing. A similar announcement on the George W. Bush Facebook page has over 288 comments and more than 2,000 “likes.”
Over 750 million accounts and the event generates fewer than 10 thousand WATtaps? Hard to imagine the sales from that Facebook Live event were worth the time and effort Bush expended to get there and back. How can you get a combination of famous channel and famous messenger in Facebook and Bush with more persuasion possibility? Now, try persuading people through Facebook on your doggy little local issue. Shootfire. Try selling GM electric cars that way. Anything.
However, the interview itself is well worth watching whether you buy Decision Points or shares in the Facebook IPO (any day now!). Mr. Bush is both relaxed and playful, earnest and self observant. He constantly jokes about selling the book, but then takes every chance to sell the book. He constantly jokes about shining up Zuckerberg, but then takes every chance to shine up Zuckerberg. His persuasion hides in plain sight. “Look at me, I’m persuadin’” he laughs . . . and winks.