Burger King Wants You to Drop Your Facebook Friends

It's your friendly neighborhood "Digital Drummer" again...smile.

Do you have hundreds of friends on Facebook? Well here is a good twist on Web 2.0 social-marketing. Facebook and Burger King are teaming up to give you a free Whopper...as long as you "sacrifice" 10 friends to get it.

AdWeek reports that Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which designed the campaign, thought up the idea after realizing they all faced the same issue: dealing with too many Facebook friends...most of whom they might never have, "or even wanted to" meet. The question becomes, Which love is bigger?...your love for your friends, or your love for the Whopper?

Last week, fast-food giant Burger King released a Facebook application that gives you a free Whopper burger for every 10 friends you delete. On the Web site, WhopperSacrifice.com, they ask "What Would You Do For A Whopper?" Basically it's an online coupon program that validates and announces your Facebook activity.

Every time you ax a friend, a message will show up on the activity feed of your Facebook profile announcing to the world that you have sacrificed a friend for a free Whopper. They limit you to one coupon per account...no you can't eat for a week off your Facebook friends or should I say ex-friends.

As of this posting, 147,800 friends have been axed. ,This is an excellent example of Web 2.0 social-marketing...For those that are not up on the latest tech jargon, Web 2.0 is essentially the combination of Rich Media applications across multiple web platforms.

Let me explain, social networks such as MySpace or FaceBook is not new. What's new, is how simply they integrate Rich Media such as pictures, videos, music, and widgets (think slide shows) into an online presentation, based primarily on social interaction....hence the term Web 2.0 social-marketing.

Along those lines, I strongly recommend that if you're in business and looking to tap into social networking sites, you begin to look at developing applications and widgets that Brand your name, and/or tie your customer base directly into a product or service. Burger King in barely a week, with no major advertizing has drawn 14,000 customers into its doors. Never forget that there's a real person behind that online profile...

As I've often said, the time of excuses is past (victim theology). We have no one but ourselves to blame, for the current state of Black content online. The Internet is full of free software and content development tools (see Facebook Developers Grant in my Blog). All we have to do is use them, and promote the end product amongst ourselves.

Blacks are the originators of American pop culture. Now is the time for us to stop accepting the crumbs off the table and begin to enjoy the full fruits of our labor from this cornucopia of opportunity we call the Internet.

How much are your friends worth?...a burger, a soda, a sale!