Tagging Products on Facebook

Many many months ago, July 2008ish, I came up with an idea to tag products on facebook. I thought this could revolutionize the way brands and consumers interact on social networks. For example, if John Smith tags 12 Mountain Dew cans, he can get one free. It's hard to imagine that a large amount of people would be compelled to spend the time tagging their products without some form of incentive. However, assuming the products were tagged, it would transform them from flat images to clickable hyperlinks. So, if you clicked on a Snickers bar you can be taken to their brand page on facebook, snickers.com, or wherever the company choses. Essentially it would completely shift the way we interact with photos on facebook. User generated product placement is the term I coined to describe this idea. I can't figure out why it hasn't happened until tonight.

I predict that facebook is currently scanning its billions of photos with software that detects all major and relevant brands. e.g. Keystone, Budweiser, Pizza Hut, Pepsi etc... and plans to offer the a brand tag/hyperlink to the companies. Let's assume they cull through all the photos and find the Taco Bell logo 12 million times on facebook. I bet they'll establish a "price per tag" and offer it to Taco Bell. Taco Bell can then create promotions, coupons, and microsites that activate once a a facebook user clicks.

Time will tell if this revenue driving platform is currently being stirred in the facebook cauldron.