Facebook wants to change privacy settings from Friends, to Friends and Friends that are tagged. How would you convince Mark Zuckerberg this is a good idea?

In order to make a good compelling argument why the change should happen, I’d first like to understand why it’s needed or how it will impact the current experience and the metrics. I’m assuming it’s a one or the other scenario. We can ONLY have posts shared with friends or we can ONLY have posts shared with friends of friends. Then build a case with data and user testements to back the argument. Understanding the scope of the change:

Currently, when Facebook users post pictures/text/images, I’m assuming they have their privacy setting to be “only visible to my friends”. The change will be that when Facebook users post pictures/text/images, they can share the content with “friends of friends”. Here are the pros and cons I can think of –

Next, I would look at data. Some of the questions I would try to answer are:

1) How many users change their privacy settings today

2) What percentage of posts are shared with friends vs. public

3) What is the current level of engagement on posts. For example, on average the number of likes a user gets is _____

4) Is there any customer feedback/concerns around privacy of posts

Next, if possible I would A/B test the change with a set of beta testers and collect customer feedback. If it turns that users will not post content due to the privacy change then I wouldn’t suggest the change. If users are posting more, then I would recommend the change.

1. CLARIFY: 
   1. Is this roll out market specific? Assume no.
   2. Is this a beta test or rolled out to a specific user v. all users? Assume all users.
   3. Is there there a specific goal in mind – ex. to increase the views / post? Assume my choice.
   4. Is this setting limited to a specific type of content posted on Facebook (ex. wall posts, picture uploads, etc.)? Assume my choice.
   5. Will the user still have different privacy options? Assume the public option will exist but “Friends” will be removed permanently to “Friends of Friends”.
2. BACKGROUND: Facebook is a social media platform that allows users to create personal accounts and post different types of content on their wall, upload photos and post on other Friends’ walls. There are also business pgs, but for the same of this question, I will focus on personal accounts because they are the ones that are affected by this Friends to Friends of Friends change. In terms of post privacy settings, Facebook allows someone to post in the settings below:
   1. Everyone
   2. Friends of Friends
   3. Friends
   4. Friends except
   5. Specific friends
   6. Only me
3. GOAL: For this question, I am assuming that Marc Zuckerberg is talking about removing the option to make posts from your personal account to “Friends”, “Friends except” and “Specific friends”. The only option that the user will have is “Friends of Friends”. In regards to the reason why Marc would want to make this change, Facebook is all about enhancing connections. Changing this privacy setting on posts will allow more people to see it / expanding your connections via post and potentially boosting friend requests, as people may friend the people they see writing a post.
4. USERS: Assume that this change is going to all users of Facebook.
5. USER NEEDS / WHY USERS POST TO FRIENDS: Before we evaluate the options, let’s understand why a user posts to friends. In each of these options, the overal reason a user is posting is to share something that reflects a personal opinion or personal aspect of their life.
   1. Personal Opinion: User wants to share a personal opinion about an event in their life, discuss the news, etc.
   2. Personal Event: User experiences a personal event (celebration, death, birthday, graduation, etc.) and wants to share with their friends.
   3. Personal Feelings: User is experiencing a certain type of mood (ex. I am feeling “happy”, etc.) and wants to share their mood with their friends.
   4. Sharing Ideas: User sees a post (video, quote, image, etc.) that resonates with them and wants to share with their friends.
   5. Charity: User wants to raise money for a specific charity. User usually chooses a charity close to them that has meaning. Tied a lot to birthday fundraisers.
6.  STRATEGIC CHOICES: There are two strategic choices that Marc can make.
   1. Keep the user experience as is and allow users to share with Friends only
   2. Change the user experience and make all posts either shared with “Friends of Friends” or “Everyone”.
7. EVALUATE STRATEGIC CHOICES: 

   1. THEME	KEEP FRIENDS: IMPACT TO USER	CHANGE TO FRIENDS OF FRIENDS: IMPACT TO USER
      User Experience	High: User is used to seeing “Friends” option. Based on personal experience, most used option.	Low: User may be thrown off by the removal of the “Friends” privacy setting they are so used to seeing, though fewer options may be slightly simpler for a user to digest.
      Engagement	High: Users already post with this setting. Likely no change to how the user already interacts with Facebook, which may be frequently or not frequently.	Low: Users may be less inclined to post because their posts are now going to a broader audience. They may not be comfortable sharing as frequently.
      # of Connections	Low: User’s # of friends likely won’t change. Friend #s will change due to other behaviors.	Medium: Users may make more friends if more people are seeing their posts. People may see posts and be more likely to friend request.
      Personal Connection	High: Users can select who sees their posts already. The experience is personal / customizable.	Medium: Friends of friends forces posts to become more public / go to people a user may not know. There is less of a personal aspect.
      Privacy	High: Users can select who sees their posts already. Posts are only shared with people they know (though they may not actually know all their friends / the extent of the relationship will vary).	Low: User may have serious privacy concerns because they cannot control who sees their posts. Posts may even be shown to their coworkers, their boss, strangers, etc., which may make the user very uncomfortable.

8. SUMMARY: Given the evaluation, it is clear that the “Friends” option – i.e. keep the current Facebook experience is a much stronger option. There are concerns about user experience, engagement, personal connection and privacy issues if we change to the “Friends of Friends” model. Privacy is a big theme in the digital world today, and Facebook may face additional concerns re. data security and privacy if they make this switch. Most of the time people are posting on Facebook, they are sharing something personal, and most people want to control who is seeing that. If a user wants to share opinions more broadly, they already have the option of posting to “Friends of Friends” or “Everyone”, so simply removing the “Friends” option will be more detrimental to the user experience.
9. CAVEATS:
   1. Current Friends: Many people on Facebook may be “friends” will people they do not know at all or barely know. For example, perhaps you met someone years ago and friended them. Based on personal experience, the likelihood that a user is customizing their posts to go to only friends they know well if they have a large number of friends (say 1000+) is unlikely. Data / research would be needed to verify.

Always ask – What is the people problem we are trying to solve? (edited)
So by changing the setting from “Friends” to “Friends and Friends of Friends” – are we hoping to let people share their posts more broadly and there by get more likes, comments, reactions, shares etc and create a feeling of higher social validation? Will this create a virtuous cycle of more shares/posts/comments etc – i.e- more content creation and more user engagement over all?
Are we hoping to also see an increase in number of friends/connections per user – as posts will be shared with friends of friends who will then reach out and send friend requests – higher activity within distant social graphs?
So we would do an A/B test of people (control group) who will see only “Friends” and test group who will see “Friends of Friends”
See if you have higher engagement rate within the test vs control group by testing for total and average number of shares, likes, comments, reactions across the two groups
See if you find more friends being added in test vs control group for the same period of time (30 day period might work)
If the engagement and number of friends metric goes up – this is working
On the other hand, if this causes, anxiety and fear of privacy issues, you might see a reverse impact and user engagement may go down and number of friends may also go down. Then- this feature will automatically be deemed as a bad idea
We should also allow a user to change it back to “friends only” and measure if in the test group, people actually use this toggle to go back to original setting. This would show if we are getting adoption of this feature

What I mean is – if people are self selecting out of this setting consistently, its a very clear sign that people are not comfortable with this setting.