Use the facebook!

Posted on | December 17, 2008 | Comments Off

so I’m too tired tonight to fight with the meta description and URL problems, so I decided to do something pretty simple – build a facebook fan page. This is pretty easy if you already have a facebook account. Now I can connect with people on facebook who are not necessarily already my friends without looking like a spammer. Facebook expects me to promote my fan page, and even asks me if I’d like to promote the page with an ad.

Okay, I totally have to go into a tangent and write about facebook’s monetization efforts. Aside from the whole beacon disaster, so far I have to say, good work! I’ve been a fan of facebook for a long time, but having seen the first dot com burst come and go, I think it’s good that they are taking steps to make sure they make good business sense as well as a good time. HOWEVER, the targeting still needs help, and they don’t quite offer the level of customer service to their advertising clients that Google offers. While it is exciting that the anonymous targeted advertising is available (and keeping facebook innovative and free to us lay people), initial reports have been that their platforms can be tricky to work with and they have a high point-of-entry even for agencies. As the Boss Lady would tell me if I was tough to work with, there’s room for improvement.

But for you DIY online marketers out there, I think you should take advantage of facebook’s free advertising tools. Facebook has positioned itself as the “connections” social network, (as opposed to myspace which is really more about entertainment (more on that in another post)) and you should take advantage of that! Facebook understands the value of lovemarks big and small, so if your small business or art project of NPO has audiences on facebook, you should start connecting to them on facebook to keep in touch and keep them updated on your upcoming events and news.

For instance, the artist Catherine Forster has, on my urging, joined facebook and created a fan page, even though she previously believed herself to be “too old” (no one is too old to join a cult) and she has enjoyed it so far. She’s used it mostly to post event news and pictures of her family. Then, when I bought one of her pieces for a couple of friends of mine as a wedding present, they actually found her through me, and with no begging whatsoever, became fans of her page. (All fan pages are public, by the way. You don’t have to be signed into facebook to see them)

So long story short: They love her work, they want to connect to her, and so they physically connect thier personal news source and connection platform to her online marketing page. And all she had to do was sign up and upload some pictures!

HOWEVER, the trick to making social media work (especially if your more of large corporation or institution instead of an incredibly innovative artist and curator) is the commitment you bring to the table. Social Media marketing doesn’t exist in campaigns; the goal is to create a long-running relationship with your customers, clients and fans. Think about why you wanted to go into marketing in the first place – you wanted to create something like the next “Priceless” Mastercard campaign in the hearts and mind of everyone who approves of capitalism, right? The power in those campaigns is that they find a very common idea in something that can be applied to many different communities – thus making us feel more connected, which is the very power of social media. Social Media allows us to connect the diverse communities we encounter in our lives in an organized and technological way. It also allows you as a marketer to connect to the diverse communities of your product and find connections to more customers and clients you might not even know you had. Forster has not yet met the two people who enjoyed her paintings so much, but through facebook they were able to show their support and admiration of her work.