Facebook-enomics 101
If you aren’t familiar with Facebook, you must be living under a rock. As of January 2009, the social networking site is 175 million members strong with users spending 3 billion minutes on the site each day. Facebook, whose homepage is an addictive, randomly generated newsfeed, made up of members, and others in their networks, status updates, photos, videos and fan groups individual members have joined. It’s a Facebook nation – and as marketers, small and large, we need to harness the social, word-of-mouth, viral power that drives this beyond popular site. To those untrained in Facebook-enomics, the infamous status updates, “become a fan of (fill in the blank)”, and various groups started by individuals and corporations available for members to join, it all seems like harmless fun. However, to an insightful marketer these Facebook “tools” are free to minimum cost advertising. In order to illustrate the viral aspect of Facebook, let’s look at the site as a very large, but ultimately intimate, party-family-picnic-office-function-high-school-reunion-spontaneous-get-together. At this Internet soirée all the people you know, or at least 95% of the people you know, no matter how casually, are in attendance along with ALL their friends, family, and acquaintances. Your mom, that friend of yours she didn’t approve of in high school, your husband, your BFF, your golfing buddy. However, unlike an actual party, where each person doesn’t hear that you eat Tastykake’s new low fat products when you have a craving for sweets, or that you love getting your coffee at Wawa every morning, because you are only able to talk with a few people at once, on Facebook, everyone at the party potentially hears you or knows you have joined a group. Even better, and here is viral marketing in action, if one of your friends happens to respond and join a group you have joined, there is a good chance all their friends will know via the newsfeed. And, here is where the psychology of great brands like Apple, Nike, and Coke come into play in the viral landscape: belonging is a basic human desire. On Facebook, belonging to the group, for the fun of it, at this big Internet party, is just one simple click away. In fact, there is a good chance (80% according to a recent study by a sociology PhD at the University of Pennsylvania) that people will join once they see a friend of theirs has joined. Yes, because they love the brand, but also because they want in on the fun. To marketers, certainly, this is key. You can start a group for your brand with 50 members or less and within weeks build your group fan base to 1,000 and even 10s of thousands. Now, this all sounds great, but here is the real bonus: you are now actually engaging DIRECTLY with your customer base. The group is compiled of your brand evangelists and a good majority of their friends. As the leader of the group you can inform the group members of promotions, new products, and send coupons. The cost of joining Facebook – nothing. The cost of getting people to join your group – nothing. The cost of not taking advantage of this viral wonder – potentially, thousands. Cost aside, with 175 million members, and growing, certainly, marketers need to hone-in on Facebook-enomics. The world of marketing is rapidly changing–brands daily compete to have their message heard, Facebook is a megaphone to help increase your “share of voice”. |
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Getting Started on Facebook and Practical Tips for Marketing:
Add Friends Groups Develop Product and Brand Pages Events Messages Post and Share Videos and Pictures Networks Mini Feed and News Feed RSS Feed Create Applications Social Bookmarking Ads |
