It is often surprising to see how little creative effort companies put into their Facebook marketing, particularly given the level of noise they make about using the platform.
Creative resources can be scarcer at small businesses without big social media budgets, and Facebook does have a somewhat static format to work with. Yet it needn’t be costly to come up with some great landing page manipulation, and here are some tips that should offer some inspiration:
1. Use a large call-to action
The most obvious and relevant call to action is to invite visitors to click on the ‘Like’ button of your Facebook page. BMW has consistently used this tactic on its landing page, always updating the look and feel of the graphics in line with its current messaging. ..see BMW Facebook page
2. Create an interactive, user-oriented page
Depending on who your target audience is, encourage interactivity with suitable competitions, games and interactive video. Disney Pixar has done just this, framing activity on its landing page around its latest Disneyland project, John of the Jungle. Also observe Disney’s use of joined-up activity on YouTube, where visitors can upload photos to a competition…see Disney Pixar Facebook page More »
The news that Amex is customising offers and deals based on what Facebook users and their friends ‘Like’ is – we think – an exciting glimpse of things to come for Facebook marketing.
AmEx’s new Facebook app, “Link, Like, Love”, invites users to link their cards to the unique programme and select deals. By choosing to ‘Like’ a certain retailer, for example, or even checking in at that shop’s location using Facebook Places, a user may then receive deals for that shop.
One of the most promising aspects of the programme is the way it neatly sidesteps the privacy issues of behavioural targeting. Users have to download the app, making it 100% opt-in and consensual – an intelligent evolution of social marketing.
Since it is built on AmEx’s Smart Offer APIs, which enable coupon-free offers, everybody is a winner. Customers don’t have to print off fiddly coupons, while merchants receive detailed reporting on how deals are being redeemed. More »
As online recommendations now stand among the most trusted forms of advertising, according to Nielsen, Facebook’s new tool offers up exciting opportunities for brands looking to maximise their Facebook marketing plans.
Following a year of beta testing, Facebook Questions finally rolled out globally on Facebook on March 24. The market research and crowdsourcing potential is vast, as companies can tap into real-time feedback from known fans in a trusted setting.
Brands should now ponder whether to leverage the tool similarly to other Q&A sites such as Yahoo Answers, Quora and LocalMind, or to create a novel social media strategy.
Over at Mashable.com, Ben Grossman, communication strategist for Oxford Communications broke down the key differences between the sites’ functionality.
While Facebook Questions falls into roughly the same category as the aforementioned sites, there are two major differences; answers to questions are not free-form; users are limited to multiple-choice responses; questions (and their answers) are not yet catalogued by search engines, he explained.
The upshot is that for now, public Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers and Quora will remain important for public-facing customer support and inquiries. More »
Your social media marketing strategy seems to be going well; your Facebook brand profile has attracted plenty of likes, your intelligent, timely tweets have won you an army of Twitter followers, but then, quite suddenly, things start to go wrong. Your Facebook fans have started to de-friend you, while on Twitter, your core followers are nowhere to be seen – and it’s happening at an alarming pace. But why do people break their relationships with brands in the social media space?
Interactive marketing services company ExactTarget has researched the issue, and here we present some of the foremost stats and tips to encourage your online relationships to thrive.
Of the 73% of Facebook users surveyed, a majority of 64% claim to be ‘fans’ of, or have ‘liked’ a company or brand.
Despite this, 55% of those fans find they no longer want to view your posts, and 51% rarely, if ever, visit your business page on Facebook after liking it.
Excessive posting accounts for 44% of the decisions to ‘unlike’, while 43% of Facebook users feel that their account is too crowded with brands.
38% say marketers aren’t offering fresh content, while 26% say claim that all they were interested in were offers and discounts. More »
Over the past six months there has been a dramatic increase of fan numbers on the Sony Ericsson Facebook page, now showing at 3,078,716 fans. Statistics show that fan numbers have in fact doubled since mid-October.
Q. What is driving fan loyalty and what social media activities does the company use to build such a following?
A. Give-away contests, a strategy which has been popular amongst consumers long-term, both online and off. Sony has been giving away prizes ranging from phones to World Cup tickets in exchange for fan loyalty and participation.
Competitions have ranged from giving fans the chance to win one of the latest Sony Ericsson handsets via a weekly trivia question, or the opportunity to win tickets to last summer’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
The latest giveaway contest from Sony launched on Facebook, celebrates its Xperia X10 mini phone launch, challenging fans to compete for a free handset. More »
In our daily noodling on Facebook, we don’t have the sense that we’re writing our personal history – but think ahead fifty years and our Facebook profile may end up as the ultimate story of our lives – as depicted in this excellent film from Maxime Luere of Akama Studio.
Ahead of all the pop videos in the last 7 days, this goal celebration is the number one viral video worldwide, 10+ million views and 125K Facebook shares.
Facebook had a ‘do’ on the roof of their Palo Alto offices last week, specifically for PR people, imparting useful information such as how to “like” any article online, use a Firefox plug-in and tips on live-streaming.
They’ve set up a PR page too (of course) which now has 3000+ fans and perhaps have started to take PRs seriously as future partners. There’s no doubt the interest is reciprocated, though most big brands are proceeding with caution.
Ford has just made a bold move however in eschewing the traditional auto show and advertising biltz, to launch their new Explorer model on Facebook.
They’ve used it a a kind of hyprid press room/consumer information hub, containing several video interviews, pre and post ‘reveal’ photos, a competition to win a new Explorer and a schedule of live city events.
Facebook revenue may have neared $800m in 2009, almost double previously estimates, according to a report from Reuters.
Last July, Facebook board member Marc Andreessen told Reuters the company was on track to surpass $500 million in annual revenue for 2009. In September, Facebook said that it had become free cash flow positive, meaning that the company was generating enough cash to cover its operating expenses as well as its capital spending needs.
Estimates in various media reports had previously pegged the company’s 2009 revenue at $550 million to $700 million.
The two sources said revenue in 2009 was in fact $700 million to $800 million.
“They are downplaying their performance,” one source told Reuters, adding that 2009 revenue was more than double the previous year’s total. “There’s no upside in getting people’s expectations high, it’s always better to go low.”
If Facebook eventually seeks to go public, unveiling financial figures above expectations could help bolster investor interest. More »
The value to brand marketers of attracting consumers to sign up to their Facebook pages has been calculated in a new survey from Syncapse.
They found Facebook fans spend $71.84 more per year on brands they ‘Like’ and they are 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using that brand.
In addition, fans are 41% more likely to recommend a fanned product to their friends. Amongst the 20 top brands* measured, the average value of an individual fan rises to $136.38.
Among the 20, McDonald’s registered the largest variability in annualised spending between fans and non-fans, with fans spending $159.79 more per year.
In contrast, Oreo registered the lowest variability in spending between fans and non-fans, with fans spending $28.52 more per year.
The five measured variables that contributed to the study were product spending, brand loyalty, propensity to recommend, brand affinity, and earned media value. More »
It is often surprising to see how little creative effort companies put into their Facebook marketing, particularly given the level of noise they make about using the platform.
The news that Amex is customising offers and deals based on what Facebook users and their friends ‘Like’ is – we think – an exciting glimpse of things to come for 
Over the past six months there has been a dramatic increase of fan numbers on the Sony Ericsson Facebook page, now showing at 3,078,716 fans. Statistics show that fan numbers have in fact doubled since mid-October.
