After the keynotes, it was on to the conference sessions, the first of which was Facebook Marketing: Best Practices, given by Jeremiah Owyang (Forrester Research), Evan Mager (AKQA), Holly Liu (Watercooler), Brett Keintz (750 Industries / Stanford GSB), Kevin Barenblat (Context Optional).
What we know about Facebook (from Facebook’s own stats page):
- There are more than 70 million active users; more than half are out of college (older than MySpace demo).
- There are more than 20,000 apps out there – and most are junk.
- 40% of Facebook users have watched a video inside Facebook.
The panel suggested approaching Facebook like any other marketing tool -filter users for matches.
Engagement with community is key to leveraging Facebook.
When companies create apps, the panel also suggested partnering with app developers rather than building apps in-house. Companies that specifically make apps are keeping up with trends better and can usually help you leverage changes.
API changed the space between the site and user.
ROI is difficult to gauge because it’s so new; we do know traditional banner ads do not perform as well on Facebook. Must be an ad with virality.
Companies using Facebook are usually looking to accomplish the following:
- Audience /virality
- Engagement (brand)
- Monetization
When using Facebook, be sure to keep the content dynamic and fresh:
- Asset: Photo / Video / Discussion
- Social digital actions: Comment / rate
- Allow interesting interactions, e.g. Which Grey’s Anatomy Character Are You?
When building apps:
- Build with friendships in mind, e.g. EA’s Smarty Pants, in which social interaction helps – and 5 million games have been played in the last few months as a result.
Need inspiration? The Stanford Facebook Class looked at what people do in everyday life for inspiration. Using that framework, one of the students came up with the idea for the successful app, Dodgeball.
Some other thoughts from the panelists:
- Take some content you already have and make it available on Facebook so users can experience it there.
- Facebook tends to be an immersive experience, like TV, and users tend not to like to leave the site. Companies have had success linking off Facebook, but keeping the Facebook look-and-feel.
- Click-thrus tend to be low throughout Facebook, it might be better to look at Facebook as a syndication model rather than trying to get the page views from Facebook.
- When using rich media, be sure to preserve the brand.
- ROI is considered to be much higher within Facebook than driving users outside.
- Measure success: Track everything and A/B test.
Good app examples:
Office Poke, branded MS Office
Some of the most ardent users are fans of sports and TV shows.
Beacons are another way to keep your brand out there, e.g. when Netflix sends you a new movie, the title and information is added to your mini-feed and broadcast to all your friends. Gamefly and Blockbuster do similar things – it’s a good way to get users to go to sites off Facebook.
Fan / Official pages are another good way to draw users. Recently, Sony and Target upped the ante, offering better experiences than on other, non-company pages.
So is the ad spend worth it? The panel cautioned all away from banners and said that any way to get into the news feed was most valuable (especially with video!).
Rock You has done a good job of leveraging audiences that are already on Facebook.
Who’s done it wrong?
Wal-Mart vs. Target back-to-school campaigns: Target had a roommate style search that allowed and encouraged users to talk to one another. Meantime, Wal-Mart had problems in execution; they disabled most if not all community features, which made users upset and made them comment negatively about the campaign / company elsewhere. Wal-Mart also almost exclusively sent users off to Wal-Mart.com, while Target had ways for users to engage there on Facebook (wallpaper downloads, videos, etc.).
Lessons learned:
- Don’t disable community
- Don’t just drive users back to your own site
- Let the page be a playground with things to use and experience
Another bad app were the Sony snow globes, which never quite worked.
Lessons learned:
- Make sure your app works
- The app must have a way for users to naturally share it. The app was great, but it needed more community.
Microsites in Facebook:
- Sprite Sips was one of the first, but it’s not very social – a drawback.
- (fluff)Friends is a better example of a page that functions almost like a microsite.
The overwhelming lesson of the session? Most go to Facebook without a goal. Don’t do that. Figure out what you want to do.
Some places Facebook apps still have far to go? Forwarding the conversation with regard to news and current events. The Washington Post, WSJ and Ernst and Young have had good examples.
The other lingering question was: Is Facebook enough? The panel agreed that everyone needs to be everywhere, including on Open Social sites.
