Some time ago Google announced plans to introduce a set of standards to allow software developers to write programs for Google’s social network. This was a direct response to Facebooks published API for creating Facebook Applications or add-ons that can be shared among friends within Facebook.
Since then I have been hearing a lot about marketing with Facebook and how Internet Marketers are using demographic data in ways that they have never been able to before. Of course, this all sounds interesting, but is marketing on Facebook the same thing as marketing on Google Adwords or any other ad network out there?
The answer is yes and no. Yes, you can run a pay per click (PPC) campaign in Facebook and yes, there are banner ads in Facebook. But these more traditional methods of advertising online are not the real juice when it comes to marketing within Facebook. What is truly remarkable about advertising on Facebook is that you can market to specific demographics and there is a viral component to Facebook applications built into Facebook itself.
So, with all this in mind, it seems to me there are two very important questions you must answer:
- 1) How do you effectively market on Facebook?
- 2) Will marketing on Facebook work for you?
Marketing on Facebook will be extremely profitable for those who understand the environment and the culture. There are a lot of psychological elements to Facebook marketing and anyone who wants to make Facebook marketing work for them will have to understand how it all fits together.
This also means that marketing on Facebook may not necessarily work for everyone. I know this statement seems a little exclusionary, but because the factors are different than what most marketers are used to it just makes sense to say right up front that not all things will be marketable on Facebook.
But honestly, no one product or service is universally marketable everywhere. Some things lend themselves to some markets better than others. Really, this is the whole point of establishing demographics and targeting markets in the first place.
The main take away from all these discussions is simply this; Facebook marketing is on the radar of Internet Marketers and the first rounds of profits will go to those who learn now what works and what doesn’t. Even if Facebook itself does not come out on top as the leader of social networks, the reality is that the lessons learned today will be carried on and applied to other social networks. So, it is important to start the learning process today so that we will be able to act when the time comes.
If you are interested in learning for yourself what Facebook marketing has to offer, then I recommend you take a look for yourself. I know I will be paying particular attention to this within the next several months as things unfold.
Embracing changes,
Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com
I enjoyed reading your article and would love to know more about how to market on Facebook.
This was really interesting Charles. I’ve never really understood What makes Facebook so special as a marketing tool.
Great post. I’m new to Internet marketing and while my blog is growing at a nice rate I’m very confused about how to leverage social media and social marketing. Thanks for giving me a little bit of education. Facebook is one community I’d like to check out.
Whoa — that link you sent me to is a subscription site. Didn’t you say they share their infor for free? Which is it?
Did I get sent to the wrong place?
Susan. I don’t remember which link that was, but they share a good bit for free. They have two sites. One is paid and one is free.
Sol. I recently started a social community for Open Source Marketer. Your welcome to join us. I plan to talk more about this soon and you might find someone in the community who will share their experiences with you as well.
FaceBook does some very interesting things and it helps that they were early on the scene. As the social market matures I think we can expect to see some even better tools and techniques for social marketing.
Elaine. Thanks for the feedback. I’ll try to include more information about this topic soon. Many people have said the same thing. Are you using FaceBook at the moment?
Is everyone who commented, including the author of this article, over 40 or what? It’s Facebook, not FaceBook.
Awesome, my first generational crack. Now I know how John McCain must feel. Thanks for the correction College Kid. Just to clarify, I was the only one camel casing the name Facebook. The other readers who commented did much better than me. One interesting footnote is that the exact match of “Facebook” gets an estimated 2,426 a day, while the exact match for “FaceBook” only gets 79 searches a day, so I’ll be updating the article to match the higher search volumes.
Are you thinking of using Facebook for marketing?