An Introduction to Facebook for Marketers in plain English

Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. You’ve probably received dozens of invites to join the hottest social network on the web in the past few months, your friends can’t stop talking about it and you may have even heard about it on the news. But just what is the big deal about Facebook? And why should you pay attention to it at all when you have more important things to do like running your business?

Well buckle down and pay attention, you’re about to get a crash course on Facebook. Don’t worry, I’ll try to avoid those fancy buzzwords with ambiguous meanings like ‘Web 2.0’ or ‘social media’. Instead I’ll try to explain why Facebook matters specifically to businesses and marketers.

Designed for businesses

The most compelling reason why businesses would be interested in Facebook is because of the features that have specifically been designed for businesses. These advertising and marketing features integrate seamlessly into the Facebook experience, making advertising messages look and sound like personal endorsements from your friends.

These features essentially enable you to easily create buzz for your product or service with word of mouth. In October 2007, The Nielsen Company reported that consumers worldwide trusted their friends and peers the most over other forms of advertising. “Recommendation of someone else remains the most trusted sources of information when consumers decide which products and services to buy,” said David McCallum, the global managing director for Nielsen’s Customized Research Services.

However, before we can look at these Facebook features in detail, it’s a good idea to understand the Facebook experience and its appeal.

Every day, Facebook grows at a rate of 250,000 new members a day. Its active users return daily, spending up to 20 minutes per visit (Source: Official Facebook stats). It’s no question that Facebook has really got the attention of Average Joe web surfer. But why?

It’s all about relationships

The Facebook elves have worked really hard to create a culture and environment in Facebook that’s attractive and appealing to its members. Unlike its competitors like MySpace where the focus is on meeting new people, Facebook’s objective is to help its members keep in touch with friends you already have. Non-friends who view your profile get limited information. It’s also really common to hear stories of how friends were re-united through Facebook after losing touch for years. Along the way, Facebook makes it a fun affair to keep in touch too.

At the heart of Facebook is its News Feed feature. Here’s a sample of the announcements that have appeared on my Facebook News Feed.

Kevin Ng and Steven Wong are now friends.

Andrew Tan, Calvin Yap, Darren Teh and Kevin Ng are attending the
YOUTH ‘08: Malaysia’s Youth Lifestyle Showcase.

Anna wrote on Peggy’s wall. - “Hey, congrats on your promotion!”

Khoo Wei Seng added new photos. - 07 Summer Road Trip

Maria ended her relationship with John.

Names have been changed to protect my friends’ identities

These announcements in my news feed helps me and my friends stay current with each other. Many times you wouldn’t know what’s happening to the friends you don’t meet up so often. That’s why many people often lose touch with their friends after they move to a different city or overseas.

Facebook takes it even further and has a wide number of applications that encourages you to interact with your friends. For example, the Movies application allows you to compete against your friends on your movie knowledge and find a movie partner. The Scrabulous application allows you to play Scrabble (sometimes at a rate of one move a day) with your friends. Hey, if you can’t meet up in person to play, it’s great fun to do it over Facebook.

There are also groups where you can meet people who share similar interests. You can also browse events (concerts, parties, seminars) you’ve been invited to and discover others your friends are attending.

All of these elements combine to make Facebook a fun experience that complements your physical interactions with your friends, not replace it. And that in a nutshell is the appeal of Facebook. To experience it yourself, I highly recommend signing up for it.

Features for marketers

The emphasis Facebook places on relationships and its tighter control on how users can style their profile page also helps to draw an older, post-college demographic. This demographic is also very attractive to marketers and advertisers.

I mentioned earlier that Facebook has been designed to let businesses make their ads look like personal recommendations from your Facebook friends. Here’s a quick intro to how and an overview of how you can get started yourself.

In November last year, Facebook launched its Facebook Ads. Part of this Facebook Ads are Pages which serve as Facebook profiles for businesses, bands and public figures. Facebook Pages allows users to interact and affiliate with businesses and organisations in the same way they interact with other Facebook user profiles. Here's Buzzmedia's own Facebook Page.

Facebook members can then become ‘fans’ of a Page. In this example below, my friend Daniel became a Fan of the Kid Chan Studio. Facebook then reports that to me and all of Daniel’s on Facebook. On the left of the screen, Daniel’s picture appears above a Facebook Social Ad by the TLC Company. As Daniel’s friend, I’d be curious to learn about Kid Chan Studio or the TLC Company. These are marketing messages from Kid Chan Studio and the TLC Company, but to many Facebook users, it will seem just like another part of their News Feed and a personal recommendation from Daniel.

The cost of starting a Page is zero while Social Ads like the TLC Company ad cost a small amount of money (starting from USD5 per day). If you have more cash to spend, you can participate in Facebook’s Beacon advertising programme. The Beacon programme enables businesses to share their customer’s actions on their websites with their Facebook friends.

In this example from Facebook, Meagan reviews a video on the Blockbuster website. This ad below then appears on Meagan’s friend’s Facebook News Feed. Again, it appears like a personal recommendation for the movie from Meagan, and now Meagan’s friends can click on the ad and go to the Blockbuster website.

Facebook is continually improving their advertising platform and is working on new features for businesses. However, beyond these features, businesses and organisations can effectively promote events and build awareness on Facebook through the free Pages, Events and Groups applications. It just takes a bit of creativity and time to set up the campaigns.

That’s it for this introduction to Facebook. I hope you’ve found it useful. I’m actively exploring Facebook and I’m aiming to include some case studies on Facebook marketing soon. In the meantime, please post your questions and feedback in the comments below.

Further reading:

• Facebook Business Solutions
• What the Web Marketer Should Know About Facebook
• Become a fan of the Buzzmedia Online Marketing Page