Get a Facebook Strategy
If you’re like me, many of you out there have had your fill of social networks this year. MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, OpenSocial, Gorooze, the list goes on and on. Well I say enough is enough already. In fact, I heard this acronym at BlogWorldExpo – YASN – Yet Another Social Network.According to data on Alexa:
• 1/3 of all Web visitors in August 07 visited MySpace
• 1/7 of all Web visitors in August 07 visited Facebook
• 5 of the top 10 sites in the world are all Web 2.0 sites
• ½ of the top 30 sites are all social networking sites
Powerful data and powerful growth by these sites point to their diversity, and only you will know which ones would be the best fit for you personally and your brand. But I would like to suggest you adopt a strategy solely for Facebook:
1) Why Facebook?
- With 60 million users year to date in 2007, and 50% of which return daily, this one should be tops on your list!
- Sure, throwing sheep and poking people is fun, but why not add value to the conversation by posting quality content? (Small side note – if you read the fine print, Facebook owns all content you create on the Facebook site)
- add the Twitter application – so others can see what you are doing
- add the Del.icio.us application – so others can see what you are tagging
- add StumbleUpon – so others can see what you are finding interesting
- add zuPort for YouTube – so others can see what videos you posted
- The Seinfeld group started with just 10 members, but by the very next day it was up to 2000 members!
Labels: social media
posted by Paul Dunay
7 Comments:
Paul,
I see an opportunity for consumer-focused companies on social networking sites. I agree with your points about why this is important and the “breadcrumb” concept.
To make this work for B2B companies, the social networks need to evolve to where people with similar business concerns are interested (and willing) to share those business concerns in a public forum.
These will evolve, but I’m not sure I see it happening anytime soon on MySpace, Facebook, or LinkedIn. What I’m looking forward to seeing is the evolution of social networks that are B2B oriented.
What are the ones you are seeing?
Glenn
I really like your point about engendering an atmosphere that will allow B2B companies and their buyers to share concerns openly in a public forum. Technically they already do in things like surveys and online surveys but I see your point on the transparency of social networks.
The answer could be B2B specific social networks or even private branded social networks (see Oracle network announcement from OracleWorld today!)
But I do think you might even want to consider a brand page in Facebook so no cybersquatter takes it from you. Even if you put very little to nothing out there. Its better to own it than not own it.
pd
Paul - thanks for the post and ideas for getting more out of Facebook. I'm the community manager for an online community called Catalzye. As a way to expand the community's reach and brand, I also created a Facebook group where I cross-link blog posts and other content. So far, almost 10% of the online community has joined the Facebook group. I see the Facebook group as an alternative channel for the community and a way to make the community 'stickier'.
Tom Humbarger
Catalyze Community Manager
thumbarger@mycatalzye.org
Totally agree Tom
and not just sticker - but also a great way to spread the word virally
best
pd
I am very bullish on Facebook for B2B marketers. I just gave a talk to 120 CEOs in Tampa and I talked up Facebook. Until industry specific or audience specific social networks turn up (like www.ittoolbox.com) Facebook is best positioned with features like Groups and Networks. If Facebook allows advertisers to get very targeted, we'll see the B2B market jump on the bandwagon. I've started a group in Facebook for B2B web marketing. Check it out:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6770556578. It's been slow going but I'm optimistic it will grow as more B2B marketers get exposed to Facebook's robust social networking environment.
Bernie Borges
http://www.findandconvert.com/blog/
Bernie
Thanks for taking the initiative to start a B2B Marketer area on Facebook. Great Idea.
I will be joining it and hopefully some of my readers will too
Alexa ranking has its own significance in the ranking position of website in the search engines. The ranking in Alexa.com serves as a criteria for the Webmasters, advertisers and ad networks as a gauge to determine the worth of a link on your website. If one depends on link or site selling as a form of monetization one will definitely want to increase their Alexa rank because it’ll increase bargaining power when it comes to ad pricing. Here we are taking into account the ranking of Social media. Social media is an Internet media that allow people to interact in some way. Social media can take many different forms, including Internet Forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. The basic services provided by these sites are interactive connections. The 10 social media sites stated below are ranked high in Alexa.com. These are:-
1. Yahoo
2. Microsoft Network
3. Google
4. You tube
5. MySpace
6. Orkut
7. Facebook
8. Hi5
9. Blogger.com
10.Friendster
Like Orkut.com is the online social networking services operated by Google. Here people come into contact with each other and build up relations whether personal or business.
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