Aug
Today on the internet, 2 websites have clearly created a huge buzz. Those are facebook and twitter. Facebook has redefined social networking by helping its users rapidly find long lost friends. Some time back, facebook introduced another concept called Pages- which now has become the hottest property on the internet! I am discussing the reasons why Facebook Pages has taken off so brilliantly in this post….
Take for example, the facebook page of this blog: The page was started 2 months ago and today it makes atleast 150 ppl and their friends aware of whats the latest on strat.in .I am attaching the fan box from Strat. In facebook page to explain how well thought of the viral nature of this concept is…
Note that each time you refresh, you get to see 10 new faces. Now that gives the new user a sense of activity on that site. Also imagine what a non-Facebook user may think of all this…That user would surely be tempted to join facebook. So facebook perhaps benefits more than the page creator does because more real users join the facebook platform. Now imagine the fan box of a popular page like New York Times or CNN and how many new users would it attract to facebook. Facebook has been in a hockey stick growth phase for months now, and now, you know why- its because of such well thought out applications.
What does a typical page provide:
1. A typical page provides activity stream like that of a person on facebook. This activity gets shown on the fan’s feeds as well. That in turn is viewed by those who aren’t fans of this page as well, which ensures that they atleast check out the facebook page, and even become fans themselves.
2. It has an email way of communication with fans, for example, I notified our facebook fans with an email specifying the Incredible Indians contest on strat.in as well!
3. A fan of the page can post his feeds on the page too. Thats how economist has emerged as an interactive facebook page.. They are having an interactive debate about Whether NASA should return to the moon – right now on facebook+economist site. I am taking part in that debate.
4. Multimedia- You can upload photos, links, videos and everything else on to the fan page as well. Check the fan page of Megan Fox for example.
5. There is a forum here too. Some facebook pages have very active forums as well- check the WSJ facebook page as an example.
Who is using these pages, Check this leaderboard for example: Today, Michael Jackson leads the fan page listing. So, one message on MJ’s facebook page reaches 10 mn users! Now thats the reach advertisers crave for , don’t they? Or check up Roger Federer’s fan page during Wimbledon . He had 2 mn fans and he was putting his Nike and Rolex ads on the page interspersed with his live videos. Now, that is true value for sponsors. Are you seeing the light wrt how facebook is going to monetize from this? I surely am!
PS: There is an infinite more stuff to write, but lately the discussions on comments section have been so interesting, I shall talk more on the comments section I guess!
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13 Responses to “Facebook Pages: Viral Marketing at its best!”
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The leaderboard quoted on the article: http://pagedata.insidefacebook.com/
Theoretically, it is reasonable to assume that advertising on social networks would yield high returns; however, they are notoriously hard to monetize (http://mattmaroon.com/2009/05/28/why-adwords-wont-work-for-social-networks/). Social network CTRs are usually very low and with recent fiascos like the Facebook beacon project and the default Facebook setting (opt-out and not opt-in as it should be) to use your profile picture in site advertisements, I am sure Facebook is finding it even harder to monetize itself at every step. On the other hand, Twitter is resorting to the standard banner ads and was bucket-testing banner ads on search result pages recently. Maybe (and I hope) TwitFace will come up with something more innovative than standard advertising models without compromising user privacy.
@Umang – I differ on that, infact social networks have a better chance at monetization. An advertiser already knows who they are targeting through the social network route.
CTRs- Facebook claims that its CTRs are 3-4 times those by Google Adwords btw…
Twitter is another matter altogether. They , post their recent redesign (about which I may blog this weekend as well) are trying to become a people powered search engine, which has huge scope as well. Its a different approach to monetization, again with a lot of potential.
@User Privacy- Its of prime importance, but thats where the social graph comes in. As long as the user is in control of what he sees, I see no problem why Facebook cannot use UGC for monetizaing its platform…
hmm … I doubt if the recent trends have changed but Facebook CTRs were dismal at least a while back. A quick google search shows up the following:
http://blog.auinteractive.com/facebook-ads-dont-work-heres-proof
http://www.bizreport.com/2007/07/advertisers_disappointed_with_facebooks_ctr.html
http://valleywag.gawker.com/242234/facebook-consistently-the-worst-performing-site
http://www.jonathanvolk.com/ppc/best-facebook-ctr-you-have-seen.html
Using UGC content is fine but I think this should be opt-in rather than opt-out as Facebook did. Using my photo on Viagara ads without my explicit consent is a big no-no (http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2009/07/19/your-photos-now-featured-in-facebook-ads/)
hmm … I doubt if the recent trends have changed but Facebook CTRs were dismal at least a while back. A quick google search shows up the following:
1,
2,
3,
4
Using UGC content is fine but I think this should be opt-in rather than opt-out as Facebook did. Using my photo on Viagara ads without my explicit consent is a big no-no
Umang – My stmt was based on this link: http://www.istrategylabs.com/facebook-to-surpase-google-as-most-popular-site-on-the-web/
@viagra ads- thts a valid point, but doesnt fb filter out such content?
what about conversion ctr is not the factor to get the sales
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Mahabharata-on-Twitter/articleshow/4859736.cms
And now, the biggest Epic of them all – Mahabharata on Twitter.
That’s the power of twitter
Interesting Twittage (Twitter Usage)!!
Isn’t it similar to the episodes of comic strips in newspapers?
I am doing a reserach on viral marketing for my master. The purpose of this study is to analyze three successful viral arketing campaigns. If you want to participate, please click this link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=kir1HOU0ur4YjWIbqTy1QQ_3d_3d
Thank you
Hi Magnolia,
Firstly thanks for writing on strat.in . If you feel you want to share your insights on strat.in – do write to us at ‘ contribute AT strat.in ‘ . We would be obliged to publish your insights on strat.in . Thanks!
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