Is Facebook the New “Word of Mouth” Marketing?
November 19th, 2007 | Amy MorrowWith the release of Facebook’s new ad format, there is a lot of debate about whether or not this is a step in the right direction for social marketing or whether or not this type of marketing will just fall by the wayside as another more highly sophisticated version of “spam.”
As a Facebook user and a marketer, I can see both sides to this argument but I think the positives outweigh the negatives here. As a user will I want to join every corporate “group” or sign-up for every application a “friend” sends my way? Absolutely not. But will I join a group like “Volkswagen” because I own one of their cars - yes. In many cases, there are clear benefits for me joining a group that I have a vested interest in; such as special offers, messaging with other Volkswagen owners, etc. In my opinion, Facebook is taking form as the new word of mouth of our generation.
However, I do agree with Mark Hopkins that other more aggressive marketing tactics like “beacon” will have negative affects on the Facebook community and could cause increased abandonment. I think advertisers and more importantly, Facebook, needs to be smart about the way this site is used. Radically changing the site and intended use could cause a lot of backlash among the community of users.
The debate will go on, but regardless of the outcome, it will help pave the way for more creative ways of thinking about marketing in general. While the approach is novel in the consumer world, is IT ready for an environment such as this? IT buyers consistently rely on word of mouth recommendations from their colleagues, but remain skeptical of “vendor pitches”. B2B trends tend to follow consumer trends, so time will tell. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
November 19th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Boy, I hope not! I find Facebook unmanageable… it’s an application that allows your network to spam you with junk application and garbage invitations. I turned off notifications in it a few weeks ago and every time I log in I have thousands of events and stupid application invites waiting for me. It’s ridiculous.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:20 am
I’ve read the announcement about Facebook’s Social Ads and thought “What are you thinking Mark Z? Did you ask your audience what they think about this? I know you asked your advertisers because they’re desperate to get real value out of the money they’re spending. (Full disclosure: Crimson posts ads on Facebook). I know you asked yourself how you can get more advertising revenue from your asset of 52 million members. But something is missing in this logic, and that’s value to the member.”
I’d like to help address the question of: “Why would a member willingly help promote an advertiser?”.
Well I can think of four reasons, and I recommend that the advertisers who want to take advantage of social ads design their ads around these concepts:
1) Compensate members who forward ads. For example, “Earn Facebook points”,
2) Share the ad to help my friend. For example, “Here’s a job listing I thought you’d like”,
3) Share the ad to entertain. For example, “This is really funny, watch this”,
4) Share the ad to do some social good. For example, “Visit www.freerice.com and donate rice to the needy”.
To make this work, you have to provide value to your users. I sincerely hope that is a key part of Facebook’s plan.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Glenn - thank you for your post and insight. I think you bring up a good point and I agree with the four reasons you lay out. However, I think there is another reason members would promote an advertiser and it simply has to do with what products or companies are seen as trendy or popular right now. For instance, if you do a search for RedBull you will find various groups such as “Addicted to Redbull, Redbull Vodka Lover, Lost without Redbull, etc.” Within the core of The Facebook demographic it is percieved as “cool” to drink Redbull which is why all these Redbull groups have a lot of members. With the core Facebook demographic it is all about being “in” and keeping up with newest, hottest products on the market and I think companies that understand that about this demographic will have a lot to gain from being on this site.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Amy,
I think word of mouth or social networking is most effective when the referral source has a reason to recommend the product. Sure, we all like to be the source of a good recommendation our friends and colleagues will appreciate but when a company actively rewards those that refer them business it’s a whole new ball game. Such a word-of-mouth strategy is heavily practiced by companies like DirectTV, Charter and others that offer cash rewards for referring new customers. We have done similar word of mouth campaigns for an industrial supply portal which I manage and have earned a number of new advertisers.