Facebook business tools can be useful for Public Sector marketers!

After all the negative attention Facebook’s Beacon service has been getting lately in terms of privacy issues, I decided to inspect it myself and browse around the remainder of Facebook’s business tools (which have expanded considerably since I last used them a few months ago). In doing so, I came across this great little summary description page of each service, which I have posted up here for your convenience:

I ran a little experimental “Social Ad” and was amazed at just how much targeting I can do. With each targeting criteria I set, Facebook automatically updates the number of people that match those criteria on Facebook. Here’s a sample screenshot of how it works:

Play around with it (you can bail out at any time before you enter your credit card information), see if you can reach a big enough size of your target audience through this channel. The best part is that once you decide to commit, you set the maximum daily budget you want to spend and the bidding price of your ad! (similar to the PPC Google Adwords concept). Remember that even though the number of your audience may appear small and insignificant, it’s the quality that counts (long tail theory).

Facebook “profile search” now open to the public and soon to all major search enignes!

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Individual Facebook profiles will now appear in search results.

What does this mean to you?

If you have your own Facebook profile, then you can piggy back on the high search visibility of the “www.facebook.com” domain to control your personal online brand. If I type my name into Google right now, my blog entires and LinkedIn profile dominate the results (other than the other Mike Kujawski who purchased www.mikekujawski.com years ago to make a C-class website with pics of himself, his dog, and his wife–he appears #1). Now my Facebook profile will be joining these results. So make sure your profile pics are accurate and up to date; and get ready for an onslaught of people requesting to add you as friends!

LinkedIn vs. Facebook…please stop comparing the two, as they serve different purposes.

I was recently part of a discussion on LinkedIn concerning whether or not people should be devoting time to both of these popular social networks (Facebook and LinkedIn) or allocate their time to one. My answer was as follows:

I have been using Facebook since its infancy primarily as a personal social networking tool as opposed to business. That’s what it was initially created to be and what it did best (i.e. a way for college students and alumni to stay in touch). It has evolved tremendously and spread like wildfire. Now it is the primary means that my demographic uses to stay in touch with one another and be “in-the-loop” at all times.

The business world has quickly caught on and is trying to make use of Facebook’s power, especially now that the floodgates have opened and users can create their own Facebook applications.

I find it a bit concerning, yet at the same time exciting that my Personal life is now being blurred with my Work life as clients (who are typically in an older demographic than myself) are starting to send me Facebook “friend” requests. To date, all of my 286 “friends” have been actual friends, acquaintances and family. Business contacts are now starting to leak in, which is not always a good thing (I wrote a blog entry on this topic last week).

That being said, Facebook is a great way for businesses to form specific communities. For instance, instead of having an online forum on your website, just tell clients to join your official company Facebook group where they can post/blog/comment/rant/share/tag to their hearts desire (why not, it’s free!).

I think LinkedIn serves a completely different purpose than Facebook and thus you should dedicate resources to both. The main difference is that LinkedIn was created for BUSINESS. It makes it harder for anyone to just join your network. Users can’t actually request to be in your network unless they know your email AND you let them. It is up to the LinkiedIn community to keep it that way and not just let anyone join their networks. I think the whole “3 degree concept is genius” especially when applied to business networking and helping to advance careers.

In Facebook, when you connect to existing long time users, you will find much more of a blend of their personal lives mixed into their profiles (maybe even more than you would like to know, like those bachelor party photos of you tagged by your friends).

My recommendation: Treat LinkedIn as you would treat your offline “quality” business contacts and leads. A place where you can ask expert questions and have expert replies. The functionality of LinkedIn will improve over time, so that should not be an issue. For now, let’s keep dedicating time to the LinkedIn community and it’s official purpose, which is to provide an effective platform for all types of professionals to connect with one another.

The Facebook Economy Race for Riches…good or bad?

Be sure to read this CNN article on the The Facebook Economy . It offers great summaries at the end of all the latest applications created by users around the world ever since Facebook opened its floodgates to developers. That being said, the whole article revolves around how to make money off of this unique opportunity while it is free. I feel that this is short-minded thinking.

I realize that one can easily argue that if you develop an application you should be able to leverage its high usage to make money via ads.However, the downside is that we are being inundated with garbage applications from people looking to make a quick buck. Some of these applications die a quick natural death, others are added even though they are garbage and clutter people’s profiles. Facebook will likely soon go Public, and we will all lose out on this unique opportunity to create and reach “long-tail” audiences.

Before this happens, there is a tremendous opportunity for non-profits and the government to come in and make some truly community benefiting applications to help deliver on their programs and services. I have already seen a few such as RFP submission tools, bilingual polling tools, and recruitment tools used by agencies such as the CIA. Hopefully, with the whole slew of start-ups specializing solely in Facebook application development, we will be seeing some truly beneficial and unique uses of this platform before its too late. The race is on…

US launches ‘MySpace for spies’

“Spies and teenagers normally have little in common but that is about to change as America’s intelligence agencies prepare to launch “A-Space”, an internal communications tool modelled on the popular social networking sites, Facebook and MySpace.

The Director of National Intelligence will open the site to the entire intelligence community in December. The move is the latest part of an ongoing effort to transform the analytical business following the failure to detect the 9/11 terrorist attacks or find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

Incredible! Kudos to the CIA for realizing the powerful potential of social media networks. Now if only the Canadian government could learn from our neighbours down south and follow suite to reduce the bureaucracy and lack of communication within and amongst departments. What are we doing instead? Banning Facebook. Go figure.

Read the full article here:FT.com / World - US launches ‘MySpace for spies’

Facebook –> Personal or Business Network?

I just read the recent Marketing Profs article on Facebook and its implications for marketers: What the Web Marketer Should Know About Facebook. It’s a great summary of Facebook features and some interesting new facts (i.e. the fastest growing Facebook segment is 35+). A question I’ve been pondering on lately is whether or not it is a good thing that my business contacts and clients are trying to get on there. I’ve been using Facebook since its infancy (I was one of the many originators sending all those annoying Facebook invites hoping other friends would join). Soon all my friends (actual friends) were on board and it became a great MSN Messenger compliment for staying in touch with my friends (for those unaware, MSN Messenger / ICQ were the real-time chat platforms of choice amongst the 18-25 demographic at the time).

Where am I going with this? Well, as an individual, I have my private conversations and photos on there, which are meant to be shared and seen by my close friends (from my private social life).

As a marketing professional , I am reluctant to be adding business contacts and potential clients as “friends” (unless they really are). There seems to be a serious blurring of the lines between private and work life. Personally, I have nothing to hide, however, I do still feel that there should exist a certain level of separation between the two. Perhaps I should create a second business identity on Facebook? This would likely be a pointless effort. No matter what privacy settings we have, everything that we post online will someday be easily accessible to someone looking for it.

My advice: be smart with what you do online, regardless of where it is. Start thinking of yourself as a BRAND. Be consistent, and always be aware that a future employer might be looking at your blog post/youtube video/facebook photo/ etc…

For now, as my business social media network I use LinkedIn.

What are your thoughts?

Marketers start to use Social Networks for CRM instead of Ads

This article by AdAge, basically talks about how marketers are still exploring ways to use social networks to their advantage. I really think they missed the point (although it is briefly touched upon): Marketers are no longer in control! Consumers are in control. If you want to leverage social networks, then start by creating a good, quality product or service and your brand will grow organically as people discover it. Bottom-up, not top-down.

When is the last time you clicked on one of those over-priced Facebook banners? In contrast, when is the last time you joined or started a Facebook group that represented something you believe in or have a passion for? I know it’s hard to resist starting a Facebook group for your brand on your own (or even getting your friend to do it for you), however, as I’ve said in my previous posts, more often than not, people can smell a fake from miles away. So if you absolutely have to go this route to get your brand out there, just make sure your friend really is passionate about your product. Otherwise, you will quickly feel the negative consequences.

SurveyMonkey & FACEBOOK Polls - quick, efficient and cheap!

I often come across clients that dread the thought of having to do any sort of marketing research since they assume it requires hiring an expensive marketing research firm or using precious, overworked, internal resources. While this is true for a comprehensive in-depth analysis, a quick online survey is a different story. If you haven’t yet heard of services such as surveymonkey or the new Facebook Polls , then please join today and start saving taxpayer money!

Surveymonkey allows you to create and design your own online survey in minutes. Once you are done the design (numerous templates are available), you are provided with a link which can be sent to your list or posted on your website. What’s more, basic analysis is automatically done for you. For those wishing to do a more comprehensive analysis, the raw data can be downloaded and analyzed in a program of your choice (Excel, SPSS, SAS, etc…)

Facebook Polls is explained in this excerpt from an article by Alicja Gulajski of Market2world.com :

June 1st, 2007, Facebook Polls was launched. This product creates great value for marketers: this tool can be used to create brand awareness and gather critical information about your brand from Facebook community members.
For example:

Facebook Poll users create a question (with up to 5 answer choices) and are able to target the poll based on age, sex, location and even profile keywords. There is an initial $5 insertion fee, but the poll creator chooses the bid amount - the amount the user is willing to pay per response. Depending on the bid, and the anticipated results, Facebook estimates the wait time before results are received. Currently bids range from $.10 to $1.00 per response, according to TechCrunch.

The advantage of using Facebook Polls of course, is access to the more than 24 million active users, and over 100,000 new registrations per day since Jan. 2007. Not only is this a significant audience, it is segmented for you! You can target specific groups based on geographic areas, psychographic characteristics, age, etc…

What are you waiting for? Get started!

Ontario government bans FACEBOOK!

As a public sector marketing consultant , (trying to desperately get government to start adopting web 2.0/social media) I find the recent Ontario government decision to ban Facebook on provincial public servant computers absolutely ridiculous, yet not at all surprising.

The decision comes as a result of the fact that public servants had supposedly been wasting time “socializing” on the popular social networking site during work hours…

Well why don’t we ban work telephones then? how about e-mail? why not put shackles on all employees while we are at it?

The fact is, employees that want to waste time will always waste time. Instead of banning Facebook, the Ontario government should have looked into how it can leverage it as a tool to engage its employees and increase productivity. I see Facebook as an ideal tool to get rid of government silos and increase horizontal cooperation within departments.

Mark my words. This decision will be reversed sooner or later. The government can’t keep running away, social media is here to stay.