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In a recent episode of the popular sitcom, ‘How I Met Your Mother’, the lead character of the show, Ted, decides he will go on a date without conducting an online search of his date beforehand. Though online searches have saved him trouble in the past, he wants to go back to the simplicity of learning about someone from them rather than online.

This brings to the light the influence social media has had in how we interact and socialize with each other. Phrases such as “I will Facebook you” and “I liked your post” have become the norm. So have taking pictures not to create memories but just for the purpose of posting them on Facebook to generate ‘Likes’ and comments. I am a proponent of Facebook and hardly a day goes by (or even a couple of hours I would say) that I don’t log onto Facebook. Facebook has shrunk distances and made it easier for me to stay in touch with family and friends from all over the world. Thus, on the other hand I am able to share memories and achievements in an instant via Facebook. However it has also led to increased complications of ensuring privacy. It will be interesting to see how social interactions are affected in the future. Exciting times!

The six degrees of separation theory was an interesting theory that showed the degree of separation between any two people was only six degrees. The advent of online social networks has made it even easier to ‘friend’ people, rediscover old friendships, and maintain friendships despite distances. Thus, it is not surprising that a recent study concluded that any two Facebook users have an average of 3.74 degrees of separation only. (Read more about the study here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15844230)

This is very interesting and shows that online social networks have made the world even flatter than before. This new statistic can prove to be very promising for websites such as LinkedIn who rely on common connections between people. That is given that LinkedIn can attract as many users as Facebook – currently Facebook has 800 million active users (Source: Facebook Statistics) and LinkedIn has 100 million users (Source: LinkedIn blog) only. Such growth might be highly unlikely for LinkedIn though. However, if Facebook decides to launch a platform similar to LinkedIn, this might prove to be very advantageous for Facebook. (However, lead to a whole different can of worms on keeping your professional and private life separated.) This study is also very promising for companies and brands that promote themselves on Facebook. Given that the distances between people are shrinking, getting customers to converse about your product or service on Facebook can reach a very large audience – ultimately all Facebook users!

In October 2011, I received an email from my old employer, Citibank Pakistan, informing me that they had joined Facebook and I should visit and ‘Like’ their page. My first reaction was this was a case of the ‘Shiny Object Syndrome’ and they were just jumping on the Facebook bandwagon. The target market for Citibank Pakistan is generally older professional who might not all be on Facebook and even if they were, I thought they would only be using it to stay in touch with friends and family rather than following brands. Initially it seemed it was only the employees who were ‘Liking’ the page but I guess you have got to start somewhere to drive traffic.

For the purpose of this blog write-up, I visited Citibank Pakistan’s Facebook page and was pleasantly surprised. The page currently has 446 ‘Likes’. The administrator has been successful in sharing useful content including information about new products, new promotions, awards received etc. A lot of the content on the page directs the user to the Citibank Pakistan website, which is smart as the website is the main hub of information. Overall activity on the Facebook page has been limited. One customer did ask a query and received a response regarding the person in charge along with contact details. Overall, considering the Citibank Pakistan Facebook page has only been up for 2 months, the page is decent. I think it is being used as a more supplemental tool to drive traffic to the website. It would be ideal if dialogue could be encouraged on the page. However, as it is a big organization and approvals need to be obtained beforehand, I am not sure how successful this would be.

I recently came across a story on Facebook (the source of most of my updates!) which I found very inspiring. This reminded me of Rodney’s tip that it is content that needs to be engaging and is what matters the most. Moin Khan is a 25 year old Pakistani who was disheartened by the negative stereotypes of Pakistanis in the international media. He thus decided to ride his motorcycle from San Francisco, California to Lahore, Pakistan to promote a positive image of Pakistanis. He started a Facebook page and posts regular updates, photos, and videos on it. He currently has 6,400 ‘Likes’ and 514 people are talking about him. Moin suffered from an accident in Romania and a local who had heard about him helped repair his motorcycle and a bike community in Romania donated a new radiator to him.

Moin’s story showcases the power social media can have. Just using Facebook and YouTube, Moin has been able to get his peaceful message across to many more than he would have been able to only by riding his bike across the world. Moin’s story supports that the “The Web enables total transparency. People with access to relevant information are beginning to challenge any type of authority. The stupid, loyal, and humble customer, employee, patient, or citizen is dead.” (Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale) Moin on his own cannot change the image of Pakistan in the eyes of the international community, but it is inspiring to see the Pakistani youth using social media to influence a change in perception.

Read more about Moin Khan: http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/15/a-pakistani-a-motorcycle-and-facebook.html

Follow Moin Khan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ADAmoin

Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke with a Mate’ campaign reminds me of Jones Soda on a much grander scale though. Coca-Cola Australia has replaced its traditional branding on Coke bottles with Australia’s 150 most popular names. Customers with names who did not make it to the 150 name list, can visit Coca-Cola kiosks set up at shopping centers for free personalization. Lucie Austin, marketing director of Coca-Cola South Pacific stated, “We’ve put names on Coca-Cola bottles so consumers will have fun finding their friends’ and family members’ names and then enjoy sharing a Coke together.”

In online activities, Coca-Cola has mainly focused its efforts on Facebook and launching the promotion via Facebook as well.  For the 150 names appearing on Coke bottles, personalized name songs can be downloaded from Coca-Cola Australia’s Facebook page. What I found most interesting was the ‘Share a Virtual Coke’ feature which allows customers through a Facebook app to customize a Coke can with a friend’s name on it and then share it on the friend’s wall. Furthermore, more name submissions can be made on Coke’s website. Voting will occur for short listed names and the 50 top names will be printed on Coca Cola bottles in January 2012.

Coca-Cola Australia has done an impressive job of integrating online and offline activities. I think the campaign has been very successful in engaging customers with the brand. The campaign seems to have been quite successful in drawing customers to Coca-Cola Australia’s Facebook page. The page currently has 652,116 ‘Likes’. It would be interesting to know how many ‘Likes’ they got just because of this campaign. On the Facebook page, fans keep posting for their names to be printed on Coke bottles so the campaign seems to have successfully engaged the customers.  Coca Cola aims to sells 268 million sodas during the 3 month promotion. It will be interesting to see the result of this promotion on Coca Cola sales. I hope it’s a success because I can’t wait for Coca Cola Canada to launch a similar promotion!

Sample Ad – \’Share a Coke with Kate\’

For more information, read:

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/Coca-Cola-Australia-Share-a-Coke.aspx

Being an avid Facebooker, I wanted to read a book to better understand the potential Facebook holds for businesses. However, most books made promises to turn readers into Facebook marketing gurus and such claims seemed too grand to me and thus were a turn off.  Likeable Social Media[1] by Dave Kerpen appealed to me because of its premise, “A friend’s recommendation is more powerful than any advertisement. In the world of Facebook, Twitter, and beyond, that recommendation can travel farther-and faster-than ever before”. This resonated with me because I am always more willing to try a product or service that I have heard about from a friend because for me a friend’s recommendation is more trustworthy than what might be conveyed via an advertisement.  In the introduction of the book, the author quotes 3 facts based on myths about social media:

1. Social media cannot make up for a bad product, company, or organization.
2. Social media won’t lead to overnight sales success.
3. Social media is not free.

These 3 points were consistent with what I have learned about social media thus far in Internet Marketing as well as Tim Silk’s Brand Management class and thus the book seemed like a credible source to me. Each chapter of the book focuses on a particular strategy. As, I have not finished reading the book so I cannot provide my overall sentiments regarding the book. However, following are my thoughts on the strategies I have read about so far.

Chapter 1: Listen First, and Never Stop Listening

This chapter focuses on that communication is a two-way process which includes 50 percent listening and 50 percent talking. Companies over emphasize the talking and do not do enough listening. In the introduction of this book Kerpen shares a personal story in which while waiting to check in to a hotel in Las Vegas, he tweeted, “No Vegas hotel could be worth this long wait. Over an hour to check in at the Aria L.” Even though the Aria did not respond to Kerpen’s tweet, a competitor hotel (the Rio) responded, “Sorry about the bad experience, Dave. Hope the rest of your stay in Vegas goes well.” Kerpen appreciates the fact that the Rio was not pushy in its tweet but showed empathy at the correct time. Kerpen stayed at the Rio the next time he visited Las Vegas.  I think this is an important lesson because it illustrates the importance of listening and not being too pushy using social media. Social media allows companies to engage in conversation with customers but it is important for companies to “Think-and Act-Like Your Consumer” (Chapter 3 of Likeable Media). If Rio was too pushy to sell its service, it may become a turn off for potential customers as well.

Chapter 2: Way Beyond “Women 25 to 54”: Define Your Target Audience Better than Ever

This chapter introduces the concept of nanotargeting, which is through Facebook a company can target one individual among hundreds of millions. The author cites an example of using the Facebook ad platform to send personalized ads to his wife while he was on a business trip. (I thought that was sort of cute!) Facebook ads can be targeted to a an audience with very specific characteristics as companies can filter using characteristics such as country, age, sex, likes and interests, education and work, etc. Furthermore, on a B2B platform, companies can target decision makers using tools such as Facebook and LinkedIn. In Brand Management, Tim Silk shared how he successfully used targeted Facebook advertising to promote an executive course. Thus, knowing that nanotargeting had worked for someone I know, this strategy seems credible. This chapter talks about targeting specifically based on interests and includes a success story of how Fatigue Centers targeted people on Facebook who mentioned fibromyalgia as an interest. However, in my experience with Facebook, people usually update basic information on Facebook and very few people mention interests. People who mention interests on Facebook have very general descriptions. As for the concept of targeting decision makers at companies, I think many people use Facebook to socialize so I don`t know how effective marketing to them on Facebook will be. Getting targeted advertising related to work might be a turn off for some people on Facebook.

Chapter 3: Think-and-Act Like your Consumer

Facebook`s News Feed displays individualized content based on the strength of the relationship between the person/organization who shared the content, number of comments and likes the content receives, and the recently the content was posted. The author advises companies to create content that will appeal to the user so it generates more feedback from users and consequently is displayed on News Feed. Thus, rather than posting “Check out our new running shoes on our website and buy them now!” (page 45), companies should post content such as “Click `Like` if you`re excited about the weekend! Anybody going running?” (page 45). Many success stories are citied within the chapter. Personally, I am more likely to like and comment on what my friends post rather than what companies post. However, many people to comment and like on what companies post and thus this strategy does work. The chapter stresses the importance of only posting meaningful content. I think it is important to keep in mind to limit the number of posts a company posts as well.

Chapter 4: Invite Your Customers to Be Your First Fans

This chapter focuses on how companies can receive more `Likes` for their Facebook pages. An example is cited of Uno Chicago Grill reaching 100,000 fans on their Facebook page by launching a promotion in which free appetizers were promised to all customers who like their Facebook page once they reached 100,000 fans. The campaign was very successful. However, I think promotions such as these undermine the power of the `Like` button. The book initially speaks about the power of referral and if a potential customer sees that a friend has liked a particular product or service, they would be more willing to try it out. However, promotions such as Uno Chicago Grill`s promotion diminish the credibility of the `Like` button because people might just like a particular page due to the incentive provided rather than actually liking the service.

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