I was reading a marketing blog (who am I kidding, I was googling it to fulfill the one link requirement), and happened to come by a little cartoon and a short response to it. The link to the original response is located at: http://www.intersectionconsulting.com/blog/?p=762 The response is more or less that companies should stop measuring fans and followers by sheer number, but rather the activity they generate and how you can increase it.
I’m not a fan of Facebook, in fact, I avoid it as much as possible, but it’s unfortunate to see that the world is truly embracing this site. The idea that UBC events and clubs contact me first and foremost through Facebook rather than through email frightens me. It is even worse to see that updates to various web software are all including some sort of Facebook bridge, even my website had to go through a mandatory update to support it. There is no doubt that Facebook is getting a significant amount of users and it has to be attractive to any company.
Being on the web all day every day, I see small groups to big corporations trying to get people to “like” their page, or to get members, and I completely disagree with the original response. I can see the author’s point of view, you have a large number of users that are mindlessly clicking like or joining their group for the freebies or coupons that you are offering, with zero intention of actually helping the company grow. I know I’m one of those people, I’ve collected free movies, software, games, I think there was even instant coffee and tupperware from early on. The amount of coupons are plentiful, and these companies have no problems handing things out. But aren’t many marketing strategies the same? How many people read a Tim Horton’s advertisement in a bus and decides to get off a stop early to grab one of their hot chocolates?
Here are the reasons I think social networking is highly profitable:
1. It isn’t too big yet. A lot of shops and stores are on Facebook, but frankly I think very few of them are actually doing it properly. Sure there are companies that are giving away just about anything to get you to click the “Like” button, but not a whole lot of them are doing much to retain their groups. There is still room for some random newcomer to grow.
2. It is easy to reach a large audience. It probably doesn’t cost much to open up a Facebook group and maintain it with updates once a day or once a week. Throw out a few freebies while you are at it. Perhaps you aren’t getting much in return, but you aren’t putting much in anyways. Furthermore, if you reach a certain size, self propulsion will probably reduce your costs.
3. “Any advertisement is good advertisement.” I can’t remember where I got that from, but any mention of your store name anywhere might sell you something. It’s worth a shot.
4. It connects directly to customers. If they are serious, they can easily have one to one marketing, customize parts of the site, learn everything there is to know about the follower, etc.
The thing is, the internet is hugely profitable. To put it into perspective, Google Adsense generally pays a dime to a dollar for each click. If you can get several thousand followers on a Facebook group, and decide to give away a $50 product but they have to click into your corporate page first, it pays for itself. How much does it cost to post up a group on Facebook? Next to nothing. How much does it cost to tell one of your staff who is probably already on Facebook to quickly post an update once a week and the giveaway? Again, probably next to nothing.